[IPython-user] [IPython-dev] A few notes on threading+GUI event loops in Ipython1

[Steven H. Rogers]

Brian Granger wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 6:22 AM, Steven H. Rogers <steve@shrogers.com> wrote:
>   
>> Fernando Perez wrote:
>>  > I should mention that in my view it is *critical* that we maintain
>>  > twisted as an optional dependency for a pure-terminal system that can
>>  > talk to the gui toolkits the way ip0 does today.  There are many, many
>>  > users of ipython who make good use of the GUI toolkit support for whom
>>  > adding a twisted dependency would be a hassle I don't want to get
>>  > into.
>>  >
>>  Speaking out of turn, since I'm not a maintainer, but while it is
>>  desirable to minimize dependencies, I don't understand why it would be
>>  critical.  If the Twisted solution turns out to be more robust and
>>  maintainable, adding the dependency would seem to be a good engineering
>>  trade-off.
>>     
>
> Just for the record, we are fully committed to having the core of
> IPython depend on nothing outside of the standard library.  This point
> is non-negotiable.  Here is why:
>
> 1) IPython needs to run on Jython and IronPython
>
> 2) IPython ships on the OLPC.   Space is a huge concern on this
> platform.  If we required Twisted (or other big things) we would risk
> begin removed from the OLPC distribution.
>
> Thus, while we can use Twisted for some things, we do need to keep it
> out of the core completely.
>
>
> Brian
>
>   
Thanks for the clarification.  I've take the liberty of adding it to the 
Wiki DeveloperZone page.

# Steve