5 ms·

Observable is great, and I hope more people learn about it and try it out, but I am afraid that outside of the audience of people who already have worked with i

Observable is great, and I hope more people learn about it and try it out, but I am afraid that outside of the audience of people who already have worked with it a bit, both the title and content of this particular notebook are going to be a bit misleading and out of context. The intended audience isn’t really people new to the platform. One of the most important things about Observable is that it is mostly just javascript.

jdlshore 7y ago
This is the first I've heard of Observable and I loved this. It was a great introduction for me--practical and immediately obvious.
- jacobolus 7y ago
  Here are a small handful of my favorite notebooks, chosen for variety of style/theme/author, and in no particular order: https://observablehq.com/@freedmand/sounds https://observablehq.com/@freedmand/sounds https://observablehq.com/@freedmand/sounds-2 https://observablehq.com/@freedmand/sounds-2 https://observablehq.com/@benmaier/a-visually-more-appealing-fisheye-function https://observablehq.com/@benmaier/a-visually-more-appealing... https://observablehq.com/@veltman/centerline-labeling https://observablehq.com/@veltman/centerline-labeling https://observablehq.com/@pstuffa/making-maps-with-nyc-open-data https://observablehq.com/@pstuffa/making-maps-with-nyc-open-... https://observablehq.com/@mootari/getting-artsy-with-lloyd https://observablehq.com/@mootari/getting-artsy-with-lloyd https://observablehq.com/@visnup/cheat https://observablehq.com/@visnup/cheat https://observablehq.com/@bps10/sensations-from-single-cones https://observablehq.com/@bps10/sensations-from-single-cones https://observablehq.com/@gre/introduction-to-functional-rendering-paradigm https://observablehq.com/@gre/introduction-to-functional-ren... https://observablehq.com/@redblobgames/delaunator https://observablehq.com/@redblobgames/delaunator https://observablehq.com/@larsvers/hexgrid-maps-with-d3-hexgrid https://observablehq.com/@larsvers/hexgrid-maps-with-d3-hexg... https://observablehq.com/@lemonnish/rotating-geometry https://observablehq.com/@lemonnish/rotating-geometry https://observablehq.com/@stwind/how-raymarching-works https://observablehq.com/@stwind/how-raymarching-works https://observablehq.com/@fil/modified-stereographic-projections https://observablehq.com/@fil/modified-stereographic-project... https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/tissots-indicatrices-on-a-spherical-fibonacci-lattice https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/tissots-indicatrices-on-a... https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/manipulating-flat-arrays https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/manipulating-flat-arrays
  - fnord77 7y ago
    On the iphone, safari tries to open these links in mail. Unescaped @ symbols are invalid for URL paths. What does it say about a company who can't even get URLs right?
    - charrondev 7y ago
      They open fine on my iPhone for what it’s worth. iOS 12.
    - dang 7y ago
      Please don't post shallow dismissals and please don't be snarky. These are two of the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Your comment would be just fine without that last sentence.
    - erik_seaberg 7y ago
      https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986.txt https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986.txt allows URI = scheme ":" hier-part [ "?" query ] [ "#" fragment ] hier-part = "//" authority path-abempty path-abempty = *( "/" segment ) segment = *pchar pchar = unreserved / pct-encoded / sub-delims / ":" / "@" and https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1738.txt https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1738.txt originally said > Within the <path> and <searchpart> components, "/", ";", "?" are reserved.
  - jdlshore 7y ago
    What a generous comment! I'm going to check these out. Thanks for sharing.
