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I tried to learn D3 over the weekend. Observable was one of the worst experiences I have ever had with code examples. Every other line is riddled with console o

I tried to learn D3 over the weekend. Observable was one of the worst experiences I have ever had with code examples. Every other line is riddled with console output, which makes it hard to take in the example as a whole. Downloading and modifying the example is even worse. It gives you the compiled output of their GUI coding tool. I ended up using plotly's libraries that are built on top of D3, and it really made me appreciate how much work they put into making it so easy to use.

mbostock 7y ago
I’m so sorry you had a bad experience. We’re trying really hard to make it great! Our entire reason for being is to make it easier for people to tinker with and share examples. One of the least obvious things of Observable is that it’s not actually JavaScript—it’s a reactive extension of the language. We’re making that more apparent by making the dataflow visible, and we’d love to hear any more feedback or suggestions you’re willing to share. https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/observables-not-javascript https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/observables-not-javas... https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/introducing-visual-dataflow https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/introducing-visual-da...
- deckar01 7y ago
  No where on the site do I see how to use these tools in my development environment. Even searching the topic produces no results. A quick browse of your GitHub does not lead to any obvious entry point for developing with Observable locally. This feels like a startup has prioritized onboarding people onto their platform rather than providing examples that are representative of how D3js is actually used. I am baffled as to why these are the official code examples.
  - ejstronge 7y ago
    It seems that Observable is an online environment - it's true that this is not explicitly stated, but it's alluded to throughout the homepage. EDIT: Check out their about page for an explanation: https://observablehq.com/about https://observablehq.com/about
    - catacombs 7y ago
      > It seems that Observable is an online environment The site's interface is a massive turn off. I love using my editor, and if there's a way for me connect it to Observable, I'd use the platform full time.
  - oogetyboogety 7y ago
    there's observable runtime https://github.com/observablehq/runtime https://github.com/observablehq/runtime

mbostock 7y ago

I’m so sorry you had a bad experience. We’re trying really hard to make it great! Our entire reason for being is to make it easier for people to tinker with and share examples. One of the least obvious things of Observable is that it’s not actually JavaScript—it’s a reactive extension of the language. We’re making that more apparent by making the dataflow visible, and we’d love to hear any more feedback or suggestions you’re willing to share. https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/observables-not-javascript https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/observables-not-javas... https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/introducing-visual-dataflow https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/introducing-visual-da...

deckar01 7y ago
No where on the site do I see how to use these tools in my development environment. Even searching the topic produces no results. A quick browse of your GitHub does not lead to any obvious entry point for developing with Observable locally. This feels like a startup has prioritized onboarding people onto their platform rather than providing examples that are representative of how D3js is actually used. I am baffled as to why these are the official code examples.
- ejstronge 7y ago
  It seems that Observable is an online environment - it's true that this is not explicitly stated, but it's alluded to throughout the homepage. EDIT: Check out their about page for an explanation: https://observablehq.com/about https://observablehq.com/about
  - catacombs 7y ago
    > It seems that Observable is an online environment The site's interface is a massive turn off. I love using my editor, and if there's a way for me connect it to Observable, I'd use the platform full time.
- oogetyboogety 7y ago
  there's observable runtime https://github.com/observablehq/runtime https://github.com/observablehq/runtime