Merge pull request #8788 from Carreau/automagic

mini doc update for comment on ML

docs/source/config/custommagics.rst

@@ -1,132 +1,133 b''
 .. _defining_magics:
 
 Defining custom magics
 ======================
 
 There are two main ways to define your own magic functions: from standalone
 functions and by inheriting from a base class provided by IPython:
 :class:`IPython.core.magic.Magics`. Below we show code you can place in a file
 that you load from your configuration, such as any file in the ``startup``
 subdirectory of your default IPython profile.
 
 First, let us see the simplest case. The following shows how to create a line
 magic, a cell one and one that works in both modes, using just plain functions:
 
 .. sourcecode:: python
 
     from IPython.core.magic import (register_line_magic, register_cell_magic,
                                     register_line_cell_magic)
 
     @register_line_magic
     def lmagic(line):
         "my line magic"
         return line
 
     @register_cell_magic
     def cmagic(line, cell):
         "my cell magic"
         return line, cell
 
     @register_line_cell_magic
     def lcmagic(line, cell=None):
         "Magic that works both as %lcmagic and as %%lcmagic"
         if cell is None:
             print("Called as line magic")
             return line
         else:
             print("Called as cell magic")
             return line, cell
 
-    # We delete these to avoid name conflicts for automagic to work
+    # In an interactive session, we need to delete these to avoid
+    # name conflicts for automagic to work on line magics.
     del lmagic, lcmagic
 
 
 You can also create magics of all three kinds by inheriting from the
 :class:`IPython.core.magic.Magics` class.  This lets you create magics that can
 potentially hold state in between calls, and that have full access to the main
 IPython object:
     
 .. sourcecode:: python
 
     # This code can be put in any Python module, it does not require IPython
     # itself to be running already.  It only creates the magics subclass but
     # doesn't instantiate it yet.
     from __future__ import print_function
     from IPython.core.magic import (Magics, magics_class, line_magic,
                                     cell_magic, line_cell_magic)
 
     # The class MUST call this class decorator at creation time
     @magics_class
     class MyMagics(Magics):
 
         @line_magic
         def lmagic(self, line):
             "my line magic"
             print("Full access to the main IPython object:", self.shell)
             print("Variables in the user namespace:", list(self.shell.user_ns.keys()))
             return line
 
         @cell_magic
         def cmagic(self, line, cell):
             "my cell magic"
             return line, cell
 
         @line_cell_magic
         def lcmagic(self, line, cell=None):
             "Magic that works both as %lcmagic and as %%lcmagic"
             if cell is None:
                 print("Called as line magic")
                 return line
             else:
                 print("Called as cell magic")
                 return line, cell
 
 
     # In order to actually use these magics, you must register them with a
     # running IPython.  This code must be placed in a file that is loaded once
     # IPython is up and running:
     ip = get_ipython()
     # You can register the class itself without instantiating it.  IPython will
     # call the default constructor on it.
     ip.register_magics(MyMagics)
 
 If you want to create a class with a different constructor that holds
 additional state, then you should always call the parent constructor and
 instantiate the class yourself before registration:
 
 .. sourcecode:: python
 
     @magics_class
     class StatefulMagics(Magics):
         "Magics that hold additional state"
 
         def __init__(self, shell, data):
             # You must call the parent constructor
             super(StatefulMagics, self).__init__(shell)
             self.data = data
         
         # etc...
 
     # This class must then be registered with a manually created instance,
     # since its constructor has different arguments from the default:
     ip = get_ipython()
     magics = StatefulMagics(ip, some_data)
     ip.register_magics(magics)
     
 
 In earlier versions, IPython had an API for the creation of line magics (cell
 magics did not exist at the time) that required you to create functions with a
 method-looking signature and to manually pass both the function and the name.
 While this API is no longer recommended, it remains indefinitely supported for
 backwards compatibility purposes.  With the old API, you'd create a magic as
 follows:
 
 .. sourcecode:: python
 
     def func(self, line):
         print("Line magic called with line:", line)
         print("IPython object:", self.shell)
 
     ip = get_ipython()
     # Declare this function as the magic %mycommand
     ip.define_magic('mycommand', func)