I think the support for HTML,CSS,JS is unlike any other notebook, as well as the possibility to change the runtime at runtime (importing by URL new language plu

I think the support for HTML,CSS,JS is unlike any other notebook, as well as the possibility to change the runtime at runtime (importing by URL new language plugins / other functionality). This makes it great for documentation (with examples you can actually execute), as an output format for automated reports, as a scriptable Tensorboard, as a platform for interactive articles, and for educational purposes (tutorials, homework). Python works for stuff that was written for it purposefully. Some python libraries work great: numpy, matplotlib, pandas. But many others are not supported directly and can be installed through micropip, but that's quite confusing! These are the issues with Pyodide currently: * All python code that is executed is synchronous, which means it can not make requests (or call sleep). You can actually make a request using pyodide.open_url('path'), but that makes a synchronous request which isn't really a good idea for anything but small files. I believe asynchronous Python is possible, recent versions of emscripten support it, but it needs someone to put the pieces together (which is not easy!) * Some packages are huge without being split up. Scipy is actually the only one that's really problematic, I believe it's around 80MB? It should be possible to split it up (into scipy.interpolate, scipy.stats, etc) * Micropip is asynchronous, so you get a promise when you use micropip.install('my-package'), but you can't "await" it. * Loading Python initially freezes the browser for a second or two.. not a great user experience. * Libraries which are not pure python currently need to be manually made compatible with patches - including torch. Python in the browser (not just in Starboard) needs more love. This is powered by Pyodide[0] which has been making steady progress, but the project is without corporate backing since Mozilla's change of direction. Perhaps Observable can allocate some of their funding towards supporting Python in their notebooks too through this project? Also consider this a call to action for other contributors who want to see Python in the browser become a reality :) [0]: https://github.com/iodide-project/pyodide https://github.com/iodide-project/pyodide