[IPython-user] Problem with ? and ?? in ipython combined with paging

[Fernando Perez]

On 1/5/07, Tom Denniston <tom.denniston at alum.dartmouth.org> wrote:
> Much of my code contains long descriptive docstring with many tests.
> There is a great feature that I love in ipython where if you have a
> func and you type "func?" it give a pretty colored docstring that is
> incredibly useful.  The nagging problem I face is that if the
> docstring is larger than 25 lines then it invokes the python pager and
> the pretty docstring becomes a garbled mess of "ESC[1;31", etc.
> Below is a docstring that works and one that does and the code that
> produced both.  I was wondering whether this is a bug in the python
> pager or ipython and if there is anything that can be done.

What pager and platform are you using? If your pager is 'less' under
*nix, you need to configure it with the -r flag so that it correctly
interprets color escapes, as described in the manual:

http://ipython.scipy.org/doc/manual/node3.html#SECTION00033200000000000000

I also added mention of it in the faq:

http://ipython.scipy.org/moin/FAQ

> I've been using IPython for over a year and a half and it is a
> phenomenal tool.  Thanks Fernando, et al. for developing something
> really awesome.

Thanks for the kind words, we're all glad it's useful.

Best,

f