  - jacobolus 7y ago
    Here’s a list of some of @Fil’s favorites https://observablehq.com/@fil/cool-observable-notebooks https://observablehq.com/@fil/cool-observable-notebooks Here are some more of mine: https://observablehq.com/@awoodruff/diy-hillshade https://observablehq.com/@awoodruff/diy-hillshade https://observablehq.com/@harrystevens/mapping-gridded-data-with-a-voronoi-diagram https://observablehq.com/@harrystevens/mapping-gridded-data-... https://observablehq.com/@ehouais/korolev-crater https://observablehq.com/@ehouais/korolev-crater https://observablehq.com/@vorth/regular-polygon-algebra-geometry https://observablehq.com/@vorth/regular-polygon-algebra-geom... https://observablehq.com/@grtlr/stippling-of-2d-scalar-fields https://observablehq.com/@grtlr/stippling-of-2d-scalar-field... https://observablehq.com/@mootari/bulge-illusion https://observablehq.com/@mootari/bulge-illusion https://observablehq.com/@tmcw/octree-color-quantization https://observablehq.com/@tmcw/octree-color-quantization https://observablehq.com/@bryangingechen/lattice-reduction https://observablehq.com/@bryangingechen/lattice-reduction https://observablehq.com/@robstelling/t-sne_en https://observablehq.com/@robstelling/t-sne_en https://observablehq.com/@tophtucker/inferring-chart-type-from-autocorrelation-and-other-evils https://observablehq.com/@tophtucker/inferring-chart-type-fr... https://observablehq.com/@vorth/exploring-4d-quaternion-rotations https://observablehq.com/@vorth/exploring-4d-quaternion-rota... https://observablehq.com/@sethpipho/fractal-tree https://observablehq.com/@sethpipho/fractal-tree https://observablehq.com/@esperanc/sketchable-vector-fields https://observablehq.com/@esperanc/sketchable-vector-fields https://observablehq.com/@jheer/barnes-hut-approximation-error https://observablehq.com/@jheer/barnes-hut-approximation-err... https://observablehq.com/@lemonnish/gooey-halftone-svg-gradients https://observablehq.com/@lemonnish/gooey-halftone-svg-gradi...
breck 7y ago
I loved the title. Because indeed, I personally thought that Observable was mostly just Javascript. But now I understand it a lot more and more importantly have an idea now of where they are going with it. I love JupyterLab, but I think long-term it is boxed in by its design of being Python/R in the browser. Observable is breaking from Javascript more than I thought, which will allow it to do really cool things and hit an audience that doesn't necessarily care that it's not quite Javascript.
- jadbox 7y ago
  I kinda want Observable to be it's own language that can compile to JS... not saying it would be a good general purpose lang by any means, but it would be interesting to experiment with a 'first-class observable' language.
  - breck 7y ago
    I agree. I also would bet this is where they will go.
  - jashkenas 7y ago
    And it kinda is. We provide a parser¹ and a runtime², and you can download a copy of any notebook compiled to a JavaScript module: https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/downloading-and-embedding-notebooks https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/downloading-and-embed... That said, we’re explicitly designing for the reactivity of the notebook environment. Working on fundamentally reactive code in a traditional text editor is ... alright, I guess. You’re still stuck reloading the whole enchilada any time you make a change. It’s nowhere near as exciting as working on reactive code in an editor that understands and respects the reactivity, and can keep your program running and re-evaluating as you tweak it! That said, if you're interested something less notebook-y, check out what Rich Harris is doing with Svelte 3. It's totally a not-so-distant cousin. 1. https://github.com/observablehq/parser https://github.com/observablehq/parser 2. https://github.com/observablehq/runtime https://github.com/observablehq/runtime
    - jadbox 7y ago
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

