[IPython-dev] Kernel busy/idle indicators in notebook

Jason Grout jason-sage at creativetrax.com
Mon Jan 20 12:17:07 EST 2014


Hi all,

I've been meaning to bring this up for a while, but hesitated because 
it's somewhat a bike-shedding issue.  I'll throw it out there, though, 
as a small thing that I think detracts (and distracts) from the user 
interface of the notebook.

Right now, it seems that when the kernel starts executing, the words 
"Kernel Busy" flash up in the upper right of the notebook, and when the 
kernel stops, "Kernel Idle" flashes up there.  In cases where you have 
lots of computations being sent back and forth (for example, when 
playing with the new interactive widgets), this activity in the 
interface in the corner of my viewing angle gets rather distracting.  It 
even gets distracting (for me) when executing normal computations---I 
see a flicker of something when a result is returned, and automatically 
glance towards the flicker and see it is just the kernel idle message 
flashing up.  This needless distraction breaks concentration and 
detracts from the content that just appeared.

Proposal 1: eliminate the kernel busy/idle indicators from the main 
interface.  We already have the indicator in the input prompts when 
executing normal cells (e.g., [*] instead of [number]).  We could put 
some indicator of kernel status in the menu if it seemed necessary.

Proposal 2: Make the kernel busy/idle status indicators much less 
distracting by making it a small muted icon or filled circle, similar to 
a hard drive or ethernet port activity light, that only is displayed 
when the kernel is busy, but turned off when the kernel is idle.

Thanks,

Jason



More information about the IPython-dev mailing list