docs/source/whatsnew/version0.10.txt

========================================
0.10 series
========================================

Release 0.10
============

This release brings months of slow but steady development, and will be the last
before a major restructuring and cleanup of IPython's internals that is already
under way.  For this reason, we hope that 0.10 will be a stable and robust
release so that while users adapt to some of the API changes that will come
with the refactoring that will become IPython 0.11, they can safely use 0.10 in
all existing projects with minimal changes (if any).

IPython 0.10 is now a medium-sized project, with roughly (as reported by David
Wheeler's :command:`sloccount` utility) 40750 lines of Python code, and a diff
between 0.9.1 and this release that contains almost 28000 lines of code and
documentation.  Our documentation, in PDF format, is a 495-page long PDF
document (also available in HTML format, both generated from the same sources).

Many users and developers contributed code, features, bug reports and ideas to
this release.  Please do not hesitate in contacting us if we've failed to
acknowledge your contribution here.  In particular, for this release we have
contribution from the following people, a mix of new and regular names (in
alphabetical order by first name):

* Alexander Clausen: fix #341726.
* Brian Granger: lots of work everywhere (features, bug fixes, etc).
* Daniel Ashbrook: bug report on MemoryError during compilation, now fixed.
* Darren Dale: improvements to documentation build system, feedback, design
  ideas.
* Fernando Perez: various places.
* Gaël Varoquaux: core code, ipythonx GUI, design discussions, etc. Lots...
* John Hunter: suggestions, bug fixes, feedback.
* Jorgen Stenarson: work on many fronts, tests, fixes, win32 support, etc.
* Laurent Dufréchou: many improvements to ipython-wx standalone app.
* Lukasz Pankowski: prefilter, `%edit`, demo improvements.
* Matt Foster: TextMate support in `%edit`.
* Nathaniel Smith: fix #237073.
* Pauli Virtanen: fixes and improvements to extensions, documentation.
* Prabhu Ramachandran: improvements to `%timeit`.
* Robert Kern: several extensions.
* Sameer D'Costa: help on critical bug #269966.
* Stephan Peijnik: feedback on Debian compliance and many man pages.
* Steven Bethard: we are now shipping his :mod:`argparse` module.
* Tom Fetherston: many improvements to :mod:`IPython.demo` module.
* Ville Vainio: lots of work everywhere (features, bug fixes, etc).
* Vishal Vasta: ssh support in ipcluster.
* Walter Doerwald: work on the :mod:`IPython.ipipe` system.

Below we give an overview of new features, bug fixes and backwards-incompatible
changes.  For a detailed account of every change made, feel free to view the
project log with :command:`bzr log`.

New features
------------

* New `%paste` magic automatically extracts current contents of clipboard and
  pastes it directly, while correctly handling code that is indented or
  prepended with `>>>` or `...` python prompt markers.  A very useful new
  feature contributed by Robert Kern.

* IPython 'demos', created with the :mod:`IPython.demo` module, can now be
  created from files on disk or strings in memory.  Other fixes and
  improvements to the demo system, by Tom Fetherston.

* Added :func:`find_cmd` function to :mod:`IPython.platutils` module, to find
  commands in a cross-platform manner.

* Many improvements and fixes to Gaël Varoquaux's :command:`ipythonx`, a
  WX-based lightweight IPython instance that can be easily embedded in other WX
  applications.  These improvements have made it possible to now have an
  embedded IPython in Mayavi and other tools.

* :class:`MultiengineClient` objects now have a :meth:`benchmark` method.

* The manual now includes a full set of auto-generated API documents from the
  code sources, using Sphinx and some of our own support code.  We are now
  using the `Numpy Documentation Standard`_  for all docstrings, and we have
  tried to update as many existing ones as possible to this format.

* The new :mod:`IPython.Extensions.ipy_pretty` extension by Robert Kern
  provides configurable pretty-printing.

* Many improvements to the :command:`ipython-wx` standalone WX-based IPython
  application by Laurent Dufréchou.  It can optionally run in a thread, and
  this can be toggled at runtime (allowing the loading of Matplotlib in a
  running session without ill effects).

* IPython includes a copy of Steven Bethard's argparse_ in the
  :mod:`IPython.external` package, so we can use it internally and it is also
  available to any IPython user.  By installing it in this manner, we ensure
  zero conflicts with any system-wide installation you may already have while
  minimizing external dependencies for new users.  In IPython 0.10, We ship
  argparse version 1.0.

