5.x Series
Released June, 2016
IPython 5.0 now uses prompt-toolkit for the command line interface, thus allowing real multi-line editing and syntactic coloration as you type.
When using IPython as a subprocess, like for emacs inferior-shell, IPython can be started with --simple-prompt flag, which will bypass the prompt_toolkit input layer. In this mode completion, prompt color and many other features are disabled.
Backwards incompatible changes
The install_ext magic function which was deprecated since 4.0 have now been deleted. You can still distribute and install extension as packages on PyPI.
Update IPython event triggering to ensure callback registration and unregistration only affects the set of callbacks the next time that event is triggered. See :ghissue:`9447` and :ghpull:`9453`.
This is a change to the existing semantics, wherein one callback registering a second callback when triggered for an event would previously be invoked for that same event.
Integration with pydb has been removed since pydb development has been stopped since 2012, and pydb is not installable from PyPI
Replacement of readline in TerminalInteractiveShell and PDB
IPython 5.0 now uses prompt_toolkit. The IPtyhon.terminal.interactiveshell.TerminalInteractiveShell now uses prompt_toolkit. It is an almost complete rewrite, so many settings have thus changed or disappeared. The class keep the same name to avoid breaking user configuration for the options which names is unchanged.
The usage of prompt_toolkit is accompanied by a complete removal of all code, using readline. A particular effect of not using readline anymore is that .inputrc settings are note effective anymore. Options having similar effects have likely been replaced by a configuration option on IPython itself (e.g: vi input mode).
The PromptManager class have been removed, and the prompt machinery simplified. See TerminalInteractiveShell.prompts configurable for how to setup your prompts.
Note
During developement and beta cycle, TerminalInteractiveShell was temporarly moved to IPtyhon.terminal.ptshell.
Most of the above remarks also affect IPython.core.debugger.Pdb, the %debug and %pdb magic which do not use readline anymore either.
Provisional Changes
Provisional changes are in experimental functionality that may, or may not make it to future version of IPython, and which API may change without warnings. Activating these feature and using these API is at your own risk, and may have security implication for your system, especially if used with the Jupyter notebook,
When running via the Jupyter notebook interfaces, or other compatible client, you can enable rich documentation experimental functionality:
When the docrepr package is installed setting the boolean flag InteractiveShell.sphinxify_docstring to True, will process the various object through sphinx before displaying them (see the docrepr package documentation for more information.
You need to also enable the IPython pager display rich HTML representation using the InteractiveShell.enable_html_pager boolean configuration option. As usual you can set these configuration options globally in your configuration files, alternatively you can turn them on dynamically using the following snippet:
ip = get_ipython() ip.sphinxify_docstring = True ip.enable_html_pager = True
You can test the effect of various combinations of the above configuration in the Jupyter notebook, with things example like :
import numpy as np np.histogram?
This is part of an effort to make Documentation in Python richer and provide in the long term if possible dynamic examples that can contain math, images, widgets... As stated above this is nightly experimental feature with a lot of (fun) problem to solve. We would be happy to get your feedback and expertise on it.
Known Issues:
- <Esc> Key does not dismiss the completer and does not clear the current buffer. This is an on purpose modification due to current technical limitation. Cf :ghpull:`9572`. Escape the control character which is used for other shortcut, and there is no practical way to distinguish. Use Ctr-G or Ctrl-C as an alternative.
- Cannot use Shift-Enter and Ctrl-Enter to submit code in terminal. cf :ghissue:`9587` and :ghissue:`9401`. In terminal there is no practical way to distinguish these key sequences from a normal new line return.
- Dialog completion pop up even with a single completion. Cf :ghissue:`9540`. This would automatically be resolved with the next minor revision of prompt_toolkit
- PageUp and pageDown do not move through completion menu.
- Custom prompt cannot make use of custom invisible escape sequences. This will be automatically resolved with next version of Prompt Toolkit
- Color styles might not adapt to terminal emulator themes. This will need new version of Pygments to be released, and can be mitigated with custom themes.