Bash has awesome command and file completion. I like that. Ruby people are just spoiled with irb.

Python can do that too.

Completion is handled by the rlcompleter module, aided by the readline library, and it is all set up with two lines of code.

Example:

>>> import rlcompleter, readline
>>> readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")
>>> readline. <TAB PRESSED>
readline.__doc__          readline.get_line_buffer(  readline.read_init_file(
readline.__file__         readline.insert_text(      readline.set_completer(
readline.__name__         readline.parse_and_bind(
>>> readline.

Useful, but you want to have that set up automatically (if you can remember or can be bothered to type those liens every time you start python, you have my deepest respects, yet I’m also slightly suspicious of your sanity). You have two options:

1. The PYTHONSTARTUP environment variable, which if pointing to the name of a readable file the Python commands in that file are executed before the first prompt is displayed in interactive mode.
2. Running python -i [script], which will cause the interpreter to remain in interactive mode after evaluating the script specified on the command line. You can use it in combination with an alias command.

Start by saving those two lines to a file. I’ll call mine ~/.python_init.py:

import rlcompleter, readline
readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")

The PYTHONSTARTUP route sets this environment variable in your personal initialization file, .bashrc for the bashful of us (why you want bashrc instead of bash_profile):

export PYTHONSTARTUP=~/.python_init.py

The alias route defines an alias in your personal initialization file for python -i ~/.python_init.py:

alias ipy='python -i ~/.python_init.py'

Now you can start your python interpreter using 50% fewer characters!:

$ ipy
>>> import re
>>> re.<TAB>
re.DEBUG              re.__doc__            re._compile_repl(
re.DOTALL             re.__file__           re._expand(
re.I                  re.__format__(        re._pattern_type(
re.IGNORECASE         re.__getattribute__(  re._pickle(
re.L                  re.__hash__(          re._subx(
re.LOCALE             re.__init__(          re.compile(
...

Either works the same, but I would think that PYTHONSTARTUP, being a set and forget option, would serve you better.

Want to know more? Read the rlcompleter documentation. The readline docs are interesting, too.