Skip to content
0:00 / 0:00

#xonsh#shell#ast

Anthony Scopatz - xonsh - PyCon 2016

PyCon 2016

15K subscribers • 8 videos on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 2 people: 2 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2018 to 2025.
  • Presented by Anthony Scopatz, creator of xonsh
  • Linked in the descriptionPyCon/2016-slides

Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.

21K views10 years ago2 recommendations

Programming languagesSystems programmingPythonThe shell and command lineCompilers and interpreters

Anthony Scopatz introduces xonsh, a shell that is a strict superset of Python, combining command-line features with Python AST compilation.

Speaker: Anthony Scopatz Xonsh is general purpose shell that combines Python and the best features of Bash, zsh, and fish. Relying only the standard library and PLY, the xonsh language is a strict superset of Python that compiles to a Python AST. The shell provides exciting features such as a rich history, tab completion from bash and man pages, syntax highlighting, auto-suggestion, foreign-function aliases and more! Slides can be found at: speakerdeck.com/pycon2016 and github.com/PyCon/2016-slides

Why it's here

2 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as an excellent introduction to the design and capabilities of xonsh for anyone looking to replace bash with Python.

myceliumon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Why programmers are not paid in proportion to their productivity (2009)”

I'd highly recommend the xonsh shell for scripting if you're familiar with python: link Once you do tutorial and learn the rules for going between shell and python, it's super easy to slice and dice. I have always disliked that moment of "yes, a shell script is probably the best tool for this job" that then leads me to banging my head against bash syntax for an hour. Python libraries like `sh` are great, but still a little high overhead. Now the twice a month I have to shell script I find to be pretty fun, and I'd highly recommend xonsh. Great PyCon 2016 talk on it here: link to this video

ambivalenceon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Xonsh – A Python-powered shell”

Xonsh is a fantastic shell. I literally think they are most hindered by the name at this point, since it's one of those clever names that are pronounced in a peculiar way and one that doesn't convey too well that it's really Python + sh in a beautifully consistent design. It's very easy to switch if you're willing to spend 30 minutes to go through this talk about its design by the author: link to this video After this short intro you will know how Python and shell interact within xonsh and you'll avoid surprises. I wish it started faster, but it's a really small price to pay for having Python 3.13 open literally at all times.

JoshTripletton Hacker News • Mentions

On “Why we need the best tools on Chromebooks and Raspberry Pi”

> BTW, i recall Intel showing off a variant of the python interpreter being run directly from GRUB. That was me: link , presented at Pycon 2015: link and 2016 with networking: link > Also, i think there was someone working on a Python CLI that could replace bash etc. That was "xonsh" ( link , pronounced "conch"), by Anthony Scopatz, presented at PyCon 2016: link to this video