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I think this is very interesting, although I'm still trying to understand it. So excuse my ignorance, but how does this differ from open source projects such as

by ovis 11y ago

I think this is very interesting, although I'm still trying to understand it. So excuse my ignorance, but how does this differ from open source projects such as Jupyter, Sage, and JuliaBox?

jacobolus 11y ago
Or, as a commercial product, from the functionality available inside Matlab, Maple, or Mathematica? Those all have the same kind of notebook feature, but have the additional advantage of thousands of third-party libraries. edit to add: This project seems to be pretty neat, and it’s clear that a ton of work has gone into it, but I’m unlikely to ever use it. Here’s my list of criteria for something like this: (1) Is it open source? Am I being locked into someone’s proprietary environment? Can I inspect the code of every function I’m calling on, to make sure I trust them to behave correctly? (2) Does it interoperate easily with my existing data and workflows? Can I easily scrape a webpage to feed data in, or import from a file in some obscure format from the 90s? (3) Can I run it offline? Can I share it with anyone I want, and can they build on what I’ve made without paying a license fee? [Personally I think running on a computer locally is a big advantage over having everything done “in the cloud” and displaying in a web page, and thus being completely unavailable when offline. I’m assuming all the numeric code is being run on some server somewhere? Or is all the processing done locally in Javascript?] (4) Is there some well tested library that already solves my problem that I can run within the tool, so that I can just download the library, use its API, and be done without a bunch of custom work on my end? [Or more generally: does the tool solve some problem that I can’t easily solve in any other way?] (5) Is the plotting functionality easy enough to make plots of data with a few seconds of work, but flexible enough that I can make a custom data visualization if I need to? (For a web project, I would just feed the data to D3.) Don’t let me discourage you though. It’s great that people are working on tools, and quite possible that you’ll find a good market of folks who would use this thing.
- theuttick 11y ago
  Matlab, Maple, etc are very good at what they do, but they have two problems that my platform solves. 1. Your manager and/or customer can't see your work unless they have a license and can understand the language. Mine only needs a web browser. 2. If the analysis changes, the documentation must be updated as well. Mine does everything on the same web page. As for the questions, those are all ones that I have asked myself about several times and here is where I am now. (1) It is not open source and you really are kinda locked into using the system once you get going. I really couldn't find a way around this as the real appeal for most engineers is the absence of the need to code stuff. I have documentation that describes how I solve most algorithms and some demos. (2) Scraping web pages is high on my to do list. You can paste most forms of data already, but you can't yet import files directly. Seeing that this is high on someone else's list I may put most of my effort there. (3) Right now, everything is done locally in javascript but there is no way to save changes without server access. Part of my business plan is to use a server side code to solve large data sets and possibly charge for that. I have been surprised at how well the browser has handled most problems though. (4) The main problem that this will solve for most people is this ... You get data from a test run somewhere. You put that data on a server, run a Matlab or Python code on it and then create a word document to pass on that info. With my system, you upload the info, analyze it, and display the results all on the same web page. It isn't just about analyzing the data, it's about doing everything on the same platform. (5) The plotting functions are pretty easy to use and you can get something up in a few seconds. I also have 3D plotting.
  - jacobolus 11y ago
    My main suggestion would be to first find some concrete customers, and then ask what they need. (As I said, I’m not likely to be one of them, so don’t prioritize just based on my opinions.) All the best luck!
    - theuttick 11y ago
      Thanks for the input and I totally get what you are saying. It may help to know that the end goal is to tie in a CAD system. This way, each "document" contains the math to design a component while the CAD reads from that to display it. This way, the CAD model automatically updates with changing design requirements just like the part trees already do. What you see is really just a first step.
theuttick 11y ago
I like those projects. What I am doing differs in purpose and function Those platforms require some sort of installation and are usually meant to be tools for a programmer to create a web page that utilizes existing code like python, etc. My platform has no coding in that sense. You create a new file by clicking an icon and add blocks of text, equations, etc through a graphical interface. All the user would enter from a code standpoint would be something line "a=sin(10x)+cos(3x)". Whereas Jupyter and others are tools for programmers to use, my platform is a tool for other people to solve and document problems. They target programmers whereas I target engineers and scientists. With them you are writing code and with me you are using a word document that also solves equations and makes charts.

