docs/source/history.txt

.. _history:

=======
History
=======

Origins
=======

The current IPython system grew out of the following three projects:

    * [ipython] by Fernando Pérez. I was working on adding
      Mathematica-type prompts and a flexible configuration system
      (something better than $PYTHONSTARTUP) to the standard Python
      interactive interpreter.
    * [IPP] by Janko Hauser. Very well organized, great usability. Had
      an old help system. IPP was used as the 'container' code into
      which I added the functionality from ipython and LazyPython.
    * [LazyPython] by Nathan Gray. Simple but very powerful. The quick
      syntax (auto parens, auto quotes) and verbose/colored tracebacks
      were all taken from here.

When I found out about IPP and LazyPython I tried to join all three
into a unified system. I thought this could provide a very nice
working environment, both for regular programming and scientific
computing: shell-like features, IDL/Matlab numerics, Mathematica-type
prompt history and great object introspection and help facilities. I
think it worked reasonably well, though it was a lot more work than I
had initially planned.


Current status
==============

The above listed features work, and quite well for the most part. But
until a major internal restructuring is done (see below), only bug
fixing will be done, no other features will be added (unless very minor
and well localized in the cleaner parts of the code).

IPython consists of some 18000 lines of pure python code, of which
roughly two thirds is reasonably clean. The rest is, messy code which
needs a massive restructuring before any further major work is done.
Even the messy code is fairly well documented though, and most of the
problems in the (non-existent) class design are well pointed to by a
PyChecker run. So the rewriting work isn't that bad, it will just be
time-consuming.


Future
------

See the separate new_design document for details. Ultimately, I would
like to see IPython become part of the standard Python distribution as a
'big brother with batteries' to the standard Python interactive
interpreter. But that will never happen with the current state of the
code, so all contributions are welcome.