Show HN: Observable Notebooks

rrherr wrote: post #4

Their new screencast is awesome too! "Observable: An Earthquake Globe in Ten Minutes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEmDwflQ3xE

And good place to drop few links, if you'd like to cut to the chase.

The finished notebook from the screencast (which you can fork): https://beta.observablehq.com/@jashkenas/earthquakes

And a fancier version that spins, reuses the canvas element instead of re-rendering it from scratch, projects the quakes as circles on the surface of the sphere, and offers a bunch of other options to configure (like if you'd like to chart the past day, week or month of quakes): https://beta.observablehq.com/@jashkenas/quakespotter-0-1

Re: Show HN: Observable Notebooks

#6

Post by d--b » Wed, Jan 31, 2018, 4:32 PM UTC

jashkenas wrote: post #5

rrherr wrote: post #4

Their new screencast is awesome too! "Observable: An Earthquake Globe in Ten Minutes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEmDwflQ3xE

And good place to drop few links, if you'd like to cut to the chase. The finished notebook from the screencast (which you can fork): https://beta.observablehq.com/@jashkenas/earthquakes And a fancier version that spins, reuses the canvas element instead of re-rendering it from scratch, projects the quakes as circles on the surface of the sphere, and offers a bunch of other options to configure (like if you'd like to…

Do you guys have a keyboard shortcuts cheatsheet? I can't figure how to move from one cell to another without clicking or creating a new cell.

Re: Show HN: Observable Notebooks

#7

Post by danso » Wed, Jan 31, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC

Just in case people were wondering, the site seems to have been overwhelmed for the past 10-15 minutes. But there's a YouTube demo of the tech https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16275040

I guess an oversimplified description would be that this is like a Jupyter Notebook specifically for JavaScript. Libraries like D3 are pre-loaded and immediately accessible. Am definitely interested in hearing the details about what it is built with and medium to long-term plans for the service.

Note that the Jupyter Notebook service generally requires you to be installing and running Python etc. on your own computer. Jumping into an Observable notebook is as easy as opening your browser and signing in via GIthub

Re: Show HN: Observable Notebooks

#8

Post by simonw » Wed, Jan 31, 2018, 4:34 PM UTC

The homepage copy didn't quite capture me... until I realized it was the new thing by D3's Mike Bostock! Maybe worth name-dropping that somewhere on that page? Though I don't know how many people would respond to that other than myself (hopefully lots of people).

Re: Show HN: Observable Notebooks

#9

Post by Numberwang » Wed, Jan 31, 2018, 4:37 PM UTC

I like it, but I'm not sure I have a user case for it.

Re: Show HN: Observable Notebooks

#10

Post by tmcw » Wed, Jan 31, 2018, 4:39 PM UTC

d--b wrote: post #6

jashkenas wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And good place to drop few links, if you'd like to cut to the chase. The finished notebook from the screencast (which you can fork): https://beta.observablehq.com/@jashkenas/earthquakes And a fancier version that spins, reuses the canvas element instead of re-rendering it from scratch, projects the quakes as circles on the surface of the sphere, and offers a bunch of other options to configure (like if you'd like to…

Do you guys have a keyboard shortcuts cheatsheet? I can't figure how to move from one cell to another without clicking or creating a new cell.

Sure thing! When you're on a notebook, click on your user avatar, then help. Walkthrough: https://file-oxhnhlfzte.now.sh/