Re:What is new in IPython 1.0
by chimeracoder on Sunday July 28, 2013 @01:44PM
(#6117364)
> Right now it's possible, but in a long-winded way
How is it long-winded? Basic operations such as cd, ls, etc., all work inside IPython.
Also, try envoy[0] for subprocesses.
Those very basic operations work, but it's not feasible yet to use it exclusively as a shell and be able to do anything moderately complex without getting fancy with subprocesses and so on. Though, it's been a while since I used it (2 years) -- have things changed significantly in this time that now make it a good candidate to use as a command-line terminal?
Re:What is new in IPython 1.0
by eoinmurray92 on Sunday July 28, 2013 @02:43PM
(#6117601)
Precede any command by "!" and it sends it to bash, you can use git etc. like this.
Cool, I didn't know this.
However, still I wonder if that's enough. I mean, I can imagine that could get annoying really fast considering ! is a little tough to get to on the keyboard. Maybe a modal switch (a la vim, a mode for full blown shell, a mode with IPython being normal IPython) is a good option.
I really hope something like this eventually works out. Command-line shells seem too much like relics of the past, they can stand to be improved with some of the new UI sensibilities. IPython is one thing I can think of that is poised to fit and interact well with shells.
http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/dev/interactive/shell.html
Check that out, I think that's along the lines you are thinking.
You can also make a whole cell be in bash with %%bash.
AFAIK any shell command preceded by a "!" works just as you would it expect it to work in your shell.
On another point: I'm increasingly intrigued by the idea of having something like IPython (or perhaps, IPython itself) be used as your command-line shell. Right now it's possible, but in a bit of a long-winded way. I think this is a matter worth looking a little more into.