ipython-mode with Emacs 22

7 November 2008 – Chicago

I started using Emacs recently for Lisp programming and I decided to try using it with Python as well so I don’t need to keep switching editors. Traditionally there was the python-mode project for Emacs up to 21. But Emacs 22 comes with its own shiny python mode. The problem is I am very used to using IPython and I wanted to get it to work in Emacs. The IPython distribution comes with ipython.el but this requires python-mode.el and therefore does not work with the python mode in Emacs22. After a bit of poking around here is how to setup IPython mode in Emacs22. Perhaps it might help another Emacs newbie like myself.

Get python-mode from http://downloads.sourceforge.net/python-mode/python-mode-1.0.tar.gz

Get ipython.el from http://ipython.scipy.org/dist/ipython.el</code< (or copy it from your local ipython installation)

Modify the load path in your ~/.emacs file to include the locations for the python-mode and ipython.el

I placed ipython.el and python-mode under /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/ and here is what my .emacs file looks like.

(add-to-list 'load-path "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/python-mode/")
(setq ipython-command "/usr/bin/ipython")
(require 'ipython)

Now you can start ipython with M-x py-shell

Update: try running “which ipython” to see the path to your ipython interpreter. Depending on how you installed IPython it might be /usr/local/bin/ipython