Absolutely love JupyterLab. Having used ipython for years, I switched to Jupyter Lab about 6 months ago and never looked back. The things I'm most impressed with (relative to Jupyter Notebooks, which were already amazing): - The ability to render .geojson, .json, markdown, Vega and Vega lite files, and integrate external tools like Voyager. - The new terminal is a joy to use compared to what came before it - The abil…
JupyterLab is ready for users
171–180 of 250 posts
Re: JupyterLab is ready for users
#172Loving Jupyter, I use it every day and for sure I will try this out. What I do miss though is good separation between code and data, it is a pain when someone just takes a look at your notebook and it autosaves, the code block counters reset, this alters the file and GIT reports a lot of alterations.
This so much. It is my only real complaint about notebooks. Would be so much nicer if a notebook was split in two files, like `my-notebook.input.ipynb` and `my-notebook.output.ipynb`, where `my-notebook.input.ipynb` would only contain code and be editable with any text editor similar to a .md file (and not some verbose xml). The output would contain all outputs, so that would be easily separated from the input if nee…
Version control is too important to be left to the content-blind tools we typically use for it. In a perfect world, there'd be a core version control engine with content-specific plug-ins.
Re: JupyterLab is ready for users
#173Mathematica is wonderful in terms of sheer computational power, but the notebook interface it presents is hopelessly outclassed nowadays by initiatives such as these. I keep hoping Wolfram will spring some impressive new interface on us that will enhance usability for power users (rather than their weird attempts at bringing ‘computation’ to random casual users), but... I'm giving up hope. This looks very impressive.
I first used Mathematica in 1992 in a NeXT lab at Ohio State. It seemed like magic. If I recall correctly it had a notebook interface way back then, it was so cool doing 3D plots and tinkering with values to get a better intuition of the math.
One of the images from 1987 says "The Mathematica front end begins to take shape…" and "(Theo Gray invents cells and groups … and other things still seen today…)".
Re: JupyterLab is ready for users
#174Re: JupyterLab is ready for users
#175I'll be teaching a group of nine and ten years olds to code. I'm planning on using Jupyter. What I'd really like to do is make a multiplayer naval game, with each player controlling their ship from their own notebook. Players would start out by running commands like fire(range=400, bearing=120) right from a cell, but would later be able automate their ship - for example, pick the nearest enemy, get the range, and plu…
To be totally honest, even though I love Jupyter notebooks, I wouldn't teach someone to code using it. See, as someone who's not, originally a programmer, I believe that teaching someone to code is intertwined with teaching (gradually) workflows and environments. Now, Jupyter is great (I'm a statistician btw) precisely because you have a presentable literate programming tool. That is extremely valuable for data analy…
Jupyter (and similar) Notebooks are a way things are done "in real life"; they aren't just for entertainment purposes; and JupyterLab blends that into an IDE and the IDE with notebooks approach is also a way things have been done "in real life"; both with third-party tools incorporating Jupyter (and earlier IPython) notebooks, and with other IDE's incorporating notebook-style interaction.
Which isn't to say that there aren't arguments for teaching program outside of the notebook environment rather than within it (though the notebook is kind of a super REPL, and REPLs seem to me to be great tools for teaching), but that not using notebooks is better because it is how things are done "in real life" is just taking a highly selective view of real life.
Re: JupyterLab is ready for users
#176Re: JupyterLab is ready for users
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm using RStudio notebooks heavily in my latest bioinformatics analysis pipeline. They're a great way to produce an HTML report containing code, exposition, results, and plots all in one place. https://github.com/DarwinAwardWinner/CD4-csaw (look at scripts/*.Rmd)
I wrote an article a few months ago on the differences between R Notebooks and Jupyter Notebooks (and why, IMO, R Notebooks are better): http://minimaxir.com/2017/06/r-notebooks/
I am excited for Jupyter Lab and it's a step in the right direction. But it feels a little bit like they're reinventing the wheel with some of this stuff. I would gladly pay money for a python copy of the R ecosystem with RStudio, R markdown, R notebooks, where everything just works great by default.
Re: JupyterLab is ready for users
#178Re: JupyterLab is ready for users
#179Re: JupyterLab is ready for users
#180So let's say I am progressing inside a jupyter notebook top to bottom. I run code blocks, then some markdown, then code blocks, and so on. At some point I need to drop down to the terminal to run something. I run commands in the terminal I collect some results or collect some info and go back to my notebook to resume my work inside it. Later I need to look up something in a text file. I open a certain text file. Brow…
Point being, offering an IDE in 2018 is not interesting unless you added something "smart" to the IDE that makes the life of the engineer/scientist easier compared to the rest. Otherwise, IDE's are being developed for the last three decades or more.