by ovis 11y ago

I think this is very interesting, although I'm still trying to understand it. So excuse my ignorance, but how does this differ from open source projects such as Jupyter, Sage, and JuliaBox?

jacobolus 11y ago

Or, as a commercial product, from the functionality available inside Matlab, Maple, or Mathematica? Those all have the same kind of notebook feature, but have the additional advantage of thousands of third-party libraries. edit to add: This project seems to be pretty neat, and it’s clear that a ton of work has gone into it, but I’m unlikely to ever use it. Here’s my list of criteria for something like this: (1) Is it open source? Am I being locked into someone’s proprietary environment? Can I inspect the code of every function I’m calling on, to make sure I trust them to behave correctly? (2) Does it interoperate easily with my existing data and workflows? Can I easily scrape a webpage to feed data in, or import from a file in some obscure format from the 90s? (3) Can I run it offline? Can I share it with anyone I want, and can they build on what I’ve made without paying a license fee? [Personally I think running on a computer locally is a big advantage over having everything done “in the cloud” and displaying in a web page, and thus being completely unavailable when offline. I’m assuming all the numeric code is being run on some server somewhere? Or is all the processing done locally in Javascript?] (4) Is there some well tested library that already solves my problem that I can run within the tool, so that I can just download the library, use its API, and be done without a bunch of custom work on my end? [Or more generally: does the tool solve some problem that I can’t easily solve in any other way?] (5) Is the plotting functionality easy enough to make plots of data with a few seconds of work, but flexible enough that I can make a custom data visualization if I need to? (For a web project, I would just feed the data to D3.) Don’t let me discourage you though. It’s great that people are working on tools, and quite possible that you’ll find a good market of folks who would use this thing.

theuttick 11y ago
Matlab, Maple, etc are very good at what they do, but they have two problems that my platform solves. 1. Your manager and/or customer can't see your work unless they have a license and can understand the language. Mine only needs a web browser. 2. If the analysis changes, the documentation must be updated as well. Mine does everything on the same web page. As for the questions, those are all ones that I have asked myself about several times and here is where I am now. (1) It is not open source and you really are kinda locked into using the system once you get going. I really couldn't find a way around this as the real appeal for most engineers is the absence of the need to code stuff. I have documentation that describes how I solve most algorithms and some demos. (2) Scraping web pages is high on my to do list. You can paste most forms of data already, but you can't yet import files directly. Seeing that this is high on someone else's list I may put most of my effort there. (3) Right now, everything is done locally in javascript but there is no way to save changes without server access. Part of my business plan is to use a server side code to solve large data sets and possibly charge for that. I have been surprised at how well the browser has handled most problems though. (4) The main problem that this will solve for most people is this ... You get data from a test run somewhere. You put that data on a server, run a Matlab or Python code on it and then create a word document to pass on that info. With my system, you upload the info, analyze it, and display the results all on the same web page. It isn't just about analyzing the data, it's about doing everything on the same platform. (5) The plotting functions are pretty easy to use and you can get something up in a few seconds. I also have 3D plotting.
- jacobolus 11y ago
  My main suggestion would be to first find some concrete customers, and then ask what they need. (As I said, I’m not likely to be one of them, so don’t prioritize just based on my opinions.) All the best luck!
  - theuttick 11y ago
    Thanks for the input and I totally get what you are saying. It may help to know that the end goal is to tie in a CAD system. This way, each "document" contains the math to design a component while the CAD reads from that to display it. This way, the CAD model automatically updates with changing design requirements just like the part trees already do. What you see is really just a first step.

theuttick 11y ago

I like those projects. What I am doing differs in purpose and function Those platforms require some sort of installation and are usually meant to be tools for a programmer to create a web page that utilizes existing code like python, etc. My platform has no coding in that sense. You create a new file by clicking an icon and add blocks of text, equations, etc through a graphical interface. All the user would enter from a code standpoint would be something line "a=sin(10x)+cos(3x)". Whereas Jupyter and others are tools for programmers to use, my platform is a tool for other people to solve and document problems. They target programmers whereas I target engineers and scientists. With them you are writing code and with me you are using a word document that also solves equations and makes charts.