i absolutely HATE trying to edit my notebook in the browser

Community Help
1

Probably lots of people say this but I’m a neovim nerd and I’m using coc/node.js/neovim/python3/gitlab/github/etc… in my normal workflow.

I’m a fan of d3 for visualization, especially interactive visualization, but every time I’ve used observable I’ve gotten… irritable. It’s just that editing the notebook in the browser is painfully laggy and cumbersome, you don’t have granular control over commits… things else.

So, I’ve been trying to figure out how to set up a working environment locally that I can commit but I’ve really just had no luck.

Obviously I could beat my head against a wall until I get eslint working with notebook syntax typescript but that seems like it would take a lot of work and be sub-par even once I get it working. Download code seems to be downloading rendered/compiled code rather than the actual notebook. I’ve played around getting started with npx observable but if you can’t tell… I obviously have no clue what to do with it:

 mattg   observable  master ≢    npx observable pull @skyleach/matthew-gregory-skill-relevance-timeline
observable: unknown command 'pull'. See 'observable help'.
 mattg   observable  master ≢    npx observable help
usage: observable <command>
create create a new app from a template
preview start the preview server
build generate a static site
login sign-in to Observable
logout sign-out of Observable
deploy deploy an app to Observable [deprecated]
whoami check authentication status
convert convert an Observable notebook to Markdown
help print usage information
version print the version
 mattg   observable  master ≢    npx observable version pwsh at 21:56:25
1.13.3

2

You will like Observable Notebooks 2.0 Technology Preview | Observable with vite for hot reloading off plain text notebooks.

3

Please be conscious that actual humans are reading and receiving your irritation and negative sentiment. It would feel nicer to engage if the topic was a bit less aggressive. (And I second Tom’s comment that notebooks 2.0 could be a way for you to find a workflow that you like.)

1 Like
4

I would like to point out that I agree with your sentiment. Nobody working on the project deserves to put up with any negativity from anyone. That’s why I did my utmost to avoid any in my post.

I sincerely do not know of any way to discuss a negative experience without describing that experience as negative in some way, shape or form. It is, as far as I am aware, a requirement of language.

I do not feel comfortable expanding on this further as the entire subject seems to be a red herring and off-topic. Thank you for doubling down on the recommendation above. I appreciate knowing there may be a solution that works for me. I love the concept of the service, it’s merely the development requirements I am aware of in my limited experience that I wish to resolve.