PyCon 2016
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2016–2025
30:38 · 22K views · May 31, 2016
Anthony Scopatz presents xonsh at PyCon 2016, a shell that is a superset of Python combining the best features of bash, zsh and fish. It covers rich history, tab completion, and how the language compiles to a Python AST.
Recommended as the author's own explanation of xonsh's design and how Python and shell interplay.
3 comments from Hacker News
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: 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.
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: this video
> 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: this video