wx_py 0.9.8.12

Py Suite including PyCrust and a revamped version, PySlices

Py Suite (PySlices, PyCrust, etc.)

The Py Suite in wxPython, originally written by Patrick O’Brien, was and is an extremely popular programming shell for the Python programming language.

Old website: http://www.wxpython.org/py.php

It has been used by multiple projects (Stani’s Python Editor, many Enthought tools, etc…) and supports calltips, history storage, code completion, and many other features in a solid, GUI based python shell.

I decided in 2008 after using Pycrust to program Python for a couple of years that I wanted to modify the shell to suit my needs. I had been used to working with Mathematica, so I adore a notebook-style interface where you can write multiple lines of code that can be run and rerun in chunks. After using the following “if 1:” construct in PyCrust for over a year:

if 1:
    <Many lines indented code...>

I finally decided to modify the shell myself to support real code blocks, and PySlices was born into the Py family… It supports input and output “slices” (grouped lines of code / output text), re-running of old commands IN PLACE, multiple commands per “slice”, and even saving and loading the .pyslices format (which can be renamed .py and used directly as python code)!

Also notable is that these patches add some often-coveted functionality to BOTH PyCrust and PySlices – support for ipython-style magic features!

Typing a space for functions:

“f 1” will auto-convert to “f(1)”

Support for unix-style directory commands:

“cd”, “ls”, and “pwd” all work as expected

Support for quick shell commands with the ! mark:

“!echo test” will print “test” in the shell

There is a lot more to say, but I’ve said enough… try it out, and read the tutorials!

If you want to install, you will need python as well as wxPython 2.8 or later.

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Also, if you notice, there is also an experimental shell called SymPySlices.

SymPySlices REQUIRES sympy, and is still somewhat experimental. It also uses the ast module and REQUIRES Python 2.6 or later.

That said, it is really cool!

It is basically a hack to allow the use of unicode characters AS python code

It also has a setting to allow automatic symbol creation from unknown variables.

so, I could write:

∫(x²,x)

and the result would be x**3/3 !

The entry method is to press the escape character and type a shortcuts phrase, ie:

<ESC>theta<ESC>

yeilds θ !

A large number of latex names are already supported, but every unicode character is supported somehow (see symbolConversionTable.py for a complete listing of names).

Files are actually saved in a plain text (ascii) format to avoid conversion issues.

SymPySlices also has some (slightly flaky) support for infix operators…

So, I could define a dot product operator to allow me to do the following:

[1,2,3,4]⋅[4,3,2,1]

yeilds 20.

Note that intergal and dot product are actually pre-defined using SymPySlicesDefaults.py, now included in wxpysuite. These behaviors can be easily overridden using:

∫ = newFunction

and:

__DotOperator__ = newFunction

There are a lot more symbols defined, so dig in and check them out!

My basic hope for this aspect of the project is to spread some ideas about how to use unicode and python together with sympy to try to create computer algebra system that is a little bit simpler than SAGE.

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Installing and Running

You can either install from here or from PyPI (package name is wx_py).

To install this version, unpack the tar.gz.

At the command line, go to the new directory and type:

python setup.py install

on linux and mac, you may need to type:

sudo python setup.py install

Run PyCrust with this command:

python -m wx_py.PyCrust

Run PySlices with this command:

python -m wx_py.PySlices

Run SymPySlices with this command:

python -m wx_py.SymPySlices

To see a sample configuration file for SymPySlices, you may want to look at SymPySlicesDefaults.py (in the Downloads section). If you copy these contents into the startup script (Options Menu -> Startup -> Edit Startup Script) then SymPySlices’ operators will behave the way I’ve described above. I’m still working out what the true default behavior should be and I want people to be able to customize this, so I have left this out of the installed version intentionally.

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Screenshots

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Other Projects

Just wanted to note that there are other cool projects out there, too.

IPython, SAGE, Symbide, and Reinteract are some of the best! SAGE is an especially promising project!

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BTW, I have created the module with the name wx_py so it will be trivial to convert code to wx.py if and when you update to a version included with wxPython itself (not that you should even use Py Suite code in your programming…)

Also, a legality: I listed this a LGPL, but it is really under the wxWidgets licence (essentially LGPL)

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