IPython gets $1.15M funding

http://mail.scipy.org/pipermail/ipython-dev/2012-December/010799.html

by kkuduk • 14 years ago

335 93 14 years ago

mail.scipy.org

yen2234• 14 years ago

That grant is well deserved. IPython is easily the most useful Python tool I have ever used.

mahmoudimus• 14 years ago

Absolutely - it is definitely essential to python development.

Although I hear more and more people talk about bpython[1]. I understand why it's different, but it's just not as awesome as IPython, especially since IPython 0.11+

This is big news for the Python community :)

[1] http://bpython-interpreter.org/

aaronbrethorst• 14 years ago

What's IPython?

yen2234• 14 years ago

http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/dev/overview.html

Basically it's the Python terminal on steroids.

cdavid5• 14 years ago

It is now much, much more than that. Besides the notebook (that allows you to mix python, images, math, etc... inside an html browser: http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/stable/_static/notebook_specg...), you get a powerful engine capable of distributing computation between different machines.

rat87• 14 years ago

It's a python repl, it has a bunch of useful syntax extensions such as autocall(not needing to type parens after no args calls and around one arg calls) ? ?? for help summary, syntax higlighting, readline, tab completion, optional integration with GTK, Qt or wxWidgets toolkits(ie letting you build and interact with guis in repl).

ipython has a client/server model with multiple gui frontends including a qt one that lets you print out inline graphs and ipython notebook which lets you generate documents with code and data analysis/visualization. I believe the last part is what the grant is for.

Python has been used in scientific and statistical fields a lot lately and ipython notebook is quite useful for that.

benhamner• 14 years ago

Thrilled to see this. IPython Notebook has become my go-to tool for data munging and analytics. I look forward to seeing the IPython team take it to the next level.

3amOpsGuy2• 14 years ago

IPython is extremely useful.

I like the qtconsole feature but i find it less than perfect to install:

1. pip install ipython 2. <system package manager> install qt4 3. pip install pyside / qt4 bindings

The better feature, for me anyway, is the notebook interface (it starts a local web server and gives you a rich web guy, somewhat like a Mathematica idea of interactive notebook editing with inline charting etc.)

But, that's a whole other bunch of dependencies that aren't in scope when installing ipython.

Not sure of the best fix, offer ipython and ipython-full-stack on PyPI?

cdavid5• 14 years ago

If you want qt, I would say your best bet is one of the full python distribution for scientific python, e.g. winPython, python(x, y), EPD, Anaconda. Everybody working on one of this is a user of ipython, and care about the notebook, and most of them have a free version available (free as no cost, not necessarily open source)

(disclaimer, I work for Enthought, which sells EPD)

andybak3• 14 years ago

The free version of Enthought solved a bunch of problems for me on OSX. It bundles a lot of the binary libraries that are a bitch to compile yourself.

kkuduk• 14 years ago

That's why for apps like this (not for projects that I create with virtualenv) I much more prefer using OS package manager. Could it be any nicer than on Gentoo? ;]

  CDEPEND="dev-python/decorator
  	dev-python/pexpect
  	dev-python/pyparsing
  	dev-python/simplegeneric
  	virtual/python-argparse
  	emacs? ( app-emacs/python-mode virtual/emacs )
  	matplotlib? ( dev-python/matplotlib )
  	mongodb? ( dev-python/pymongo )
  	octave? ( dev-python/oct2py )
  	smp? ( dev-python/pyzmq )
  	wxwidgets? ( dev-python/wxpython )"
  RDEPEND="${CDEPEND}
  	notebook? ( >=www-servers/tornado-2.1
  			dev-python/pygments
  			dev-python/pyzmq )
  	qt4? ( || ( dev-python/PyQt4 dev-python/pyside )
  			dev-python/pygments
  			dev-python/pyzmq )"
  DEPEND="${CDEPEND}
  	test? ( dev-python/nose )"

VMG• 14 years ago

I'm sure it's useful, but is it extremely useful? I can imagine living without it, even when programming Python.

