IPython (Interactive Python) is a

command shell In computing, a shell is a computer program that exposes an operating system's services to a human user or other programs. In general, operating system shells use either a command-line interface (CLI) or graphical user interface (GUI), depending ...

for interactive computing in multiple programming languages, originally developed for the

Python programming language Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability with the use of significant indentation. Python is dynamically-typed and garbage-collected. It supports multiple programming p ...

, that offers

introspection Introspection is the examination of one's own conscious thoughts and feelings. In psychology, the process of introspection relies on the observation of one's mental state, while in a spiritual context it may refer to the examination of one's s ...

rich media Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user's actions by presenting content such as text, moving image, animation, video and audio. Since its early conception, various f ...

, shell syntax,

tab completion Command-line completion (also tab completion) is a common feature of command-line interpreters, in which the program automatically fills in partially typed commands. Command line interpreters are programs that allow a user to interact with the u ...

, and history. IPython provides the following features: * Interactive shells (terminal and Qt-based). * A browser-based

notebook interface A notebook interface (also called a computational notebook) is a virtual notebook environment used for literate programming, a method of writing computer programs. Some notebooks are WYSIWYG environments including executable calculations embedded i ...

with support for code, text, mathematical expressions, inline plots and other media. * Support for interactive data visualization and use of GUI toolkits. * Flexible, embeddable interpreters to load into one's own projects. * Tools for

parallel computing Parallel computing is a type of computation in which many calculations or processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. There are several different fo ...

. IPython is a NumFOCUS fiscally sponsored project.

Parallel computing

IPython is based on an architecture that provides parallel and distributed computing. IPython enables parallel applications to be developed, executed, debugged and monitored interactively, hence the I (Interactive) in IPython. This architecture abstracts out parallelism, enabling IPython to support many different styles of parallelism including: * Single program, multiple data (

SPMD In computing, single program, multiple data (SPMD) is a technique employed to achieve parallelism; it is a subcategory of MIMD. Tasks are split up and run simultaneously on multiple processors with different input in order to obtain results fast ...

) parallelism * Multiple program, multiple data (

MPMD Flynn's taxonomy is a classification of computer architectures, proposed by Michael J. Flynn in 1966 and extended in 1972. The classification system has stuck, and it has been used as a tool in design of modern processors and their functionalities. ...

) parallelism * Message passing using MPI *

Task parallelism Task parallelism (also known as function parallelism and control parallelism) is a form of parallelization of computer code across multiple processors in parallel computing environments. Task parallelism focuses on distributing tasks—concurrent ...

Data parallelism Data parallelism is parallelization across multiple processors in parallel computing environments. It focuses on distributing the data across different nodes, which operate on the data in parallel. It can be applied on regular data structures like ...

* Combinations of these approaches * Custom user defined approaches With the release of IPython 4.0, the parallel computing capabilities were made optional and released under th
ipyparallel
python package. And most of the capabilities of ipyparallel are now covered by more mature libraries like

Dask The DASK was the first computer in Denmark. It was commissioned in 1955, designed and constructed by Regnecentralen, and began operation in September 1957. DASK is an acronym for Dansk Aritmetisk Sekvens Kalkulator or ''Danish Arithmetic Sequence ...

. IPython frequently draws from SciPy stack libraries like NumPy and

SciPy SciPy (pronounced "sigh pie") is a free and open-source Python library used for scientific computing and technical computing. SciPy contains modules for optimization, linear algebra, integration, interpolation, special functions, FFT, ...

, often installed alongside one of many Scientific Python distributions. IPython provides integration with some libraries of the

stack, notably matplotlib, producing inline graphs when used with the Jupyter notebook. Python libraries can implement IPython specific hooks to customize rich object display. SymPy for example implements rendering of mathematical expressions as rendered

LaTeX Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...

when used within IPython context, and

Pandas Pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS) is a controversial hypothetical diagnosis for a subset of children with rapid onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or tic disorders. Sy ...

dataframe use an HTML representation.

Other features

IPython allows non-blocking interaction with

Tkinter Tkinter is a Python binding to the Tk GUI toolkit. It is the standard Python interface to the Tk GUI toolkit, and is Python's ''de facto'' standard GUI. Tkinter is included with standard Linux, Microsoft Windows and macOS installs of Python. T ...

PyGTK PyGTK is a set of Python wrappers for the GTK graphical user interface library. PyGTK is free software and licensed under the LGPL. It is analogous to PyQt/ PySide and wxPython, the Python wrappers for Qt and wxWidgets, respectively. Its ...

