True Color feature

prompt_toolkit uses pygments styles for syntax highlighting. By default, the colors specified in the style are approximated using a standard 256-color palette. prompt_toolkit also supports 24bit, a.k.a. "true", a.k.a. 16-million color escape sequences which enable compatible terminals to display the exact colors specified instead of an approximation. This true_color option exposes that capability in prompt_toolkit to the IPython shell.

Here is a good source for the current state of true color support in various terminal emulators and software projects: https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728

New terminal interface

IPython 5 features a major upgrade to the terminal interface, bringing live syntax highlighting as you type, proper multiline editing and multiline paste, and tab completions that don't clutter up your history.

These features are provided by the Python library prompt_toolkit, which replaces readline throughout our terminal interface.

Relying on this pure-Python, cross platform module also makes it simpler to install IPython. We have removed dependencies on pyreadline for Windows and gnureadline for Mac.

Backwards incompatible changes

• The %install_ext magic function, deprecated since 4.0, has now been deleted. You can distribute and install extensions as packages on PyPI.
• Callbacks registered while an event is being handled will now only be called for subsequent events; previously they could be called for the current event. Similarly, callbacks removed while handling an event will always get that event. See :ghissue:`9447` and :ghpull:`9453`.
• Integration with pydb has been removed since pydb development has been stopped since 2012, and pydb is not installable from PyPI.
• The autoedit_syntax option has apparently been broken for many years. It has been removed.

Provisional Changes

Provisional changes are experimental functionality that may, or may not, make it into a future version of IPython, and which API may change without warnings. Activating these features and using these API are 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.

Deprecated Features

Some deprecated features are listed in this section. Don't forget to enable DeprecationWarning as an error if you are using IPython in a Continuous Integration setup or in your testing in general:

import warnings
warnings.filterwarnings('error', '.*', DeprecationWarning, module='yourmodule.*')

• hooks.fix_error_editor seems unused and is pending deprecation.
• IPython/core/excolors.py:ExceptionColors is deprecated.
• IPython.core.InteractiveShell:write() is deprecated; use sys.stdout instead.
• IPython.core.InteractiveShell:write_err() is deprecated; use sys.stderr instead.
• The formatter keyword argument to Inspector.info in IPython.core.oinspec has no effect.
• The global_ns keyword argument of IPython Embed was deprecated, and has no effect. Use module keyword argument instead.

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.
• PageUp and pageDown do not move through completion menu.
• 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.