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It is not either/or. I think there is simply a miscommunication happening here, where folks unfamiliar with iPython are assuming it is a simple REPL (like the

It is not either/or. I think there is simply a miscommunication happening here, where folks unfamiliar with iPython are assuming it is a simple REPL (like the Perl debugger in REPL mode. I'm not talking about a dumb thing that executes one line of code and returns. iPython (and, again, I imagine the better Lisp and SmallTalk REPLs) is a full shell with your programming environment available, including the ability to use the debugger interactively, explore your data structures, etc. But, you can also create new functions, modify existing ones, and it has command history, etc. All the stuff you'd expect of a good shell, but in Python and with a complete picture of your program's execution environment. I've simply never felt like I was able to get inside of a program like when working with iPython, and I'm not at all a good Python programmer.

berntb 11y ago
In bash I use a few aliases (which load different libraries for DB and specific data structures) for perl -E I have simple shell aliases to do SQL queries and pipe the output to shell aliases which transform that to perl data structures (along with some project specific data structures). And so on. (The bash ctrl-R backward searches rarely interact between shell commands and searches for these one liners.) Please stop shaking your head. :-) I agree that the old lisps I used back at Uni was neater than this one liner craziness. I've thought of trying a REPL instead, but with one liners I can also use the bash functionality for processing files and so on.
collyw 11y ago
Thats pretty much the same things that I would do using an IDE and step through debugger. I find an IDE far more convinient to navigate, but maybe thats just familiarity.