14.1. Complétion automatique et édition de l'historique¶

Completion of variable and module names is automatically enabled at interpreter startup so that the Tab key invokes the completion function; it looks at Python statement names, the current local variables, and the available module names. For dotted expressions such as string.a, it will evaluate the expression up to the final '.' and then suggest completions from the attributes of the resulting object. Note that this may execute application-defined code if an object with a __getattr__() method is part of the expression. The default configuration also saves your history into a file named .python_history in your user directory. The history will be available again during the next interactive interpreter session.

14.2. Alternatives à l'interpréteur interactif¶

This facility is an enormous step forward compared to earlier versions of the interpreter; however, some wishes are left: It would be nice if the proper indentation were suggested on continuation lines (the parser knows if an INDENT token is required next). The completion mechanism might use the interpreter's symbol table. A command to check (or even suggest) matching parentheses, quotes, etc., would also be useful.

Une alternative améliorée de l'interpréteur interactif est développée depuis maintenant quelques temps : IPython. Il fournit la complétion, l'exploration d'objets et une gestion avancée de l'historique. Il peut également être personnalisé en profondeur et embarqué dans d'autres applications. Un autre environnement interactif amélioré similaire est bpython.