[IPython-dev] updated notebook development roadmap?

Chris Kees cekees at gmail.com
Sun Jul 8 13:12:09 EDT 2012


Hi Carl,

Thanks for you comments. I realize there's no official relationship
between NBC and IPython. What I was getting at is that if IPython
sharing is implemented external to the notebook server and generating
personal notebook servers is easy enough, then a lot of use cases are
covered without the IPython devs implementing multiuser support.  A
large fraction of what I do with sage depends on the sharing and
publishing features so I'm not really sure that and
external-to-Ipython approach can cover all the use cases. The fact is
we have to design for beginners needs (and unfortunately for some who
will never try to be anything but beginners), in which case having
admin acces to a multi-user server may be the only viable solution.

Chris

On Fri, Jul 6, 2012 at 4:25 PM, Carl Smith <carl.input at gmail.com> wrote:
>> -notebook sharing: If the notebook cloud approach takes off, then it
>> seems like a sharing mechanism outside of the notebook server will be
>> required even if multiuser support is added to the server.  These days
>> it seems like most web apps have a share button that can at a minimum
>> email a document.  It seems like integration with google drive or even
>> G+ could be handy.
>
> Hi Chris
>
> Just to clarify, I'm not personally involved in IPython development.
> Whilst I get some help from the IPython guys, there's no official
> relationship between IPython and NBC. I just work on it as a small,
> personal project for now.
>
> On multi-user support, there's actually a few different cases that
> need 'multi-user', but each mean something different by the term. NBC
> has multiple users, but only so that more than one person can use the
> same service. It doesn't allow any interactions between users and
> can't access the user's machines to be able to share anything between
> them anyway.
>
> NBC may eventually allow one user to create a bunch of instances on
> their account, each with different passwords, which they could then
> provide to other people without any account. So a teacher with an NBC
> account could provide machines to students with no accounts, but
> there's security issues with doing that.
>
> I'm also very committed to avoiding adding any feature to NBC that
> could be bundled with IPython on an AMI.
>
> As for G+, Drive and stuff like that, I think those types of features
> are always best implemented as third-party magic that users can easily
> add if they want to. I don't want to upgrade one day and find a
> Facebook icon in my notebook :)
>
> Sorry I can't be more help. Your questions are mostly for IPython developers.
>
> All the best
>
> Carl
>
> On 6 July 2012 16:18, Chris Kees <cekees at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've been going over the IPython 0.14.dev docs and my archive of this
>> list as part of an effort to change the way I'm doing several things.
>> I know how hard it is to keep documentation up to date and keep a
>> wider community informed of a complex vision so I'm not complaining,
>> but I'm hoping to get some clarification on where things are headed on
>> the follow capabilities (sorry in advance if I've missed answers to
>> these in the docs or discussion list):
>>
>> -editing in the notebook: I'd like to start developing more complex
>> content in the notebook, and so I need better emacs keybinding support
>> among other things. I saw the recent threads on ACE vs CodeMirror and
>> even more recently on another push to improve the CodeMirror config
>> (vim at least). Has it been decided that CodeMirror is the way
>> forward, and if so will the editor support be configurable from the
>> notebook interface or does it have to be done server side? Anybody
>> have quick instructions on how to add emacs bindings even if it's a
>> hack?
>>
>> -multiuser support: I'm currently using sage for teaching, workshops,
>> and various demos.  I really need the multiuser and sharing support
>> for those activities. I also need multiuser because our package
>> (proteus), and it's dependencies can be very difficult for new users
>> to build so one way to get around that is just providing accounts on
>> our sage server.  On the other hand, after testing out Carl Smith's
>> notebook cloud, I can see a potential path to more general (and
>> secure) multiuser support by simply using amazon machine images and
>> pushing the user management responsibilities off on Amazon or in-house
>> IT services.  I should note that both approaches solving a problem
>> that may not have been discussed widely, which is making government
>> "certified" engineering tools available to the public in a reliable
>> way. Anyway, has the approach been decided and is there a timeline for
>> multiuser support? Also, is there any kind of discussion or roadmap
>> for coordination between sage notebook development and ipython
>> development? I've see posts mentioning sharing features but nothing
>> beyond that.
>>
>> -notebook sharing: If the notebook cloud approach takes off, then it
>> seems like a sharing mechanism outside of the notebook server will be
>> required even if multiuser support is added to the server.  These days
>> it seems like most web apps have a share button that can at a minimum
>> email a document.  It seems like integration with google drive or even
>> G+ could be handy.
>>
>> -version control: Currently I'm just using git commands in a cell, but
>> it seems like this would be relatively easy to add to the file menu.
>> Is there a plan to add version control menus to the notebook?
>>
>> -slide show mode: Another handy capability that was discussed on the
>> list a while ago.  Any new development?
>>
>> -interactive widgets:  I'd like to start working on these as soon as
>> possible, and it looks like Brian's pull request is closed. I'm
>> guessing the support is in the main branch. Are there some examples of
>> interactive javascript widgets that work with the main branch (Min's
>> gist of a flot with bessel functions isn't working for me)?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Chris
>> _______________________________________________
>> IPython-dev mailing list
>> IPython-dev at scipy.org
>> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/ipython-dev
> _______________________________________________
> IPython-dev mailing list
> IPython-dev at scipy.org
> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/ipython-dev



More information about the IPython-dev mailing list