Most of the people reading this blog might know I am a contributor to bpython. bpython is an interactive python repl looking to stay as close to the vanilla python repl as possible.
For this project I contribute code, I created, maintain and host their website and write the documentation.
For the 0.9.6 release a lot of bpython has changed and a lot has been added. I am writing this post as a preview to the now upcoming release of bpython 0.9.6. Let’s go over some of the more notable changes one by one.
Completion
Previous versions of bpython have always showed the __magic__ and _convention functions in front of the ‘real’ methods and attributes. In the new release you will find that methods/attributes starting with a _ are filtered out unless you explicitly type a _. This has been a much requested feature and is gladly provided for now.
Andreas was kind enough to add backwards cycling through the completion list by adding a shift-tab shortcut.
Dedentation
When you are in an indented block bpython will now automatically dedent after a few empty lines (default is 2, but this is configurable) so you don’t need to explicitly hit backspace any more.
PEP-8
I have checked the source code with pep8.py and fixed all non-conformations so bpython should now be fully conform PEP-8.
Themes
There is now a (very minimal) section on user-themes on the bpython website. If you have any others, please email them to me or give us a general heads up through the mailing list/IRC.
GTK
Andreas has been working on a GTK version of bpython for a while now and we feel confident enough to release it together with 0.9.6 so people can start to use it. bpython will feature a bpython-gtk to run bpython in a nice GTK window.
And more
A lot of bugs have been fixed, some other minor features have been added. Most notably this will be a very big release. Over 50 commits, more time between the releases then previous releases and a huge set of features (GTK, man!).
What are we waiting for with the release? There are a few thing we need to sort out before the release (how do we package bpython and bpython-gtk separately if we need to at all, etc) but a release will follow soon.
Furthermore I have some statistics for you.
bpython was downloaded over 1100 times the last month. We get over 650 unique visitors a day and our screencast is being watched 2000 times a month.