Is there a good Python GUI shell?

Question

I saw this the other day (scroll all the way down to see some of the clever stuff):

http://www.mono-project.com/docs/tools+libraries/tools/repl/

Answer 1

DreamPie is my personal favorite. It doesn't appear to be any more restrictive than CSharpRepl. For example, the graph drawing example can be done if matplotlib is installed. There is an example screenshot to this effect on DreamPie's web site (http://dreampie.sourceforge.net/).

Bpython is similar, and I like it better. But it is only available on Linux as binary.

Answer 2

Have you looked at ipython? It's not quite as "gui". No smileys, sorry. ;-) It is a pretty good interactive shell for python though.

edit: I see you revised your question to emphasize the importance GUI. In that case, IPython wouldn't be a good match.

Might as well save you another blind alley: I went looking at DrPython hoping it would be similar to PLT's DrScheme, which looks comparable to example you've linked too. Unfortunately DrPython isn't all that much like DrScheme.

Answer 3

As far as I know there is nothing out there that offers the sort of whiz-bang features that the Mono guys have implemented in their new shell, but that is not to say that the "basic" python interactive shell isn't a feature-complete and powerful application. I could see something like the C# shell being developed at some point, but I think as of today those features you're pointing to are reasonably unique. One might argue that this is because nobody thought of them or, alternatively, because nobody has really had a need for them. I tend to subscribe to the latter, although I suppose both are plausible.

Answer 4

You're looking for Reinteract, which is a Python-based shell that at least partially inspired the C# shell you found. It's definitely still in-development, but already very useful.

Answer 5

I think that a combination of Pycrust with matplotlib can do exactly what you need. Pycrust is part of the wxPython installation, and matplotlib should be insalled separately. Both are simple to install in about 5 minutes.

Read this about integrating matplotlib with Pycrust to produce dynamic plots like the ones in the link you posted.

Answer 6

Light Table is working on this. The IDE is simultaneously a REPL -- it has in-line plotting with iPython.