1============= 2 0.12 Series 3============= 4 5Release 0.12.1 6============== 7 8IPython 0.12.1 is a bugfix release of 0.12, pulling only bugfixes and minor 9cleanup from 0.13, timed for the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS release. 10 11See the :ref:`list of fixed issues <issues_list_012>` for specific backported issues. 12 13 14Release 0.12 15============ 16 17IPython 0.12 contains several major new features, as well as a large amount of 18bug and regression fixes. The 0.11 release brought with it a lot of new 19functionality and major refactorings of the codebase; by and large this has 20proven to be a success as the number of contributions to the project has 21increased dramatically, proving that the code is now much more approachable. 22But in the refactoring inevitably some bugs were introduced, and we have also 23squashed many of those as well as recovered some functionality that had been 24temporarily disabled due to the API changes. 25 26The following major new features appear in this version. 27 28 29An interactive browser-based Notebook with rich media support 30~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 31 32A powerful new interface puts IPython in your browser. You can start it with 33the command ``ipython notebook``: 34 35.. figure:: ../_images/notebook_specgram.png 36 :width: 400px 37 :alt: The IPython notebook with embedded text, code, math and figures. 38 :align: center 39 :target: ../_images/notebook_specgram.png 40 41 The new IPython notebook showing text, mathematical expressions in LaTeX, 42 code, results and embedded figures created with Matplotlib. 43 44This new interface maintains all the features of IPython you are used to, as it 45is a new client that communicates with the same IPython kernels used by the 46terminal and Qt console. But the web notebook provides for a different 47workflow where you can integrate, along with code execution, also text, 48mathematical expressions, graphics, video, and virtually any content that a 49modern browser is capable of displaying. 50 51You can save your work sessions as documents that retain all these elements and 52which can be version controlled, emailed to colleagues or saved as HTML or PDF 53files for printing or publishing statically on the web. The internal storage 54format is a JSON file that can be easily manipulated for manual exporting to 55other formats. 56 57This Notebook is a major milestone for IPython, as for years we have tried to 58build this kind of system. We were inspired originally by the excellent 59implementation in Mathematica, we made a number of attempts using older 60technologies in earlier Summer of Code projects in 2005 (both students and 61Robert Kern developed early prototypes), and in recent years we have seen the 62excellent implementation offered by the `Sage <http://sagemath.org>` system. 63But we continued to work on something that would be consistent with the rest of 64IPython's design, and it is clear now that the effort was worth it: based on 65the ZeroMQ communications architecture introduced in version 0.11, the notebook 66can now retain 100% of the features of the real IPython. But it can also 67provide the rich media support and high quality Javascript libraries that were 68not available in browsers even one or two years ago (such as high-quality 69mathematical rendering or built-in video). 70 71The notebook has too many useful and important features to describe in these 72release notes; our documentation now contains a directory called 73``examples/notebooks`` with several notebooks that illustrate various aspects 74of the system. You should start by reading those named 75``00_notebook_tour.ipynb`` and ``01_notebook_introduction.ipynb`` first, and 76then can proceed to read the others in any order you want. 77 78To start the notebook server, go to a directory containing the notebooks you 79want to open (or where you want to create new ones) and type:: 80 81 ipython notebook 82 83You can see all the relevant options with:: 84 85 ipython notebook --help 86 ipython notebook --help-all # even more 87 88and just like the Qt console, you can start the notebook server with pylab 89support by using:: 90 91 ipython notebook --pylab 92 93for floating matplotlib windows or:: 94 95 ipython notebook --pylab inline 96 97for plotting support with automatically inlined figures. Note that it is now 98possible also to activate pylab support at runtime via ``%pylab``, so you do 99not need to make this decision when starting the server. 