[IPython-dev] Notebook filename badness
Hans Meine
hans_meine at gmx.net
Sat Jun 30 04:36:38 EDT 2012
Hi Brian!
Am 28.06.2012 um 18:07 schrieb Brian Granger:
> On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 4:52 AM, Thomas Kluyver <takowl at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Perhaps it will help to take a step back in this discussion.
>>
>> At present, the notebook is useful either running locally or running
>> as a web application. People are using both, each has some
>> awkwardness, as you'd expect from something that was only released a
>> few months ago. On the local side, there are the problems with file
>> handling we've already discussed, while the web app lacks a proper
>> multi-user model for now.
>
> I don't think the lines between local app and web app are very clear
> for us. Some things to consider:
>
> * It *is* a web application. It runs in the browser, it talks to a
> server using HTTP+WebSockets, the client is written in
> Javascript+HTML+CSS.
Technically, yes. However, the main reason for this thread is that there are two mental models behind it.
One of the models is: "Oh, great! Recent versions of the python-shell-on-steroids IPython I have grown to love support a "notebook mode". Unfortunately, it is a little clumsy to start, because it opens in the browser, but this new mode rocks!"
In other words, the separation between client and server, and the access via the browser are technical details many users could (or even want to) live without.
In this mental model, filenames are what you care about, not URLs. (I would argue that those users, and I count myself mostly among them, do not even notice the URLs.)
FWIW, I would love a pure Qt notebook, which could better match this mental model, but I know that this is among the things getting mentioned here and there, but lacking manpower so far. (And unfortunately, QtWebKit is not on par yet with the technology we require for the notebook AFAIK.)
HTH,
Hans
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