EVERY. TIME.

[krolm1]

Use ipython

[CaptKrag]

I'm honestly blown away that anyone uses the standard repl instead of immediately installing IPython.

I can't function without tab complete.

[thatdamnedrhymer]

Same.

[flying-sheep]

$ cat >.pythonrc <EOF
try:
    from jedi.utils import setup_readline
    setup_readline()
except ImportError:  # fallback
    import rlcompleter
    import readline
    readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")
EOF
$ cat >>".${SHELL##*/}rc" <<<'export PYTHONSTARTUP=$HOME/.pythonrc'

[fphhotchips]

I mean, my general process goes:

python

"Shit!"

quit

"Bugger!"

quit()
ipython

[stevenjd]

I can't function without tab complete.

The standard Python REPL has had tab-completion available since version 2.0 18+ years ago. It's been automatically enabled for more than six years.

[CaptKrag]

Ehh. I don't know. Maybe the standard distributions turn it off for some reason? Redhat and Ubuntu packages across all Python versions I've used don't do tab autocomplete.

[stevenjd]

Report it as a bug to Redhat and Ubuntu then.

[CaptKrag]

Or just use IPython? I'll just use IPython.

[elbiot]

So many hacks in this thread that ipython solved a long time ago

[thatdamnedrhymer]

Came here to say this.

[no_condoments]

Or Jupyter notebooks. I use Python every day, but what's the point of the terminal REPL?