2. Inspection in the Shell

2.1. Autocomp

Typing a dot [.] automatically invokes word-comp-mode, and [escape] exits the comp-mode.

Word-comp [M-.] displays a list of keys in the object that matches the entered word.

_images/2-1_autocomp-word.png

Apropos-comp [M-/] displays a list of keys in the object searched for the entered word.

_images/2-1_autocomp-apropos.png

cf. Apropos command outputs keys and values in the object searched for the entered word.

_images/2-1a_apropos.png

Text-history [M-,] displays a list of text that matches text previously displayed to the shell.

_images/2-1_autocomp-text.png

Module-comp [M-m] displays a list of modules that matches the entered word, which is invoked when typing import or from-import.

_images/2-1_autocomp-import.png

There are five comp-modes as follows. All completions [1–5] are incremental when pressed any alnums, and decremental when backspace.

Autocomp key bindings:

C-up        : [0] retrieve previous history
C-down      : [0] retrieve next history
TAB         : [1] history-comp-mode
M-p         : [1] retrieve previous history in comp-mode
M-n         : [1] retrieve next history in comp-mode
M-.         : [2] word-comp-mode
M-/         : [3] apropos-comp-mode
M-,         : [4] text-comp-mode
M-m         : [5] module-comp-mode

2.2. Apropos

Apropos command outputs keys and values in the object x using dir(x) searched for the entered hint word y with &optional p:predicates.

>>> x.y? [not] p
# equiv.
>>> apropos(x, y [,ignorecase=?:True,??:False] [,pred=p])

  • x: root object,

  • y: hint that can contain regular expressions,

    • y can contain regex, but not a dot.

    • y can contain abbreviations: \a:=[a-z], \A:=[A-Z].

  • p: predicates that can be either the following predicate or a combination of those using not, and, or.

    • p can be atom, callable, type (e.g., int, str, ...), and inspect functions such as isclass, ismodule, ismethod, isbuiltin, isfunction, isgenerator, isframe, iscode, istraceback, etc.

_images/2-1b_apropos_pred.png

2.3. Tooltip

Tooltips are used to display object values and function argspecs.

  • [C-j] shows a tooltip of evaluated results for the selected word or line.

  • [C-h] shows a tooltip of argspec for the selected word.

_images/0-1b_tooltip-eval.png _images/0-1b_tooltip-help.png

If the tooltip text is too long to display, it will be snipped. When you click the tooltip, the entire text is displayed in the Help window.

_images/2-3_help.png

One of following typing shows full description about x.

>>> x @help
# or
>>> x @??
# or
>>> ?? x

One of following typing shows short information about x.

>>> x @info
# or
>>> x @?
# or
>>> ? x