I'm surprised to be honest but maybe I'm missing something.

3amOpsGuy2• 14 years ago

>> I'm surprised to be honest but maybe I'm missing something.

Give it a proper whirl, you'll never go back.

Proper python REPL history across sessions (not hacking up a substitute using a $PYTHONSTARTUP file to load readline history and register an at exit handler to dump history). History becomes as useful as a large shell history (i'm sure i did something similar last year, what was it?...)

In line charting, makes visualising any random thing (runtime of function, memory usage etc.) so easy you'll start doing it all the time.

The webserver notebook can stream line collaboration with co-workers. I like the ability to make "interactive documentation", although truth be told i haven't used this as much as i could yet.

dalke3• 14 years ago

My first shell was csh. I put off switching to tcsh, but eventually did. After a while I grew used to the new features of tcsh, with tab completion being the most obvious. I then went back to csh on some machine and realized just how dependent on was on tab completion. It became frustrating to type all of the filename again, rather than just the first few characters<tab> follows perhaps by some another character+<tab> for disambiguation.

I don't want to go back to a shell without tab completion. Is tab completion extremely useful? Functionally, no. I can live without it. But I will avoid that if at all possible, and that's not something I felt before I used tab-completion.

I get the sense that IPython is the same way. It's not essential, but after many have used it they have the sense that they don't ever want to be without again.

reinhardt• 14 years ago

REPL history? Tab completion? Syntax highlighting? Unix shell integration? And that's just the tip of the iceberg useful for general Python programming, nevermind the exploratory scientific environment with numpy/scipy/matplotlib/pandas.

I can imagine living without it in the same way I can imagine writing code in Notepad. Technically feasible but unacceptably painful.

tdfx2• 14 years ago

For OSX, I've used http://fonnesbeck.github.com/ScipySuperpack/ with no issues.

olefoo• 14 years ago

IPython notebook is actually one of the most interesting developments not just in the python world, but in computing generally. It's the first step towards the fully graphical shell on the internet that many of us have been looking for, whether or not we realize it.

Being able to weave together text|markdown, tabular data (in almost any format you want) and images ( whether from matplotlib, raw captures, or synthetic assemblies ) in one environment is very powerful.

I suspect that with some additional tools IPython notebook will become the integrators workbench par excellence, useful in many contexts.

andybak3• 14 years ago

It sorely needs some better tutorials, demos. The official docs are dry and dwell on technical matters rather than giving you some sense of the potential. There isn't much else out there - especially if you aren't doing scientific or statistical work.

I'm sure the iPython Notebook could be useful in my day to day Python/Django usage but I haven't figured out how yet.

vitalique2• 14 years ago

There's a great (but somewhat lengthy) video tutorial[1] from Pycon US'12 that covers a lot of IPython and the Notebook. Highly recommended; it's a live demo by the authors of the tools. Seriously, IPython is the coolest thing that happened to Python since Python, and anyone even slightly interested owes it to himself to play with IPython.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G5YTlheCbw

yen2234• 14 years ago

If there's one complaint to make about IPython, it's that the authors seem to be positioning IPython as a scientific/mathematical tool, even though it is so much more. Most of its docs assume you will be using IPython for its pylab and matplotlib features, instead of as a general-purpose Python shell. This is not surprising considering its roots, but still.

That said, I thought it was quite straightforward to setup and use the IPython Notebook.

StavrosK• 14 years ago

For anyone else who doesn't know what it is, this seems useful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaS4NXxL5Qc#t=2m55s

shazow• 14 years ago

In addition to the other links in this thread, Fernando's PyCon.ca keynote's has a great introduction to the power of IPython and how it's revolutionizing the scientific (and soon the general developer) communities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4rFuIb1Ie4

lrem• 14 years ago

Most of my programming these days is actually done in IPython notebook. Having an instant feedback is invaluable. I put my code in plain old .py files only once it needs to be imported.