100 101 102.. _two_process_console: 103 104Two-process terminal console 105~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 106 107Based on the same architecture as the notebook and the Qt console, we also have 108now a terminal-based console that can connect to an external IPython kernel 109(the same kernels used by the Qt console or the notebook, in fact). While this 110client behaves almost identically to the usual IPython terminal application, 111this capability can be very useful to attach an interactive console to an 112existing kernel that was started externally. It lets you use the interactive 113``%debug`` facilities in a notebook, for example (the web browser can't 114interact directly with the debugger) or debug a third-party code where you may 115have embedded an IPython kernel. 116 117This is also something that we have wanted for a long time, and which is a 118culmination (as a team effort) of the work started last year during the 2010 119Google Summer of Code project. 120 121Tabbed QtConsole 122~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 123 124The QtConsole now supports starting multiple kernels in tabs, and has a 125menubar, so it looks and behaves more like a real application. Keyboard 126enthusiasts can disable the menubar with ctrl-shift-M (:ghpull:`887`). 127 128.. figure:: ../_images/qtconsole_tabbed.png 129 :width: 400px 130 :alt: Tabbed IPython Qt console with embedded plots and menus. 131 :align: center 132 :target: ../_images/qtconsole_tabbed.png 133 134 The improved Qt console for IPython, now with tabs to control multiple 135 kernels and full menu support. 136 137 138Full Python 3 compatibility 139~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 140 141IPython can now be installed from a single codebase on Python 2 and 142Python 3. The installation process for Python 3 automatically runs 2to3. The 143same 'default' profile is now used for Python 2 and 3 (the previous version had 144a separate 'python3' profile). 145 146Standalone Kernel 147~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 148 149The ``ipython kernel`` subcommand has been added, to allow starting a 150standalone kernel, that can be used with various frontends. You can then later 151connect a Qt console or a terminal console to this kernel by typing e.g.:: 152 153 ipython qtconsole --existing 154 155if it's the only one running, or by passing explicitly the connection 156parameters (printed by the kernel at startup). 157 158 159PyPy support 160~~~~~~~~~~~~ 161 162The terminal interface to IPython now runs under `PyPy <http://pypy.org/>`_. 163We will continue to monitor PyPy's progress, and hopefully before long at least 164we'll be able to also run the notebook. The Qt console may take longer, as Qt 165is a very complex set of bindings to a huge C++ library, and that is currently 166the area where PyPy still lags most behind. But for everyday interactive use 167at the terminal, with this release and PyPy 1.7, things seem to work quite well 168from our admittedly limited testing. 169 170 171Other important new features 172---------------------------- 173 174* **SSH Tunnels**: In 0.11, the :mod:`IPython.parallel` Client could tunnel its 175 connections to the Controller via ssh. Now, the QtConsole supports ssh tunneling, 176 as do parallel engines. 177 178* **relaxed command-line parsing**: 0.11 was released with overly-strict 179 command-line parsing, preventing the ability to specify arguments with spaces, 180 e.g. ``ipython --pylab qt`` or ``ipython -c "print 'hi'"``. This has 181 been fixed, by using argparse. The new parsing is a strict superset of 0.11, so 182 any commands in 0.11 should still work in 0.12. 183 184* **HistoryAccessor**: The :class:`~IPython.core.history.HistoryManager` class 185 for interacting with your IPython SQLite history database has been split, 186 adding a parent :class:`~IPython.core.history.HistoryAccessor` class, so that 187 users can write code to access and search their IPython history without being 188 in an IPython session (:ghpull:`824`). 