Quickstart
==========

Starting the shell
------------------

The ``-pylab`` option starts IPython in a mode that imports a number
of functions from matplotlib and numpy, and allows interactive
plotting.

.. code-block:: bash

    $ ipython -pylab

In interactive mode, ``ivy`` provides some useful shortcut functions
(e.g., readtree, readaln, treefig, alnfig) that you will typically
want to import as follows.

.. sourcecode:: ipython

    In [1]: from ivy.interactive import *

Viewing a tree
--------------

Assuming you have started the shell,

.. sourcecode:: ipython

   In [2]: s = "examples/primates.newick"
   In [3]: fig = treefig(s)

Here, the variable *s* can be a newick string, the name (path) of a
file containing a newick tree, or an open file containing a newick
string.  Note that file paths are completed dynamically in ipython by
hitting the <TAB> key, making it easy to find files with little
typing.

A new window should appear, controlled by the variable *fig*.  View
the help for *fig*::

   fig?