Inject display into builtins

display is an underutilized feature of IPython which is relatively hard
to access to. You need to explicitly import from `IPython.display`,
which not only is long to type, but users get confused if they should
use `IPython.display` or `IPython.display.display` also many tutorials
tell users to import from IPython.core.display which is not right.

So inject that directly in builtin module – so that user can overwrite
and delete without issues – and document display a lot more.

IPython/core/display.py

@@ -145,6 +145,9 def display(*objs, include=None, exclude=None, metadata=None, transient=None, di
     By default all representations will be computed and sent to the frontends.
     Frontends can decide which representation is used and how.
 
+    In terminal IPython this will be similar to using `print`, for use in richer
+    frontends see Jupyter notebook examples with rich display logic.
+
     Parameters
     ----------
     objs : tuple of objects
@@ -173,19 +176,109 def display(*objs, include=None, exclude=None, metadata=None, transient=None, di
         If given as True, generate a new display_id
     kwargs: additional keyword-args, optional
         Additional keyword-arguments are passed through to the display publisher.
-    
+
     Returns
     -------
-    
+
     handle: DisplayHandle
         Returns a handle on updatable displays, if display_id is given.
         Returns None if no display_id is given (default).
+
+    Examples
+    --------
+
+    >>> class Json(object):
+    ...     def __init__(self, json):
+    ...         self.json = json
+    ...     def _repr_pretty_(self, pp, cycle):
+    ...         import json
+    ...         pp.text(json.dumps(self.json, indent=2))
+    ...     def __repr__(self):
+    ...         return str(self.json)
+    ...
+
+    >>> d = Json({1:2, 3: {4:5}})
+
+    >>> print(d)
+    {1: 2, 3: {4: 5}}
+
+    >>> display(d)
+    {
+      "1": 2,
+      "3": {
+        "4": 5
+      }
+    }
+
+    >>> def int_formatter(integer, pp, cycle):
+    ...     pp.text('I'*integer)
+
+    >>> plain = get_ipython().display_formatter.formatters['text/plain']
+    >>> plain.for_type(int, int_formatter)
+    <function _repr_pprint at 0x...>
+    >>> display(7-5)
+    II
+
+    >>> del plain.type_printers[int]
+    >>> display(7-5)
+    2
+
+    See Also
+    --------
+
+    `update_display`
+
+    Notes
+    -----
+
+    In Python, objects can declare their textual representation using the
+    `__repr__` method. IPython expands on this idea and allows objects to declare
+    other, rich representations including:
+
+      - HTML
+      - JSON
+      - PNG
+      - JPEG
+      - SVG
+      - LaTeX
+
+    A single object can declare some or all of these representations; all are
+    handled by IPython's display system.
+
+    The main idea of the first approach is that you have to implement special
+    display methods when you define your class, one for each representation you
+    want to use. Here is a list of the names of the special methods and the
+    values they must return:
+
+      - `_repr_html_`: return raw HTML as a string
+      - `_repr_json_`: return a JSONable dict
+      - `_repr_jpeg_`: return raw JPEG data
+      - `_repr_png_`: return raw PNG data
+      - `_repr_svg_`: return raw SVG data as a string
+      - `_repr_latex_`: return LaTeX commands in a string surrounded by "$".
+      - `_repr_mimebundle_`: return a full mimebundle containing the mapping
+      from all mimetypes to data
+
+    When you are directly writing your own classes, you can adapt them for
+    display in IPython by following the above approach. But in practice, you
+    often need to work with existing classes that you can't easily modify.
+
+    You can refer to the documentation on IPython display formatters in order to
+    register custom formatters for already existing types.
+
+    Since IPython 5.4 and 6.1 display is automatically made available to the
+    user without import. If you are using display in a document that might be
+    used in a pure python context or with older version of IPython, use the
+    following import at the top of your file::
+
+        from IPython.display import display
+
     """
     raw = kwargs.pop('raw', False)
     if transient is None:
         transient = {}
     if display_id:
-        if display_id == True:
+        if display_id is True:
             display_id = _new_id()
         transient['display_id'] = display_id
     if kwargs.get('update') and 'display_id' not in transient:

IPython/core/interactiveshell.py

@@ -56,6 +56,7 from IPython.core.payload import PayloadManager
 from IPython.core.prefilter import PrefilterManager
 from IPython.core.profiledir import ProfileDir
 from IPython.core.usage import default_banner
+from IPython.display import display
 from IPython.testing.skipdoctest import skip_doctest
 from IPython.utils import PyColorize
 from IPython.utils import io
@@ -618,6 +619,7 class InteractiveShell(SingletonConfigurable):
         # removing on exit or representing the existence of more than one
         # IPython at a time.
         builtin_mod.__dict__['__IPYTHON__'] = True
+        builtin_mod.__dict__['display'] = display
 
         self.builtin_trap = BuiltinTrap(shell=self)