Thanks for input Todd After erasing my current config, after opening spyder for the first > time, I think some work could be done optimizing the initial > experience. This includes the initial selection of panels, the > initial layout of panels, and making sure the panels don't expose too > much or too little to users. >
This is indeed a great idea to take into account. On my side I believe the spyder interface is getting cluttered with too many toolbars (unneeded if you asked me..) and we should strive to make it a simple as possible. I have been working on a PR in order to make custom layouts <https://bitbucket.org/spyder-ide/spyderlib/pull-request/65/custom-layouts>. With this in mind I think is a great idea to make an initial first run screen so people get to choose their most suitable layout plus minus some other things. Right now the PR includes an R-Like, matlab-like, vertical and horizontal split layouts as well as the default spyder. Also, inspired by the notebook I started to working in some sort of interactive tours <https://bitbucket.org/spyder-ide/spyderlib/pull-request/70/introduction-and-features-tour> What else do you think it would be a good idea to have as a startup setup/main configuration screen? So in this regard, I have some suggestions: > 1. Import the more standard python scientific packages by default (as > long as they are installed). At the very least this would include > numpy, scipy, matplotlib, and pandas, but could also include things > like sympy, scikit-learn, and/or statsmodels. > I think that instead of doing this by default would not be such a great idea, besides the basic Scientific stack...(numpy, scipy, matplotlib, ipython, and now maybe pandas) everyone has a different setup in mind. > 2. Import them into their own namespaces using the format normally > found in documentation ("import numpy as np", "import scipy as sp", > "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt", "import pandas as pd", etc.). Only > import numpy's "r_" into the global namespace (so "from numpy import > r_"). > > Again, it is something that should be customizable instead of imposed. > 3. Make it easy to change what is imported. At the very least, have > an "imports" interface where you can check or uncheck any of these. > Better yet, scan for installed packages and let users check or uncheck > any package (and perhaps even set an alias for them, although this > might be too complicated for such an interface). > Actually this is not a bad idea, and could be interesting to think on how to make this work intuitively, This could either be a general setup, or tied to projects/sessions... or both... we can use a general setup unless a project/session defines it otherwise. > > 4. Ideally, use ipython sessions for this behind the scenes, and let > users choose the session when opening a new ipython tab. > > With your comments on the "projects" I completely agree. Projects are clunky and there seems to be a lot of duplicate things in the file explorer and the project explorer. At the time it was done like it is right now for performance issues (or something like that) although there is not an active PR on this, I have been working on some ideas of projects as well as including a simple generic VC for git and hg. This still very early work, but we are going in that direction. Also now that you mention sessions, part of the work in spyder with projects is to associate a project to an ipython session so that they work together. > > There was some talk on other threads on maybe making a proper website > and > > improving it, including social media (twitter), improve documentation > and > > tutorials (via youtube/ vimeo) etc... > > In terms of the website, here is an example of one I thought was > attractive while still being useful: > > http://www.expyriment.org/ > > Thanks for the suggestion :)! > > Yes, it seems that the scientific python ecosystem is standarizing on > the ipython notebook. So being able to use the ipython notebook in > spyder (qtwebkit, maybe?) seems to be getting more and more important > for spyder's success. The ipython notebook has some limitations that > spyder could address (lack of a variable explorer, lack of any real > debuggin system, etc). > > There is already a working prototype of notebooks working inside spyder, please check it out and helps us with testing :) here <https://bitbucket.org/spyder-ide/spyderlib/pull-request/77/ipython-notebook-plugin> > Using web-based interfaces seems to be becoming more popular in > science. Supporting this sort of workflow (perhaps by being able to > embed a QtWebkit interface?) would probably be worthwhile. However, a > lot of the web-based interfaces seems to support interaction through > the ipython notebook, so perhaps using the ipython notebook as a > console would be sufficient for these purposes. > I was not thinking in these exact lines, what I meant is that since I am working more and more with web related stuff, maybe spyder should make webdev also a nice experience. Of course this would partly deviate from being A scientific ide etc... but hey science is way more nowadays than just numpy and scipy (like the old days....) There is a bigger plan on moving spyder to Github, in order to take advantage of the momentum that many python packages have received, and also since most of Python for science is being develop over there. Hopefully we can get more people involved. *It would be great to hear from other people using spyder, besides what Todd pointed out and taking into account the work in progress, what else do you feel is hindering your work when using spyder? What other ideas suggestions do you have? * *Cheers* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "spyder" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/spyderlib. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
