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This is an easy to install Mac application to run IPython Notebook. It includes many of the popular scientific Python modules that are commonly used together with IPython.
I wanted something to experiment with short snippets of Python code, something that lets me experiment and iterate quickly, and IPython Notebook is perfect for that. Unfortunately, installing it and all of its dependencies is not straightforward on the Mac, and that's where this application comes in.
Get the current version here (large download, about 100MB):
This application requires OS X 10.9 (“Mavericks”).
- At your first launch, right after picking a documents folder, open and play with the example document.
- To get back to the notebook list, click the IPython logo, or hit ⌘-W. A second ⌘-W quits the app.
- The application is sandboxed. If your Python code needs access to the file system, you can add files and folders in the Preferences. Some Python API calls might not work because of sandboxing restrictions.
- If you want to add Python modules that are not included in the app or the OS, you can do that by adding directories to the PYTHONPATH in the Preferences.
- You can import
.ipynbfiles that you get from the web or via email. If you double-click them, the application will offer to import them.
The full list of bundled modules is in the About box. Some of them are:
The included "Welcome to IPython Notebook" document shows off some of the capabilities.
This public notebook gallery gives you a good idea of the various things, people do with it:
Here's a repository of interesting IPython notebooks for even more inspiration:
https://github.com/ipython/ipython/wiki/A-gallery-of-interesting-IPython-Notebooks
I often use it to try out a Python and/or Cocoa API:
import Foundation
url = Foundation.NSURL.URLWithString_('http://ipython.org/news.html')
print url.path()
→ /news.html
Testing it interactively like this lets you iterate a lot faster than repeatedly compiling code.
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