IPython is an enhanced interactive Python interpreter, offering tab completion, object introspection, and much more. It's running on the right-hand side of this page, so you can try it out right now.

Here's a quick micro-tutorial to get you started with some of the fun stuff it provides:

• Type imp then tab to get import then type nu and tab to see which modules you can import that start with 'nu'.
• Import numpy and type numpy? to get the full documentation for the numpy module. q exits the documentation view.
• Try %time numpy.random.rand(1000, 1000).max()
  to see how long it takes to calculate the maximum of a million numbers.
• Type a = 15 and return. Note down the line number (it's in the square brackets in front of the line).
• Now type %save set_a.py line number to save that line to a file. To find out more about the save magic function, you can type %save?
• Change the value of a: a = 37
• Use %run set_a.py to get the old value of a back. Just typing a at the prompt will display its value.
• %edit set_a.py will open vi to edit the file. If you're a vi user, you can edit to your heart's content. Otherwise, just type :q to exit and return to IPython.

That's it for our quick tour. To find out more about IPython, visit the project's homepage, or read the full tutorial.

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