[IPython-user] Macros & slice notation

[Fernando Perez]

Fernando Perez wrote:
> Ville Vainio wrote:
> 
>>On 12/30/05, Fernando Perez <Fernando.Perez at colorado.edu> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>recipe for unnecessary confusion (think perl).  I'd rather have one, good and
>>>intuitive way to do it: the human brain (at least mine :) is good at
>>>remembering specific use cases, as long as they remain reasonably orthogonal.
>>
>>
>>Well, if you want an intuitive way, I think it speaks directly for 1-3
>>as 1..3! :-)
>>
>>1:4 is always a gotcha, one extra thing to remember, one extra brain
>>cycle, one thing that stops you from getting the direct "do what I
>>mean" experience. Because it's a %magic it basically boils down to
>>"what feels most comfortable", not "what is just like the rest of
>>python". Think $var string interpolation etc.
>>
>>Plus, you are bumping the major version number so this is your break
>>at changing it. :-).
> 
> 
> OK, N-M it is then.  I agree with your arguments about "magics are not python 
> already, so let's just make them as convenient to use as possible".  As for 
> N--M, it's too latex-y for my taste (if we were to use proper math notation, 
> we'd allow [N,M) for N...M-1, [N,M] for N..M, etc :).
> 
> I'll code in the patches in a minute and will commit later.

OK, I just committed this.  As it turns out, due to the way the underlying 
implementation works, the N:M notation (for N..M-1) still works.  It would 
have broken other things to remove it (or made the code unnecessarily 
complex), so I just left it in.  The docstring now reads:

         The notation for indicating number ranges is: n1-n2 means 'use line
         numbers n1,...n2' (the endpoint is included).  That is, '5-7' means
         using the lines numbered 5,6 and 7.

         Note: as a 'hidden' feature, you can also use traditional python slice
         notation, where N:M means numbers N through M-1.


So hopefully this will satisfy most people (sorry Alan :)


OK, Happy New Year to everybody, and please report any problems.  I just 
uploaded 0.7.0.rc5, which has a number of important fixes I made last night. 
Some pounding on this would be very welcome.  My target release date for 0.7.0 
is around Jan 10, give or take a few days.

Cheers,

f