I'm even wondering: if there was a way for notebooks to import each other, would I still bother with modules?

po84• 14 years ago

You can import notebooks in other notebooks if you turn on the option to autosave your ipynb files as .py files too.

1. In ipython_notebook_config.py, set the following:

# Save .py for each notebook for import elsewhere

c.NotebookManager.save_script = True

2. Restart your notebook server. 3. Save any notebooks you'd like to import under module friendly names. (They wind up in the same dir as the ipynb files.) 4. In your interactive notebook, import your_other_notebook.

This works well when all your notebooks are in the same folder, which is the default. I haven't given much thought to how you might create packages this way, but perhaps with a few code changes you could?

nemoniac• 14 years ago

I hate to dump on this but IMHO what the world has been waiting for is not a Mathematica clone in Python. Neither do I think it would be a step in the right direction to funnel Python development through the browser.

There are those who will find it useful but others will find that there are better desktop tools for these purposes. Individual developers are free to pick and choose.

Fortunately, neither this announcement not the Ipython roadmap emphasises development of the web-based notebook.

lars512• 14 years ago

Executable documents are powerful tools for teaching and learning. Focus in this area will pay off all across the Python community.

hogu3• 14 years ago

What do you think the world is waiting for, and what are these better desktop tools?

volodia• 14 years ago

To be fair, this graphical shell functionality has been part of Mathematica for at least the past 7-8 years. In fact, I would argue that within Mathematica, one can work with a much larger number of formats and data sources.

jamesjporter• 14 years ago

I think its important that this is coming to the FOSS world though. I agree that Mathematica/MATLAB are brilliant in this regard, but you (or your employer) has to shell out the big bucks for them, so if you want to collaborate with others who aren't on your platform you're almost certainly out of luck.

slykat• 14 years ago

I really wish there was an equivalent of IPython in Ruby; it's one of the tools I miss the most from python.

Ip122• 14 years ago

There is pry for ruby

carreau2• 14 years ago

Hi,

The notebook does not care wether or not the language is python,ruby.. or else. As we are mainly python developer the notebook is known for it's python bindings, but the ability to run ruby code is on its way.

Cf instruction here https://github.com/ipython/ipython/pull/2643

We really would love ruby devs help into packaging and make it seamless to run for user, and any other languages that would wish to join.

I actually working on writing a Julia kernel which will be my first encounter with Julia.

hanula• 14 years ago

Fantastic news, IPython deserves it and can't wait what they will deliver next.

rayk• 14 years ago

It was great to click through and learn that the funding was a grant. With that kind of a number, I thought they had raised a VC round - not that companies working on open source projects is bad, but it is always nice that they don't have to worry about a business model.

opminion• 14 years ago

The notebook interface is the natural generalisation of the REPL, and has the potential of being reused and copied by other languages (clojure, JavaScript) just as, in offline form, it has been used in Mathematica and Racket for years.

darkarmani2• 14 years ago

I think the notebook will eventually support other languages behind it.

takluyver7• 14 years ago

It should do, yes. The developers of Julia have said that they're going to use the IPython notebook rather than rolling their own interactive interface.

stefanu• 14 years ago

You can try IPython (shell) and IPython Notebook (web interface) online with Wakari at https://www.wakari.io - platform (with all popular Python scientific libraries installed) that lets you run multiple Python sessions and access them online anywhere. It also allows IPython Notebook sharing - you can share your workflow.

jpratt• 14 years ago

There's NBCloud (http://notebookcloud.appspot.com) if you want to host notebooks on your own Amazon cluster (great for using the parallel computing features).

Also, PiCloud (http://www.picloud.com) has a notebooks tab for launching an IPython Notebook as a job. That's useful because it means you can use their compute and data facilities with it easily.

Ip122• 14 years ago

Congratulations, well deserved

nimrody2• 14 years ago

I would be wonderful if we could re-use the notebook interface for other language - Octave, Julia, R, Ruby.

