Project Feedback

Eric

• node-gyp install issues.
• Would like a way to default to Docker for all notebooks so I don’t pollute my system. Platform choice is sticky.
• Example notebooks (figlet, etc.) fail on Docker. Docs updated to provide linux install option. Can you detect environment support and provide a reasonable error message? Platform, now correctly works for non-local connectors.
• Run whole notebook. Installs-brew spins for a long time after clicking “Run Notebook” (appears to be waiting on ./brew.sh from command stdout). No indication of what step it’s on in the notebook though, and stdout doesn’t appear to be available in the notebook. Would be nice to see cells update as the notebook runs.
• Stop button. Is there any way to stop a notebook that’s taking a long time?
• Add protected fields for credentials. Feature exists, removed testing script.
• File tree nitpick: rotate folder chevrons when the folder is open in the UI. Fixed in 42946a110f
• Hide “Run Notebook” and environment selector if the notebook doesn’t contain any executable cells (or disable them, or display an appropriate warning).
• Display a spinner while a cell is still running. Fixed in fb4826919e

Nischal

Low-level issues / requests:

• For installation: mention node version installation and what min version you need etc. When editing a cell, it’s odd to see the last run output above the editable text area (maybe clear or have it below editing area.
• You might want a default stream: true set for long-running operations, and a stop operation button (Eric mentioned also) which stops command (and clears output?)
• A clear all cells output button; alternately and more powerful would be a reset tutorial button for a given md; however, I do recognize this is probably not trivial as it involves resetting.
• Agree w. Eric that I want to be able to default to a particular environment, then allow user to explicitly switch.

Future Ideas:

• For student-facing tutorial aspect, I would maybe not allow editing of cell options sometimes and instead only allow edit of command. Perhaps a flag in md can flip this capability on/off as I imagine instructor might want it on for constructing/testing mds.
• This might already be in there internally, but for the instructor/developer facing side, I’d like a show/hide executable cell, which is something that’s handy in the rmarkdown world. For e.g. show: true param which could be default true .
• Obvious one, but I’d like other script-y language cells 😄 I do see a js example in the readme, and I didn’t attempt to do any poking around to see how but I imagine it’s doable.
• ^ Related to this: guide for developers on how to add support of other types of cells (e.g. to play with research ideas on types of cells you could have for doc/tutorials like editable diagrams) . This is actually pretty tough though and I find a lot of libraries make this process super difficult.
• Tutorial idea: I wonder if you can make a trippy client/server/docker lesson where you locally build up a tiny web app (might require an file update/append feature), and get them to deploy the completed web app on a docker or vm. Then send basic http requests from host to Docker server. I imagine you can do a lot of tutorials since you can have multiple environments.
• Embed html elements for further interactivity: what if you included a tiny widget cell (that’s generated while processing md), that allows user/student to play with a concept. This might depend on how the parsing works for md -> html. For e.g. in rmd, I could put in a div element in md and I believe rmarkdown package will incorporate it in final html.

<div id="help-hint">
**Hint:** Type `?mpg` and then click the Submit Answer button.
</div>