What combination of python-mode, ipython, (ipython.el) versions/releases and init.el/.emacs.d code work?

Question

My goal is to use Emacs 24 as my python editor ( also has a Matlab and R editor but that's not what my question is about ).

(Please let me know if I left out any information or if I did not state something clearly.)

I've been able to set up my packages and my init.el file in such a way that I'm able to get tab completion, correct highlighting and snippets for python. I'm using python-mode.el as my python mode. The problems all revolve around this: I want to use ipython as my python shell, in order to use its tab completion functions when debugging scripts.

• However, when I start ipython (using M-x ipython) I have no tab completion. Furthermore, it does not show "[1] in:", however it does show "[1] out:".
• I would like to make ipython my default shell in Emacs. However, attempts at this have failed (e.g. setting C:\PATH\TO\IPython.exe onto py-python-command).
• When I try to run my python script using C-c C-c it runs using the normal Python, and indeed stops at the position I tell the debugger to stop (I use ipdb.set_trace). however when I use another type of command that is supposed to start IPython (like setting the region to my entire script and running py-execute-region-ipython) IPython does not function. It does start an IPython shell, or at least it seems to, but I can just type in the shell like it was a text editor (fyi: in the mini buffer it shows "Comint:run shell-compile").

My question is: What combination of package versions and lisp code in my init.el file should allow me to use ipython with tab completion as my default shell in Emacs? I am willing to downgrade some of the packages if necessary.

Extra info:

From what I've read on the Project page of Python-mode.el I understand that there are still some bugs regarding IPython with the latest version of this package, so it's probably necessary to use an old version. I've been googling a lot to search for a solution, and I've not been able to find one that works for me.

I'm running

• python-mode 6.1.3,
• ipython 1.1.0
• I tried ipython.el from https://raw.github.com/ipython/ipython/d2d967af9de6081c8cdbab0eab1115164e5e72bd/docs/emacs/ipython.el, But from contact with the developer of python-mode.el this seems to be deprecated, and no integrated into python-mode.el.
• GNU Emacs 24.3.1 (i386-mingw-nt6.1.7601) of 2013-03-17 on MARVIN
• Windows 7 64bit.

My init.el looks like (python stuff is at the bottom):

;; Requisites: Emacs >= 24
(require 'package)
(package-initialize)

(add-to-list 'package-archives
             '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives
             '("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/") t)

(package-refresh-contents)

(defun install-if-needed (package)
  (unless (package-installed-p package)
    (package-install package)))

;; make more packages available with the package installer -->
;; removed python mode since the version I got had errors
(setq to-install
      '(
;python-mode 
magit yasnippet jedi auto-complete autopair find-file-in-repository flycheck))

(mapc 'install-if-needed to-install)


;;------------R STUFF-----------

(add-to-list 'load-path "C:\\emacs-24.3\\site-lisp\\ess-13.09-1")
(setq ess-use-auto-complete t)
(load "ess-site")

;;------------MatLab STUFF-----------
; add folder of matlab-mode.el
(add-to-list 'load-path "C:\\Users\\Rob Ter Horst\\AppData\\Roaming\\.emacs.d\\elpa\\matlab-mode-20130829.142")
(load-library "matlab-load")

(matlab-cedet-setup)


(setq matlab-show-mlint-warnings t)
(add-hook 'matlab-mode-hook 'auto-complete-mode)
(add-hook 'matlab-mode-hook 'mlint-minor-mode)
;;------------GENERAL STUFF-----------

; Ido mode: Ido-powered versions of code. Most ido commands are named ido-xxxxx
; so find-file becomes ido-find-file, and so on.
(setq ido-enable-flex-matching t)
(setq ido-everywhere t)
(ido-mode t)
(global-linum-mode t)
;Use y or n always instead of yes/no
(defalias 'yes-or-no-p 'y-or-n-p)

;; -------------------- extra nice things Andrea Crotti--------------------
;; use shift to move around windows
(windmove-default-keybindings 'shift)
(show-paren-mode t)
 ; Turn beep off
(setq visible-bell nil)
(custom-set-variables
 '(ansi-color-names-vector ["#242424" "#e5786d" "#95e454" "#cae682" "#8ac6f2" "#333366" "#ccaa8f" "#f6f3e8"])
 '(custom-enabled-themes (quote (wheatgrass))))
(custom-set-faces
 ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 )
(put 'downcase-region 'disabled nil)

