iPython is the only console to bother with IMHO, regardless of what chore I'm 
doing.  I've noodled with the Notebooks and they're wonderful but I am time and 
attention challenged and haven't progressed far.

Eric Matthes uses iPython notebooks to teach programming and has set out some 
excellent resources:

https://github.com/ehmatthes/intro_programming

$.02
SK

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Roy 
Tennant
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2013 9:49 AM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Anyone working with iPython?

Our Wikipedian in Residence, Max Klein brought iPython [1] to my attention 
recently and even in just the little exploration I've done with it so far I'm 
quite impressed. Although you could call it "interactive Python" that doesn't 
begin to put across the full range of capabilities, as when I first heard that 
I thought "Great, a Python shell where you enter a command, hit the return, and 
it executes. Great. Just what I need. NOT." But I was SO WRONG.

It certainly can and does do that, but also so much more. You can enter blocks 
of code that then execute. Those blocks don't even have to be Python. They can 
be Ruby or Perl or bash. There are built-in functions of various kinds that it 
(oddly) calls "magic". But perhaps the killer bit is the idea of "Notebooks" 
that can capture all of your work in a way that is also editable and completely 
web-ready. This last part is probably difficult to understand until you 
experience it.

Anyway, i was curious if others have been working with it and if so, what they 
are using it for. I can think of all kinds of things I might want to do with 
it, but hearing from others can inspire me further, I'm sure.
Thanks,
Roy

[1] http://ipython.org/

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