The IPython integration only makes sense in an actual IPython shell, which implies that IPython has already been imported previously (i.e., is in sys.modules).
Previously, IPython would always be imported as long as it is installed, but that can be quite slow (adding ~0.4s of overhead for me) which is significant in short-running scripts (that may e.g. be repeatedly spawned from bash).
The IPython integration only makes sense in an actual IPython shell, which implies that IPython has already been imported previously (i.e., is in sys.modules).
Previously, IPython would always be imported as long as it is installed, but that can be quite slow (adding ~0.4s of overhead for me) which is significant in short-running scripts (that may e.g. be repeatedly spawned from bash).