John Anderson has documented some nice Python interpreter tricks on his blog. Including a .pythonrc.py file hack for Djangonauts:
For Django developers when you load up the ./manage.py shell it is nice to have access to all your models and settings for testing:
# If we're working with a Django project, set up the environment if 'DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE' in os.environ: from django.db.models.loading import get_models from django.test.client import Client from django.test.utils import setup_test_environment, teardown_test_environment from django.conf import settings as S class DjangoModels(object): """Loop through all the models in INSTALLED_APPS and import them.""" def __init__(self): for m in get_models(): setattr(self, m.__name__, m) A = DjangoModels() C = Client()
See his post for more interesting Python tips. Me, I’m enabling autocomplete and automatic pretty-printing right now.
Seek Nuance 
Nice tip, but your snow effect had me momentarily scared that my vision was degrading, as parts of letters kept disappearing!
What about just installing django_extensions and just use
./manage.py shell_plus? It does the same and even more, minus hacking and a lot of code lines.For this I use django-extensions.
You can do:
./manage.py shell_plus (--print-sql)Good hint, though, thanks.
@ksmauel @Miguel: I haven’t tried django_extensions before, out of inertia I guess. It looks very juicy. Thanks for the tip!
I use django_extensions with shell_plus for some projects but this is a universal way to get the same functionality, no longer needing to include a separate app into your project (or when working on open source projects that don’t have it already included).