IPython and Jupyter Notebook

So far we have executed Python from the command line or Terminal. This is the default Read-Eval-Print-Loop (REPL)— that comes with Python. This can be used to run all the examples in this book, but the book will use IPython for statements in the text and the code package Jupyter Notebook. Let's take a brief look at both.

IPython

IPython is an alternate shell for interactively working with Python. It provides several enhancements to the default REPL provided by Python.

Note

If you want to learn about IPython in more detail, check out the documentation at— https://ipython.org/ipython-doc/3/interactive/tutorial.html

To start IPython, simply execute the ipython command from the command line/Terminal. When started you will see something like the following:

Note

The input prompt shows In [1]:. Each time you enter a statement in the IPython REPL, the number in the prompt will increase.

Likewise, output from any particular entry you make will be prefaced with Out [x]:, where...