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Mike Bostock is a beast - this d3.js example from 2013 still blows my mind: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/02/13/us/politics/2013-

Mike Bostock is a beast - this d3.js example from 2013 still blows my mind: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/02/13/us/politics/2013-budget-proposal-graphic.html https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012... I haven’t gotten properly stuck into observable - in what ways is it better than using a jupyter notebook?

52-6F-62 7y ago
I don't know about "better" as I don't have a lot of experience with either—I've only dabbled or used them to prototype something small. The major differentiator is the JS implementation and ability to import libraries from sibling notebooks and other sources. But yeah I'd have to agree that Bostock is a beast.
- merlincorey 7y ago
  > and ability to import libraries from sibling notebooks The Jupyter documentation includes an example for importing other notebooks here: https://jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io/en/stable/examples/Notebook/Importing%20Notebooks.html https://jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io/en/stable/examples/N...
- lmeyerov 7y ago
  I like Observable for sharing JS tutorials - was just updating https://observablehq.com/@lmeyerov/manipulating-flat-arrays-arrow-style https://observablehq.com/@lmeyerov/manipulating-flat-arrays-... today. Observable does some things quite well for that use case: -- Easier dependencies: no need for 'npm install', just 'require(...)' -- URL publishing -- Collaborative merge flow However, Jupyter made some good decisions that make it win over Observable for our day-to-day data work: -- Manual reexecution vs. automatic: when working with big data, outside APIs, etc., Observable's automatic reexecution is a non-starter -- Fully open source, embeddable, and successful history of non-vc funding: Jupyter is organized and provided in a way companies ( who aren't Amazon ;-)) can rally around, evidenced by contributions by Bloomberg etc. -- Access to underlying unix/windows env and multiple environments (multiple Python versions, ...). As much as I wish Observable's choice of JS could provide a viable data environment, and I've personally invested in making it so and the path to making it first-class is clear, we need way more gov/google/nvidia/etc. support. Ultimately, for not-too-sensitive collaborative data work, we use Google Colab, then offline and sensitive commercial work via Jupyter (Graphistry ships with it preloaded for GPU dataframe & GPU visual graph analytics goodness!), and if we did more in JS tutorial land, Observable would be my first choice.
  - alexcnwy 7y ago
    Very cool, thanks for the detailed reply - your JS tutorial looks great :) Yeah automatic re-execution sounds like a weird design choice. Think I'll stick with Jupyter notebooks for now...
xkef 7y ago
completely agree, that thing is sick! while you're browsing: this is equally great :) https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/25/sunday-review/corporate-taxes.html https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013...
- alexcnwy 7y ago
  Yeah I remember seeing that one a few years ago - it's also super cool :) Especially crazy that these work as well and quickly on mobile!

52-6F-62 7y ago

I don't know about "better" as I don't have a lot of experience with either—I've only dabbled or used them to prototype something small. The major differentiator is the JS implementation and ability to import libraries from sibling notebooks and other sources. But yeah I'd have to agree that Bostock is a beast.

merlincorey 7y ago
> and ability to import libraries from sibling notebooks The Jupyter documentation includes an example for importing other notebooks here: https://jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io/en/stable/examples/Notebook/Importing%20Notebooks.html https://jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io/en/stable/examples/N...
lmeyerov 7y ago
I like Observable for sharing JS tutorials - was just updating https://observablehq.com/@lmeyerov/manipulating-flat-arrays-arrow-style https://observablehq.com/@lmeyerov/manipulating-flat-arrays-... today. Observable does some things quite well for that use case: -- Easier dependencies: no need for 'npm install', just 'require(...)' -- URL publishing -- Collaborative merge flow However, Jupyter made some good decisions that make it win over Observable for our day-to-day data work: -- Manual reexecution vs. automatic: when working with big data, outside APIs, etc., Observable's automatic reexecution is a non-starter -- Fully open source, embeddable, and successful history of non-vc funding: Jupyter is organized and provided in a way companies ( who aren't Amazon ;-)) can rally around, evidenced by contributions by Bloomberg etc. -- Access to underlying unix/windows env and multiple environments (multiple Python versions, ...). As much as I wish Observable's choice of JS could provide a viable data environment, and I've personally invested in making it so and the path to making it first-class is clear, we need way more gov/google/nvidia/etc. support. Ultimately, for not-too-sensitive collaborative data work, we use Google Colab, then offline and sensitive commercial work via Jupyter (Graphistry ships with it preloaded for GPU dataframe & GPU visual graph analytics goodness!), and if we did more in JS tutorial land, Observable would be my first choice.
- alexcnwy 7y ago
  Very cool, thanks for the detailed reply - your JS tutorial looks great :) Yeah automatic re-execution sounds like a weird design choice. Think I'll stick with Jupyter notebooks for now...

xkef 7y ago

completely agree, that thing is sick! while you're browsing: this is equally great :) https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/25/sunday-review/corporate-taxes.html https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013...

alexcnwy 7y ago
Yeah I remember seeing that one a few years ago - it's also super cool :) Especially crazy that these work as well and quickly on mobile!