I would be wonderful if we could re-use the notebook interface for other language - Octave, Julia, R, Ruby.
(Would also be nice if building ipython on OS X was easier!)
(Would also be nice if building ipython on OS X was easier!)
for ruby cf https://github.com/ipython/ipython/pull/2643
What issue do you face? Genuinely curious, because I use Mountain Lion, and installing IPython for me simply involves doing
pip install ipython
brew install python # or just download and install from source
pip install numpy
pip install matplotlib
pip install ipython[zmq,qtconsole,notebook,test]
But the latter failed to build on my machine... (Given that Apple's gcc version is ancient and clang is the default compiler on OS X -- it's a wonder the other tools were built correctly)
The related features in Org-mode are known as Org-babel, uniting disparate languages under the single umbrella of Org-mode. The support for language evaluation in Org-mode is slightly more cumbersome than that offered in IPython, but also arguably more flexible and powerful. Plus you get to edit your notebook in a powerful editor with best outliner ever, plus all of Org-mode's many other features (I'm a Vim person but I give credit where credit is due).
Org-babel is a rich and deep niche of Org-mode, and one of the areas under the most constant development. You can read some docs on it here, but it can be hard to wrap your head around all of it until you actually use it:
http://orgmode.org/manual/Working-With-Source-Code.html#Work...