(Would also be nice if building ipython on OS X was easier!)

carreau2• 14 years ago

AS I reply to another comment it is possible and on it's way.

for ruby cf https://github.com/ipython/ipython/pull/2643

and Julia https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/1330

shared4you• 14 years ago

Sage Notebook interface can be used for Python, R, Octave, Matlab, Mathematica, LaTeX among others. http://www.sagenb.org

dmboyd• 14 years ago

Rmagic and octave magic work pretty well in my experience (which rely on Rpy2 and oct2py)

yen2234• 14 years ago

(Would also be nice if building ipython on OS X was easier!)

What issue do you face? Genuinely curious, because I use Mountain Lion, and installing IPython for me simply involves doing

    pip install ipython

I installed Python from source though.

nimrody2• 14 years ago

Thanks. It mostly worked. Of course, the real benefit of ipython is the notebook. For that you need (on OS X)

    brew install python   # or just download and install from source
    pip install numpy
    pip install matplotlib
    pip install ipython[zmq,qtconsole,notebook,test]

Actually, for qtconsole you need to install Qt and pip install pyside

But the latter failed to build on my machine... (Given that Apple's gcc version is ancient and clang is the default compiler on OS X -- it's a wonder the other tools were built correctly)

gjreda• 14 years ago

SciPy Superpack easily installs iPython, SciPy, NumPy, Matplotlib, and others on OSX.

callahad2• 14 years ago

If I'm recalling Fernando's talk from PyConCA correctly, recent versions of IPython are already designed to support other languages: they talk to a python kernel over a wire protocol, instead of directly embedding the interpreter.

i_mulvany• 14 years ago

A critical component of the grant application was the proposal to make the notebooks extensible, with concrete plans to work on integrating R, and a strong desire to integrate with Julia.

hsitz• 14 years ago

One of the many features of Org-mode in Emacs is that it functions in a similar-style to IPython's notebook for over twenty different languages, Octave, R, Ruby, Python, C, C++ and others: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/languages.html

The related features in Org-mode are known as Org-babel, uniting disparate languages under the single umbrella of Org-mode. The support for language evaluation in Org-mode is slightly more cumbersome than that offered in IPython, but also arguably more flexible and powerful. Plus you get to edit your notebook in a powerful editor with best outliner ever, plus all of Org-mode's many other features (I'm a Vim person but I give credit where credit is due).

Org-babel is a rich and deep niche of Org-mode, and one of the areas under the most constant development. You can read some docs on it here, but it can be hard to wrap your head around all of it until you actually use it:

http://orgmode.org/manual/Working-With-Source-Code.html#Work...

winter_blue• 14 years ago

When will we hear about PyPy getting a similar amount of funding?

It's a great project, and lack of funding has prevented them from delivering on Py3k.

dalke3• 14 years ago

PyPy had 1,353,000 euro in EU funding, so they have received a similar amount already. However, pypy is also a much more ambitious project, and needs a lot more funding than IPython to achieve its full goals.

Apreche• 14 years ago

Why does IPython get all the love? I tried it out back in the day, but it was not very impressive. bpython is much better, but doesn't seem to get as much attention.

theorique• 14 years ago

TIL there is a bpython.

Thus (anecdotally) proving your point, I suppose.

takluyver7• 14 years ago

How long ago was 'back in the day'? Development has really picked up since about 2011, and it's become much more than just a shell. IPython has a particular focus on scientific computing, and how we can mix ad-hoc exploratory computing with recorded, repeatable computing, which leads to tools like the notebook.

If bpython does what you want, that's great. But the equivalent functionality is just one part of IPython.

dalke3• 14 years ago

I know little about bpython. I have observed that IPython has very good outreach. Fernando Pérez has promoted IPython at many conferences, helped a lot of people, been responsive to requests, active in the Python community, and all of the other factors that help make a successful project.

It's also been around longer than bpython. IPython started in 2001 while bpython is from 2009.

The current IPython has several GUI interfaces, including through a web browser, with the goal of supporting a graphical notebook with embedded plots and other images. bpython does not support that.

