.r and %run and Debugging

From IDL, it's easy to run a program at main level and stay after the execution with all the variables as they are defined by the program.
In (i)python, if you interactively import myprog it will execute it, but let you without any access to what has been set within the program.
There is a way to do the equivalent of .r in IDL, but you needs to run ipython.

ipython:
%run myprog
..... executing the myprog.py and give you the prompt back so you can explore the variables and objects to see if they are as they are supposed to be...

The %run (the % is needed, it's not a prompt) function is recompiling the code each time it is used, so changes are taken into account (it's not the case with import).

Nice tip for developpers...

BTW, there is also a debugger mode : from ipython, just type %pdb and then import or %run what you want. If something wrong happens, you will be let where it happened, with access to all the variables... like in IDL ;-) You have this activated by default using ipython -pdb.

More and more important informations  on ipython here (I think I must read these pages every week for the next 3 months!):
http://ipython.org/documentation.html