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55 lines
2.4 KiB
ReStructuredText
55 lines
2.4 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _tut-interacting:
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**************************************************
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Interactive Input Editing and History Substitution
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**************************************************
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Some versions of the Python interpreter support editing of the current input
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line and history substitution, similar to facilities found in the Korn shell and
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the GNU Bash shell. This is implemented using the `GNU Readline`_ library,
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which supports various styles of editing. This library has its own
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documentation which we won't duplicate here.
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.. _tut-keybindings:
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Tab Completion and History Editing
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==================================
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Completion of variable and module names is
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:ref:`automatically enabled <rlcompleter-config>` at interpreter startup so
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that the :kbd:`Tab` key invokes the completion function; it looks at
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Python statement names, the current local variables, and the available
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module names. For dotted expressions such as ``string.a``, it will evaluate
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the expression up to the final ``'.'`` and then suggest completions from
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the attributes of the resulting object. Note that this may execute
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application-defined code if an object with a :meth:`__getattr__` method
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is part of the expression. The default configuration also saves your
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history into a file named :file:`.python_history` in your user directory.
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The history will be available again during the next interactive interpreter
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session.
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.. _tut-commentary:
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Alternatives to the Interactive Interpreter
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===========================================
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This facility is an enormous step forward compared to earlier versions of the
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interpreter; however, some wishes are left: It would be nice if the proper
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indentation were suggested on continuation lines (the parser knows if an indent
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token is required next). The completion mechanism might use the interpreter's
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symbol table. A command to check (or even suggest) matching parentheses,
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quotes, etc., would also be useful.
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One alternative enhanced interactive interpreter that has been around for quite
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some time is IPython_, which features tab completion, object exploration and
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advanced history management. It can also be thoroughly customized and embedded
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into other applications. Another similar enhanced interactive environment is
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bpython_.
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.. _GNU Readline: http://tiswww.case.edu/php/chet/readline/rltop.html
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.. _IPython: http://ipython.scipy.org/
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.. _bpython: http://www.bpython-interpreter.org/
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