* An improved and much more robust test suite, that runs groups of tests in
  separate subprocesses using either Nose or Twisted's :command:`trial` runner
  to ensure proper management of Twisted-using code.  The test suite degrades
  gracefully if optional dependencies are not available, so that the
  :command:`iptest` command can be run with only Nose installed and nothing
  else.  We also have more and cleaner test decorators to better select tests
  depending on runtime conditions, do setup/teardown, etc.

* The new ipcluster now has a fully working ssh mode that should work on
  Linux, Unix and OS X.  Thanks to Vishal Vatsa for implementing this!

* The wonderful TextMate editor can now be used with %edit on OS X.  Thanks
  to Matt Foster for this patch.

* The documentation regarding parallel uses of IPython, including MPI and PBS,
  has been significantly updated and improved.

* The developer guidelines in the documentation have been updated to explain
  our workflow using :command:`bzr` and Launchpad.
  
* Fully refactored :command:`ipcluster` command line program for starting
  IPython clusters.  This new version is a complete rewrite and 1) is fully
  cross platform (we now use Twisted's process management), 2) has much
  improved performance, 3) uses subcommands for different types of clusters, 4)
  uses argparse for parsing command line options, 5) has better support for
  starting clusters using :command:`mpirun`, 6) has experimental support for
  starting engines using PBS.  It can also reuse FURL files, by appropriately
  passing options to its subcommands.  However, this new version of ipcluster
  should be considered a technology preview.  We plan on changing the API in
  significant ways before it is final.

* Full description of the security model added to the docs.

* cd completer: show bookmarks if no other completions are available.

* sh profile: easy way to give 'title' to prompt: assign to variable
  '_prompt_title'. It looks like this::
      
        [~]|1> _prompt_title = 'sudo!'
        sudo![~]|2>

* %edit: If you do '%edit pasted_block', pasted_block variable gets updated
  with new data (so repeated editing makes sense)

.. _Numpy Documentation Standard: http://projects.scipy.org/numpy/wiki/CodingStyleGuidelines#docstring-standard

.. _argparse: http://code.google.com/p/argparse/

Bug fixes
---------

* Fix #368719, removed top-level debian/ directory to make the job of Debian
  packagers easier.
  
* Fix #291143 by including man pages contributed by Stephan Peijnik from the
  Debian project.

* Fix #358202, effectively a race condition, by properly synchronizing file
  creation at cluster startup time.

* `%timeit` now handles correctly functions that take a long time to execute
  even the first time, by not repeating them.

* Fix #239054, releasing of references after exiting.

* Fix #341726, thanks to Alexander Clausen.

* Fix #269966.  This long-standing and very difficult bug (which is actually a
  problem in Python itself) meant long-running sessions would inevitably grow
  in memory size, often with catastrophic consequences if users had large
  objects in their scripts.  Now, using `%run` repeatedly should not cause any
  memory leaks.  Special thanks to John Hunter and Sameer D'Costa for their
  help with this bug.

* Fix #295371, bug in `%history`.

* Improved support for py2exe.

* Fix #270856: IPython hangs with PyGTK

* Fix #270998: A magic with no docstring breaks the '%magic magic'

* fix #271684: -c startup commands screw up raw vs. native history

* Numerous bugs on Windows with the new ipcluster have been fixed.

* The ipengine and ipcontroller scripts now handle missing furl files
  more gracefully by giving better error messages.

* %rehashx: Aliases no longer contain dots. python3.0 binary
  will create alias python30. Fixes:
  #259716 "commands with dots in them don't work"

* %cpaste: %cpaste -r repeats the last pasted block.
  The block is assigned to pasted_block even if code
  raises exception.

* Bug #274067 'The code in get_home_dir is broken for py2exe' was
  fixed.

* Many other small bug fixes not listed here by number (see the bzr log for
  more info).
  
Backwards incompatible changes
------------------------------

* `ipykit` and related files were unmaintained and have been removed.

* The :func:`IPython.genutils.doctest_reload` does not actually call
  `reload(doctest)` anymore, as this was causing many problems with the test
  suite.  It still resets `doctest.master` to None.

* While we have not deliberately broken Python 2.4 compatibility, only minor
  testing was done with Python 2.4, while 2.5 and 2.6 were fully tested.  But
  if you encounter problems with 2.4, please do report them as bugs.

* The :command:`ipcluster` now requires a mode argument; for example to start a
  cluster on the local machine with 4 engines, you must now type::

    $ ipcluster local -n 4

* The controller now has a ``-r`` flag that needs to be used if you want to
  reuse existing furl files.  Otherwise they are deleted (the default).

* Remove ipy_leo.py. You can use :command:`easy_install ipython-extension` to
  get it.  (done to decouple it from ipython release cycle)