[IPython-user] Feedback request on a new feature

[Keith Beattie]

import my2cents, quick_response

Fernando Perez wrote:
> 
> the proposed syntax is:
> 
> $var_name=shell command

Seems kinda like bloat to me, but what about making ! a magic command?  Then 
it is clearly an ipython thing (with no perly '$'s) and you could have the 
freedom to use whatever syntax or options you want (though I would stick with 
sh as much as possible).  Something like

@! [options] var_name=shell command

Though how far would you want to go here?  Would variable substitution be 
supported on the right of the '='?  Could be a rat-hole of feature creep here...

> - Don't even print the output, it should just behave like getoutput().  
> People can print out the variable if they need it (esp. useful if the 
> output is potentially huge, but you want it trapped for processing).

Yea, stick with the unix 'no news is good news' default on output.

> - You should split the output and return a list, since that's what 
> people will want most of the time.

Perhaps this could be an option of the magic command or set in ipythonrc.

> I'd also like to know of anything else you may consider necessary for 
> the next release.  At this point I have pretty much everything ready and 
> I'd like to move forward with releasing the code relatively soon.  The 
> only things currently remaining in my mind are:

Personally, I'd like to see ipython become better integrated with the 
debugger, or perhaps the other way around.  There is probably many things I 
could currently do to make it better, that I just haven't discovered yet, so 
perhaps a 'debugging tricks' documentation section for us lazy people?

Thanks,
ksb