PyQt PyQt is a Python binding of the cross-platform GUI toolkit Qt, implemented as a Python plug-in. PyQt is free software developed by the British firm Riverbank Computing. It is available under similar terms to Qt versions older than 4.5; this m ...

PySide PySide is a Python binding of the cross-platform GUI toolkit Qt developed by The Qt Company, as part of the Qt for Python project. It is one of the alternatives to the standard library package Tkinter. Like Qt, PySide is free software. PySide ...

and

wxPython wxPython is a wrapper for the cross-platform GUI API (often referred to as a "toolkit") wxWidgets (which is written in C++) for the Python programming language. It is one of the alternatives to Tkinter. It is implemented as a Python extensio ...

(the standard Python shell only allows interaction with Tkinter). IPython can interactively manage parallel computing clusters using asynchronous status callbacks and/or MPI. IPython can also be used as a system shell replacement. Its default behavior is largely similar to

Unix shell A Unix shell is a command-line Interpreter (computing), interpreter or shell (computing), shell that provides a command line user interface for Unix-like operating systems. The shell is both an interactive command language and a scripting langua ...

s, but it allows customization and the flexibility of executing code in a live Python environment.

End of Python 2 support

IPython 5.x (Long Time Support) series is the last version of IPython to support Python 2. The IPython project pledged to not support Python 2 beyond 2020 by being one of the first projects to join th
Python 3 Statement
the 6.x series is only compatible with Python 3 and above. It is still possible though to run an IPython kernel and a Jupyter Notebook server on different Python versions allowing users to still access Python 2 on newer version of Jupyter.

Project Jupyter

In 2014, Fernando Pérez announced a spin-off project from IPython called

Project Jupyter Project Jupyter () is a project with goals to develop open-source software, open standards, and services for interactive computing across multiple programming languages. It was spun off from IPython in 2014 by Fernando Pérez and Brian Granger ...

. IPython continued to exist as a Python shell and kernel for Jupyter, but the

notebook A notebook (also known as a notepad, writing pad, drawing pad, or legal pad) is a book or stack of paper pages that are often ruled and used for purposes such as note-taking, journaling or other writing, drawing, or scrapbooking. History ...

interface and other language-agnostic parts of IPython were moved under the Jupyter name. Jupyter is language agnostic and its name is a reference to core programming languages supported by Jupyter, which are

Julia Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g ...

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, and R. Jupyter

Notebook A notebook (also known as a notepad, writing pad, drawing pad, or legal pad) is a book or stack of paper pages that are often ruled and used for purposes such as note-taking, journaling or other writing, drawing, or scrapbooking. History ...

(formerly IPython Notebook) is a web-based interactive computational environment for creating, executing, and visualizing Jupyter notebooks. It is similar to the notebook interface of other programs such as

Maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

, Mathematica, and

SageMath SageMath (previously Sage or SAGE, "System for Algebra and Geometry Experimentation") is a computer algebra system (CAS) with features covering many aspects of mathematics, including algebra, combinatorics, graph theory, numerical analysis, numbe ...

, a computational interface style that originated with Mathematica in the 1980s. It supports execution environments (aka kernels) in dozens of languages. By default Jupyter Notebook ships with the IPython kernel, but there are over 100 Jupyter kernels as of May 2018.

In the media

IPython has been mentioned in the popular computing press and other popular media, and it has a presence at scientific conferences. For scientific and engineering work, it is often presented as a companion tool to matplotlib.

Grants and awards

Beginning 1 January 2013, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced that it would support IPython development for two years. On 23 March 2013, Fernando Perez was awarded the Free Software Foundation Advancement of Free Software award for IPython. In August 2013,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

made a donation of $100,000 to sponsor IPython's continued development. In January 2014, it won the Jolt Productivity Award from

Dr. Dobb's ''Dr. Dobb's Journal'' (''DDJ'') was a monthly magazine published in the United States by UBM Technology Group, part of UBM. It covered topics aimed at computer programmers. When launched in 1976, DDJ was the first regular periodical focused on m ...

in the category of coding tools. In July 2015, the project won a funding of $6 million from Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. In May 2018, it was awarded the 2017 ACM Software System Award. It is the largest team to have won the award.

References

External links

* {{Official website
Inline graphs

Project Jupyter
Command shells Free mathematics software Free software programmed in Python Notebook interface Python (programming language) development tools Software using the BSD license