History

Origins

IPython was starting in 2001 by Fernando Perez while he was a graduate student at the University of Colorado, Boulder. IPython as we know it today grew out of the following three projects:

• ipython by Fernando Pérez. Fernando began using Python and ipython began as an outgrowth of his desire for things like Mathematica-style prompts, access to previous output (again like Mathematica’s % syntax) and a flexible configuration system (something better than PYTHONSTARTUP).
• IPP by Janko Hauser. Very well organized, great usability. Had an old help system. IPP was used as the “container” code into which Fernando added the functionality from ipython and LazyPython.
• LazyPython by Nathan Gray. Simple but very powerful. The quick syntax (auto parens, auto quotes) and verbose/colored tracebacks were all taken from here.

Here is how Fernando describes the early history of IPython:

When I found out about IPP and LazyPython I tried to join all three into a unified system. I thought this could provide a very nice working environment, both for regular programming and scientific computing: shell-like features, IDL/Matlab numerics, Mathematica-type prompt history and great object introspection and help facilities. I think it worked reasonably well, though it was a lot more work than I had initially planned.