189 190* **kernel %gui and %pylab**: The ``%gui`` and ``%pylab`` magics have been 191 restored to the IPython kernel (e.g. in the qtconsole or notebook). This 192 allows activation of pylab-mode, or eventloop integration after starting the 193 kernel, which was unavailable in 0.11. Unlike in the terminal, this can be 194 set only once, and cannot be changed. 195 196* **%config**: A new ``%config`` magic has been added, giving easy access to the 197 IPython configuration system at runtime (:ghpull:`923`). 198 199* **Multiline History**: Multiline readline history has been restored to the 200 Terminal frontend by default (:ghpull:`838`). 201 202* **%store**: The ``%store`` magic from earlier versions has been updated and 203 re-enabled (:ref:`extensions_storemagic`; :ghpull:`1029`). To autorestore 204 stored variables on startup, specify ``c.StoreMagic.autorestore = True`` in 205 :file:`ipython_config.py`. 206 207 208Major Bugs fixed 209---------------- 210 211In this cycle, we have :ref:`closed over 500 issues <issues_list_012>`, but a 212few major ones merit special mention: 213 214* Simple configuration errors should no longer crash IPython. In 0.11, errors 215 in config files, as well as invalid trait values, could crash IPython. Now, 216 such errors are reported, and help is displayed. 217 218* Certain SyntaxErrors no longer crash IPython (e.g. just typing keywords, such 219 as ``return``, ``break``, etc.). See :ghissue:`704`. 220 221* IPython path utils, such as :func:`~IPython.utils.path.get_ipython_dir` now 222 check for write permissions, so IPython should function on systems where the 223 default path resolution might point to a read-only location, such as 224 ``HOMESHARE`` on Windows (:ghissue:`669`). 225 226* :func:`raw_input` now works in the kernel when multiple frontends are in 227 use. The request will be sent to the frontend that made the request, and an 228 exception is raised if that frontend does not support stdin requests 229 (e.g. the notebook) (:ghissue:`673`). 230 231* :mod:`zmq` version detection no longer uses simple lexicographical comparison 232 to check minimum version, which prevents 0.11 from working with pyzmq-2.1.10 233 (:ghpull:`758`). 234 235* A bug in PySide < 1.0.7 caused crashes on OSX when tooltips were shown 236 (:ghissue:`711`). these tooltips are now disabled on old PySide 237 (:ghpull:`963`). 238 239* IPython no longer crashes when started on recent versions of Python 3 in 240 Windows (:ghissue:`737`). 241 242* Instances of classes defined interactively can now be pickled (:ghissue:`29`; 243 :ghpull:`648`). Note that pickling saves a reference to the class definition, 244 so unpickling the instances will only work where the class has been defined. 245 246 247Backwards incompatible changes 248------------------------------ 249 250* IPython connection information is no longer specified via ip/port directly, 251 rather via json connection files. These files are stored in the security 252 directory, and enable us to turn on HMAC message authentication by default, 253 significantly improving the security of kernels. Various utility functions 254 have been added to :mod:`IPython.lib.kernel`, for easier connecting to existing 255 kernels. 256 257* :class:`~IPython.zmq.kernelmanager.KernelManager` now has one ip, and several 258 port traits, rather than several ip/port pair ``_addr`` traits. This better 259 matches the rest of the code, where the ip cannot not be set separately for 260 each channel. 261 262* Custom prompts are now configured using a new class, 263 :class:`~IPython.core.prompts.PromptManager`, which has traits for 264 :attr:`in_template`, :attr:`in2_template` (the ``...:`` continuation prompt), 265 :attr:`out_template` and :attr:`rewrite_template`. This uses Python's string 266 formatting system, so you can use ``{time}`` and ``{cwd}``, although we have 267 preserved the abbreviations from previous versions, e.g. ``\#`` (prompt number) 268 and ``\w`` (working directory). For the list of available fields, refer to the 269 source of :file:`IPython/core/prompts.py`. 