IPython: the enhanced python shell

IPython is an Enhanced Interactive Python shell. It has additional 'magic' commands to allow access to things like shell history and the underlying system shell. It caches command outputs, and you can view these using the history mechanism as well.

While installing it on windows, I was pleasantly surprised when the post-install screen pointed me to here - a python readline module for windows. I did not realise one existed! It depends on ctypes and PyWin32, which need to be installed as well.

Three things I immediately liked about IPython:

• history - makes the interpreter-to-editor-to-interpreter loop so much easier to manage
• system shell access and output capture - its feels like you're using a real shell
• colouring (comes with readline) - it looks nice!

This article by Jeremy Jones takes the reader through a nice tour of its main features.