;;------------PYTHON STUFF-----------
;(require 'magit)
;(global-set-key "\C-xg" 'magit-status)

(require 'auto-complete)
(require 'autopair)
(require 'yasnippet)
(require 'jedi)

;yasnipped settings
(setq yas-snippet-dirs
      '("C:\\Users\\Rob Ter Horst\\AppData\\Roaming\\.emacs.d\\elpa\\yasnippet-20140106.1009\\snippets"))
(add-to-list 'load-path "C:\\Users\\Rob Ter Horst\\AppData\\Roaming\\.emacs.d\\elpa\\yasnippet-20140106.1009")

(global-set-key [f7] 'find-file-in-repository)

; auto-complete mode extra settings
(setq
 ac-auto-start 2
 ac-override-local-map nil
 ac-use-menu-map t
 ac-candidate-limit 20)

;; ;; Python mode settings
(setq py-install-directory "C:\\Users\\Rob Ter Horst\\AppData\\Roaming\\.emacs.d\\self_installed\\python-mode.el-6.1.3")
(add-to-list 'load-path py-install-directory)
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.py$" . python-mode))
(when (featurep 'python) (unload-feature 'python t))
(require 'python-mode)

(setq py-electric-colon-active t)
(add-hook 'python-mode-hook 'autopair-mode)
(add-hook 'python-mode-hook 'yas-minor-mode)
(add-hook 'python-mode-hook 'auto-complete-mode)

;; ;; Jedi settings

;; It's also required to run "pip install --user jedi" and "pip
;; install --user epc" to get the Python side of the library work
;; correctly.
;; With the same interpreter you're using.

;; if you need to change your python intepreter, if you want to change it
;; (setq jedi:server-command
;;       '("python2" "/home/andrea/.emacs.d/elpa/jedi-0.1.2/jediepcserver.py"))

(add-hook 'python-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (jedi:setup)
            (jedi:ac-setup)
            (local-set-key "\C-cd" 'jedi:show-doc)
            (local-set-key (kbd "M-SPC") 'jedi:complete)
            (local-set-key (kbd "M-.") 'jedi:goto-definition)))

; ipython settings

(setq py-python-command "C:\\Python27\\Scripts\\ipython.exe")
(setq py-complete-function 'ipython-complete 
        py-shell-complete-function 'ipython-complete 
        py-shell-name "ipython" 
        py-which-bufname "IPython") 
;(require 'ipython)

;With tab autocompletion in ipdb I get an error that might be solved by changing this var
;the error: "variable binding depth exceeds max-specpdl-size"
(setq max-specpdl-size 32000)

; Try to add flycheck --> flycheck causes emacs to become incredibly slow on big script with
; many style errors (as present in a lot of my older scripts, so I do not want to activate it 
; by default
;(setq flycheck-highlighting-mode 'lines)
;(add-hook 'python-mode-hook 'global-flycheck-mode)
;(flycheck-select-checker 'python-flake8)
;(provide 'init-flycheck)

(yas-reload-all)

Answer 1

With Emacs24, I use the default python.el (not python-mode.el), which started on github.

1. when I start ipython with python-shell-switch-to-shell or C-c C-p (Python menu -> start interpreter), I get ipython. Tab completion works.

2. ipython is the default python interpreter (see my init file)

3. when I have started a ipython shell I can send a file or the selected region to it (commands available in the menu), and it gets evaluated correctly.

As a side note, you can start the jedi autocompletion with jedi:setup when you are in a python shell. It gives nice popups with parameters help and doc, and you can choose to fire it at the dot (instead of after 3 characters). See IPython auto-completion emacs24 doesn't work . It can be seen as a complement rather than a replacement to ipython.

Following my config:

;; trying ipython tab completion: that works :)
(setq
 python-shell-interpreter "ipython"
 python-shell-interpreter-args ""
 python-shell-prompt-regexp "In \\[[0-9]+\\]: "
 python-shell-prompt-output-regexp "Out\\[[0-9]+\\]: "
 python-shell-completion-setup-code "from IPython.core.completerlib import module_completion"
  python-shell-completion-module-string-code "';'.join(module_completion('''%s'''))\n"
  python-shell-completion-string-code "';'.join(get_ipython().Completer.all_completions('''%s'''))\n"
     )

taken from http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/PythonProgrammingInEmacs#toc5

Hope this helps.