IPython %helloworld extension

At Monday's after-PyOhio sprint, I changed ipython-sql from an IPython Plugin to an Extension; this makes it compatible with IPython 1.0. Fortunately, this was really easy; mostly I just deleted Plugin code I didn't understand anyway.

But I do feel like "Writing Extensions" docs are lacking a "Hello World" example. Here's mine.

from IPython.core.magic import Magics, magics_class, line_magic, cell_magic

@magics_class
class HelloWorldMagics(Magics):
    """A simple Hello, <name> magic.
   
    """

    @line_magic  # or ``@line_magic("hi")`` to make ``%hi`` the name of the magic
    @cell_magic  
    def helloworld(self, line='', cell=None):
        """Virtually empty magic for demonstration purposes.

        Example::
        
          In [1]: %load_ext helloworld

          In [2]: %helloworld Catherine
          Out[2]: u'Hello, Catherine'
        

        """
        return "Hello, %s\n%s" % (line, cell or "")
       
def load_ipython_extension(ip):
    ip.register_magics(HelloWorldMagics)

PyOhio Stone Soup

Loved PyOhio once again! Thanks so much to everybody who came, participated, and made it happen! I get such a rush of joy from seeing the Ohio Union fill up with happy Pythonistas.

PyOhio has been a classic case of the Stone Soup story. When we started planning the first one, we really didn't have the resources to pull off a conference; we were just a handful of PyCon 2008 attendees who wanted to bring something like PyCon home. But as we put it together, people appeared, pitched in, and we had a modest, amateurish - but fun! - little conference in the Columbus Public Library. PyOhio 2008 drew participants and volunteers who helped make PyOhio 2009 bigger and better; 2009 drew in more involvement for 2010; and so forth, year after year.

July 26-27, 2014. See you in Columbus!

The IPython Notebook Revolution

Among the many great talks coming to PyOhio at the end of this month:

The IPython Notebook Revolution Catherine Devlin If you think of IPython as simply an enhanced version of the live Python prompt, you are in need of re-education. No matter what you do with Python, applying the IPython Notebook imaginatively will revolutionize the way you do it.

I'd like to focus on aspects of IPython outside the traditional number-crunching, plot-making realm, simply because those have been covered so well already - videos by the actual IPython team already have. I'd like to fill up a talk with edgy, imaginative, experimental uses of IPython that aren't well-known yet, or that suggest new ways IPython (and especially the Notebook) may be used in the future. I have a bunch of ideas along those lines...

... but I'd like your input! I don't want to miss anything awesome just because I wasn't aware, and there's a lot being done in the IPython world - more than I've been able to keep track of. Erik Welch has already thoughtfully given me a bunch of links and suggestions from SciPy. Let's crowdsource my talk even further!

Some of the goodies I already plan to include:

• notebook-based presentations
• ipython_blocks: probably my Holy Grail of imaginative uses)
• d3js in IPython: (OK, this still fits the data graphing theme, but it's also ultra-snazzy)
• ipython_sql: (everybody's got to toot her own horn sometimes)
• ipfl (web-style forms in a Notebook - very preliminary but an interesting idea)
• xkcd and hand-drawn mode
• Wakari

How would you shake up people's notions of "what IPython is for"?