jdlshore 7y ago

This is the first I've heard of Observable and I loved this. It was a great introduction for me--practical and immediately obvious.

jacobolus 7y ago
Here are a small handful of my favorite notebooks, chosen for variety of style/theme/author, and in no particular order: https://observablehq.com/@freedmand/sounds https://observablehq.com/@freedmand/sounds https://observablehq.com/@freedmand/sounds-2 https://observablehq.com/@freedmand/sounds-2 https://observablehq.com/@benmaier/a-visually-more-appealing-fisheye-function https://observablehq.com/@benmaier/a-visually-more-appealing... https://observablehq.com/@veltman/centerline-labeling https://observablehq.com/@veltman/centerline-labeling https://observablehq.com/@pstuffa/making-maps-with-nyc-open-data https://observablehq.com/@pstuffa/making-maps-with-nyc-open-... https://observablehq.com/@mootari/getting-artsy-with-lloyd https://observablehq.com/@mootari/getting-artsy-with-lloyd https://observablehq.com/@visnup/cheat https://observablehq.com/@visnup/cheat https://observablehq.com/@bps10/sensations-from-single-cones https://observablehq.com/@bps10/sensations-from-single-cones https://observablehq.com/@gre/introduction-to-functional-rendering-paradigm https://observablehq.com/@gre/introduction-to-functional-ren... https://observablehq.com/@redblobgames/delaunator https://observablehq.com/@redblobgames/delaunator https://observablehq.com/@larsvers/hexgrid-maps-with-d3-hexgrid https://observablehq.com/@larsvers/hexgrid-maps-with-d3-hexg... https://observablehq.com/@lemonnish/rotating-geometry https://observablehq.com/@lemonnish/rotating-geometry https://observablehq.com/@stwind/how-raymarching-works https://observablehq.com/@stwind/how-raymarching-works https://observablehq.com/@fil/modified-stereographic-projections https://observablehq.com/@fil/modified-stereographic-project... https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/tissots-indicatrices-on-a-spherical-fibonacci-lattice https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/tissots-indicatrices-on-a... https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/manipulating-flat-arrays https://observablehq.com/@mbostock/manipulating-flat-arrays
- fnord77 7y ago
  On the iphone, safari tries to open these links in mail. Unescaped @ symbols are invalid for URL paths. What does it say about a company who can't even get URLs right?
  - charrondev 7y ago
    They open fine on my iPhone for what it’s worth. iOS 12.
  - dang 7y ago
    Please don't post shallow dismissals and please don't be snarky. These are two of the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Your comment would be just fine without that last sentence.
  - erik_seaberg 7y ago
    https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986.txt https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986.txt allows URI = scheme ":" hier-part [ "?" query ] [ "#" fragment ] hier-part = "//" authority path-abempty path-abempty = *( "/" segment ) segment = *pchar pchar = unreserved / pct-encoded / sub-delims / ":" / "@" and https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1738.txt https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1738.txt originally said > Within the <path> and <searchpart> components, "/", ";", "?" are reserved.
- jdlshore 7y ago
  What a generous comment! I'm going to check these out. Thanks for sharing.
- jacobolus 7y ago
  Here’s a list of some of @Fil’s favorites https://observablehq.com/@fil/cool-observable-notebooks https://observablehq.com/@fil/cool-observable-notebooks Here are some more of mine: https://observablehq.com/@awoodruff/diy-hillshade https://observablehq.com/@awoodruff/diy-hillshade https://observablehq.com/@harrystevens/mapping-gridded-data-with-a-voronoi-diagram https://observablehq.com/@harrystevens/mapping-gridded-data-... https://observablehq.com/@ehouais/korolev-crater https://observablehq.com/@ehouais/korolev-crater https://observablehq.com/@vorth/regular-polygon-algebra-geometry https://observablehq.com/@vorth/regular-polygon-algebra-geom... https://observablehq.com/@grtlr/stippling-of-2d-scalar-fields https://observablehq.com/@grtlr/stippling-of-2d-scalar-field... https://observablehq.com/@mootari/bulge-illusion https://observablehq.com/@mootari/bulge-illusion https://observablehq.com/@tmcw/octree-color-quantization https://observablehq.com/@tmcw/octree-color-quantization https://observablehq.com/@bryangingechen/lattice-reduction https://observablehq.com/@bryangingechen/lattice-reduction https://observablehq.com/@robstelling/t-sne_en https://observablehq.com/@robstelling/t-sne_en https://observablehq.com/@tophtucker/inferring-chart-type-from-autocorrelation-and-other-evils https://observablehq.com/@tophtucker/inferring-chart-type-fr... https://observablehq.com/@vorth/exploring-4d-quaternion-rotations https://observablehq.com/@vorth/exploring-4d-quaternion-rota... https://observablehq.com/@sethpipho/fractal-tree https://observablehq.com/@sethpipho/fractal-tree https://observablehq.com/@esperanc/sketchable-vector-fields https://observablehq.com/@esperanc/sketchable-vector-fields https://observablehq.com/@jheer/barnes-hut-approximation-error https://observablehq.com/@jheer/barnes-hut-approximation-err... https://observablehq.com/@lemonnish/gooey-halftone-svg-gradients https://observablehq.com/@lemonnish/gooey-halftone-svg-gradi...

breck 7y ago

I loved the title. Because indeed, I personally thought that Observable was mostly just Javascript. But now I understand it a lot more and more importantly have an idea now of where they are going with it. I love JupyterLab, but I think long-term it is boxed in by its design of being Python/R in the browser. Observable is breaking from Javascript more than I thought, which will allow it to do really cool things and hit an audience that doesn't necessarily care that it's not quite Javascript.

jadbox 7y ago
I kinda want Observable to be it's own language that can compile to JS... not saying it would be a good general purpose lang by any means, but it would be interesting to experiment with a 'first-class observable' language.
- breck 7y ago
  I agree. I also would bet this is where they will go.
- jashkenas 7y ago
  And it kinda is. We provide a parser¹ and a runtime², and you can download a copy of any notebook compiled to a JavaScript module: https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/downloading-and-embedding-notebooks https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/downloading-and-embed... That said, we’re explicitly designing for the reactivity of the notebook environment. Working on fundamentally reactive code in a traditional text editor is ... alright, I guess. You’re still stuck reloading the whole enchilada any time you make a change. It’s nowhere near as exciting as working on reactive code in an editor that understands and respects the reactivity, and can keep your program running and re-evaluating as you tweak it! That said, if you're interested something less notebook-y, check out what Rich Harris is doing with Svelte 3. It's totally a not-so-distant cousin. 1. https://github.com/observablehq/parser https://github.com/observablehq/parser 2. https://github.com/observablehq/runtime https://github.com/observablehq/runtime
  - jadbox 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

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