[IPython-dev] [IPython-User] Another monster landed: refactored JavaScript, new tooltips and interactive widgets in the notebook

[Brian Granger]

Mark,

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 1:36 AM, Mark Starnes <mark.starnes at fttech.co.uk> wrote:
> This is my first post.  I've been using IPython
> for years now and always appreciated it but the
> notebook and the work going into it has forced me
> into saying thanks.
>
> Thank you for all this work! The way I work has
> completely changed (for the better) due to you
> and your team's efforts.

Thanks for the feedback!

Cheers,

Brian

> Best regards,
>
> Mark Starnes.
>
>
> On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 05:30:05PM -0700, Fernando Perez wrote:
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> After the merge of the previous big two branches (the merging of the
>> interactive and parallel kernels into one object and the magics
>> refactoring/cell support), the third monster we had in flight has now
>> landed:
>>
>> https://github.com/ipython/ipython/pull/1711/
>>
>> For those of you not following the github hooks obsessively, here's
>> the high-level view of the goodies:
>>
>> - New graphical tooltip with keyboard control: successive presses of
>> the TAB key will expand it, pin it for 10 s (a clock icon is shown),
>> and send its content to the bottom help pager (which is now
>> resizable).
>>
>> - Completer has been refactored into a new class and now can analyze
>> the current cell to support completions on objects that don't exist in
>> the kernel yet (because the cell hasn't been executed).
>>
>> - All the client-side JavaScript has been decoupled to ease reuse of
>> parts of the machinery without having to build a full-blown notebook.
>> This will make it much easier to communicate with an IPython kernel
>> from existing web pages and to integrate single cells into other
>> sites, without loading the full notebook document-like UI.
>>
>> - This refactoring also enables the possibility of writing dynamic
>> javascript widgets that are returned from Python code and that present
>> an interactive view to the user, with callbacks in Javascript
>> executing calls to the Kernel.  This will enable many interactive
>> elements to be added by users in notebooks.
>>
>> An example of this capability has been provided as a proof of concept
>> in `docs/examples/widgets` that lets you directly communicate with one
>> or more parallel engines, acting as a mini-console for parallel
>> debugging and introspection.
>>
>>
>> Kudos to Brian and Matthias for the excellent work they put into this,
>> it was over 84 commits and involved the merging of several
>> intermediate pull requests.  But the goodies shipped therein should be
>> *very*  useful.
>>
>> We've seen recently attempts at interactive plots with d3/flot and
>> other similar tools; now the machinery is ready to do that cleanly, so
>> by all means have fun!
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> f
>> _______________________________________________
>> IPython-User mailing list
>> IPython-User at scipy.org
>> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/ipython-user
>
> --
> Dr. Mark Starnes
> Principal Physicist
> FT Technologies
> Church Lane
> Teddington
> TW11 8PA
>
> web:  www.fttech.co.uk
> DDI:  0208 614 2730
> _______________________________________________
> IPython-User mailing list
> IPython-User at scipy.org
> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/ipython-user



-- 
Brian E. Granger
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
bgranger at calpoly.edu and ellisonbg at gmail.com