270 271* The class inheritance of the Launchers in 272 :mod:`IPython.parallel.apps.launcher` used by ipcluster has changed, so that 273 trait names are more consistent across batch systems. This may require a few 274 renames in your config files, if you customized the command-line args for 275 launching controllers and engines. The configurable names have also been 276 changed to be clearer that they point to class names, and can now be 277 specified by name only, rather than requiring the full import path of each 278 class, e.g.:: 279 280 IPClusterEngines.engine_launcher = 'IPython.parallel.apps.launcher.MPIExecEngineSetLauncher' 281 IPClusterStart.controller_launcher = 'IPython.parallel.apps.launcher.SSHControllerLauncher' 282 283 would now be specified as:: 284 285 IPClusterEngines.engine_launcher_class = 'MPI' 286 IPClusterStart.controller_launcher_class = 'SSH' 287 288 The full path will still work, and is necessary for using custom launchers 289 not in IPython's launcher module. 290 291 Further, MPIExec launcher names are now prefixed with just MPI, to better match 292 other batch launchers, and be generally more intuitive. The MPIExec names are 293 deprecated, but continue to work. 294 295* For embedding a shell, note that the parameters ``user_global_ns`` and 296 ``global_ns`` have been deprecated in favour of ``user_module`` and 297 ``module`` respsectively. The new parameters expect a module-like object, 298 rather than a namespace dict. The old parameters remain for backwards 299 compatibility, although ``user_global_ns`` is now ignored. The ``user_ns`` 300 parameter works the same way as before, and calling 301 :func:`~IPython.frontend.terminal.embed.embed` with no arguments still works 302 as before. 303 304 305Development summary and credits 306------------------------------- 307 308The previous version (IPython 0.11) was released on July 31 2011, so this 309release cycle was roughly 4 1/2 months long, we closed a total of 515 issues, 310257 pull requests and 258 regular issues (a :ref:`detailed list 311<issues_list_012>` is available). 312 313Many users and developers contributed code, features, bug reports and ideas to 314this release. Please do not hesitate in contacting us if we've failed to 315acknowledge your contribution here. In particular, for this release we have 316had commits from the following 45 contributors, a mix of new and regular names 317(in alphabetical order by first name): 318 319* Alcides <alcides-at-do-not-span-me.com> 320* Ben Edwards <bedwards-at-cs.unm.edu> 321* Benjamin Ragan-Kelley <benjaminrk-at-gmail.com> 322* Benjamin Thyreau <benjamin.thyreau-at-gmail.com> 323* Bernardo B. Marques <bernardo.fire-at-gmail.com> 324* Bernard Paulus <bprecyclebin-at-gmail.com> 325* Bradley M. Froehle <brad.froehle-at-gmail.com> 326* Brian E. Granger <ellisonbg-at-gmail.com> 327* Christian Boos <cboos-at-bct-technology.com> 328* Daniel Velkov <danielv-at-mylife.com> 329* Erik Tollerud <erik.tollerud-at-gmail.com> 330* Evan Patterson <epatters-at-enthought.com> 331* Felix Werner <Felix.Werner-at-kit.edu> 332* Fernando Perez <Fernando.Perez-at-berkeley.edu> 333* Gabriel <g2p.code-at-gmail.com> 334* Grahame Bowland <grahame-at-angrygoats.net> 335* Hannes Schulz <schulz-at-ais.uni-bonn.de> 336* Jens Hedegaard Nielsen <jenshnielsen-at-gmail.com> 337* Jonathan March <jmarch-at-enthought.com> 338* Jörgen Stenarson <jorgen.stenarson-at-bostream.nu> 339* Julian Taylor <jtaylor.debian-at-googlemail.com> 340* Kefu Chai <tchaikov-at-gmail.com> 341* macgyver <neil.rabinowitz-at-merton.ox.ac.uk> 342* Matt Cottingham <matt.cottingham-at-gmail.com> 343* Matthew Brett <matthew.brett-at-gmail.com> 344* Matthias BUSSONNIER <bussonniermatthias-at-gmail.com> 345* Michael Droettboom <mdboom-at-gmail.com> 346* Nicolas Rougier <Nicolas.Rougier-at-inria.fr> 347* Olivier Verdier <olivier.verdier-at-gmail.com> 348* Omar Andres Zapata Mesa <andresete.chaos-at-gmail.com> 349* Pablo Winant <pablo.winant-at-gmail.com> 350* Paul Ivanov <pivanov314-at-gmail.com> 351* Pauli Virtanen <pav-at-iki.fi> 352* Pete Aykroyd <aykroyd-at-gmail.com> 353* Prabhu Ramachandran <prabhu-at-enthought.com> 354* Puneeth Chaganti <punchagan-at-gmail.com> 355* Robert Kern <robert.kern-at-gmail.com> 356* Satrajit Ghosh <satra-at-mit.edu> 357* Stefan van der Walt <stefan-at-sun.ac.za> 358* Szabolcs Horvát <szhorvat-at-gmail.com> 359* Thomas Kluyver <takowl-at-gmail.com> 360* Thomas Spura <thomas.spura-at-gmail.com> 361* Timo Paulssen <timonator-at-perpetuum-immobile.de> 362* Valentin Haenel <valentin.haenel-at-gmx.de> 363* Yaroslav Halchenko <debian-at-onerussian.com> 364 365.. note:: 366 367 This list was generated with the output of 368 ``git log rel-0.11..HEAD --format='* %aN <%aE>' | sed 's/@/\-at\-/' | sed 's/<>//' | sort -u`` 369 after some cleanup. If you should be on this list, please add yourself. 370