Is there any way to get a better terminal in emacs?

Question

I'm using emacs for python, and I'd like to have a nice useable shell in emacs to run an interpreter alongside my editing.

Is there any better emacs shell package out there? The default shell is awful.

Answer 1

You say "terminal" in the title and "shell" in the question, yet you refer to an interpreter. It's all rather confusing.

If you want a better Python interpreter than the standard (although I'd suggest you explore the features of python-mode first); check out ipython.el which will give you an IPython interface.

If you want a better terminal, try M-x ansi-term, which will give you colors, etc.

If you want a better shell, are you using eshell? You can use your standard shell with M-x shell or M-x ansi-term as above.

Answer 2

That depends on what shell you are using, in GNU Emacs 23 there are at least 3 built in:

• shell - ugly, not working tab
• eshell - not ugly but tab not working
• term - not ugly and seems like ipython works with all goodies in it

So you might want to try the term mode.