There are very few tools in the extended REPL space. I think software developers don't spend as much time on the interactive shell as computational scientists, and those developers that do may augment the shell with, say, the emacs shell rather than develop a new interactive interface. So an early tool which works reasonably well, which has been around for a while, with few competitors, and has outreach and updates based on user needs, will tend to be more widely used.

hogu3• 14 years ago

Do you work in scientific computing? I think if you did, then you would understand

- Will bpython allow me to control a cluster of python processes to perform my scientific computation?

- Will bpython allow me to create executable documents mixing markdown as well as LaTeX so that I can display mathematical equations?

- Does bpython have integrated matplotlib support, so that the GUI thread of matplotlib runs in a separate thread and won't block the interpreter?

IPython is much more than just an interactive shell, even though the name doesn't suggest more than that.

iguananaut2• 14 years ago

bpython is a very nice lightweight replacement for the standard Python interpreter. Nothing but <3 for bpython. But it's not really comparable in scope and capabilities to IPython; the latter is much more heavy-weight but for myriad good reasons.

belorn• 14 years ago

IPython has history search, like bash has bash_history. A simple invaluable feature that bpython do not have.

RaSoJo• 14 years ago

This is the awesomest news for the day. It is so much more than a tool purely for the scientific community. I use it for quick fire data analytics codes all the time. Especially when coupled with pandas and matplotlib. pandas can output data in a tabular format directly onto the HTML notebook.

If creating forms on the same was a bit more simpler, then it would be biggest boon to a data analyst since excel sheets...dare i say. It would lead to quick fix applications, rapid prototyping for reporting applications. And it can be hosted and shared directly: http://nbviewer.ipython.org/

JacobIrwin• 14 years ago

hand-written thank you from me is going out tomorrow to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (http://www.sloan.org/contact-us/)

tdfx2• 14 years ago

I was lucky enough to find IPython early on when I started with Python. I'm constantly amazed with its feature set. Some cool things I found useful:

The "run" command for running python scripts:

* -t to print timing information

* -p to print profiling info from profiler module

* -d run the script under pdb interactively (with -b to set line breakpoints)

* -n to set __name__

All of these things can be done fairly easily on their own, but doing it through IPython makes the output so much easier to read and work with.

Whenever I'm working with data I need to visualize, I like to use:

  ipython qtconsole --pylab=inline

to get a terminal-like window that has inline graphs from matplotlib functions.

ninetax• 14 years ago

When I try to set __name__ with -n it says it's a bad flag. This is with the shell command. Is there something special I need to do?

takluyver7• 14 years ago

You use it inside IPython, with a command like:

%run -n foo.py

You can't set __name__ to arbitrary values. It's either '__main__' like when running a script, or (with -n) the module name, like when performing an import.

speg• 14 years ago

This might be a silly question, and perhaps not the place for it, apologies in advance.

Love iPython, except for one thing I can't seem to figure out.

  print "Hello World"

hit up arrow to recall previous line, press ctrl+a to try and jump to the beginning of the line but instead my cursor jumps to a new empty line on the right side of the screen?

What is going on?! I don't get how this split is supposed to work and it always throws me in it when I least expect it. I just want to do a simple edit to my previous command :(

jonknee• 14 years ago

Do you have readline installed? Your sequence works as expected for me.

callahad2• 14 years ago

Are you on OS X? IPython is probably finding libedit instead of readline.

Try doing an `easy_install readline` before you `pip install ipython` in your virtualenv. It should work just fine, then.

tomrod• 14 years ago

Fantastic!

petergx• 14 years ago

Awesome news! ipython + notebook is amazing.

account_taken• 14 years ago

I'm surprised Python doesn't get more in return. Google, Pinterest, Disqus, ... all these guys have buku funding and use Python heavily. Why not show Python some love? Make the VM up to par with V8.

rd108• 14 years ago

Congratulations, guys. Excellent work and I love Ipython :)

IPython gets $1.15M funding

Related Stories