Yesterday I used SciTe, the Scintilla text editor, to study some IPython code.
The contrast between Leo and SciTe is instructive. Sure, SciTe lacks many (all?) of Leo's fundamental features, but it has some important advantages too, namely: 1. I can "just open" the file without importing it or creating @auto nodes. 2. It feels faster and zippier. In some vague way, studying IPython with SciTe is/was a "dummy whammy": both SciTe and IPython are different enough from "the Leo way" as to issue a challenge and provoke a response and new ideas. As I think about point 1, several options come to mind: - using the read_only_nodes plugin (perhaps with some improvements). - using @edit. About IPython =========== I greatly admire how IPython uses a wide range of tools, including Python itself, Qt, pygments, readline, MatPlotLib and recently zmq/ zeromq. There is sophisticated adapter code in IPython that integrates these tools, but it does seem the the Fernando et. al. have gone out of their way to use the best tools possible. I'm going to be studying pygments and zmq soon. Will it be possible to replace Leo's colorizer with pygments? The essential question involves performance. You may remember the effort that went into improving Leo's colorizer's speed. I'm thinking that if pygments works for large pieces of text, it may have some very important lessons to teach me about speed. zmq is a framework for parallel processing. This could be useful in integrating Leo with other programs. Finally(?), the IPython notebook creates a *high quality* (good looking) web interface for IPython. I want to know, in detail, how that was done. I've studied the Firebug code, and it's a maze of javascript hacks. I suspect the IPython way uses a higher-level web tool. Finally (again), I have the nagging suspicion that something important is brewing. Leo seems too "heavy" in comparison with IPython or SciTe. In the game of go, "heavy" is a pejorative term (GvR used the term fancy-smancy in the same way to describe Leo). Furthermore, I have the suspicion (nothing more than that) that somehow IPython and Leo can help each other in new ways. There are this morning's thoughts. Your comments please, Amigos. Edward -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor?hl=en.
