New Web interface for Sage NB

[Samuel]

Since I've been out for the summer, I decided to give Sage another try. The first thing I did was open up an account on the sagenb.org site and I was somewhat put off by the interface so I put together a new one in the last few days. Check it out

Worksheet - http://taekwond0.hostei.com/worksheet.html

Notebook style 1 - http://taekwond0.hostei.com/nb_home.html

Notebook style 2 - http://taekwond0.hostei.com/nb_home1.html

I personally prefer notebook style 2 but I'm not really sure yet. Opinions?

New features:

• interface that doesn't make me want to hit things when I look at it
• syntax highlighting
• real tabs
• better code completion (hit ctrl-space in an input cell. right now it just gives javascript completions for testing)
• MathJax output typesetting (hit shift enter in an input cell to see some random examples)
• fully responsive layout which means that it might be somewhat mobile/tablet compatible (try resizing the browser window)
• cleaner single cell mode controls
• reorganized some of the buttons/features to make UI more logical

The interface is built on the Bootstrap framework (http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/) and takes advantage of HTML5 and some more modern javascript libraries including LESS (http://lesscss.org/), CodeMirror (http://codemirror.net/), and MathJax (http://www.mathjax.org/).

I hope that this interface may be incorporated into the Sage Notebook and perhaps more importantly make the goals which William Stein set out in this blog post here http://sagemath.blogspot.com/2011/11/is-time-ripe-for-httpsagenbcom.html more feasible. In order to incorporate this interface into the Sage Notebook a lot of functionality in notebook_lib.js will need to be transitioned into the new interface. As far as I can tell, the amount of work to make this happen will be minimal since all of the necessary functionality already exists in notebook_lib.js. If anything, we will be removing more code from notebook_lib.js file than we will be adding to it. I have been cracking into the code in notebook_lib.js in the past few days but I don't fully understand how the Sage Notebook is set up on that end of things. If someone would be willing to help me apply the code in notebook_lib.js to this interface that would be awesome.

Questions, comments, and criticism are all more than welcome.

Samuel

[Jason Grout]

On 5/25/12 12:33 PM, Samuel wrote:
> Since I've been out for the summer, I decided to give Sage another try.
> The first thing I did was open up an account on the sagenb.org site and
> I was somewhat put off by the interface so I put together a new one in
> the last few days. Check it out
>
> Worksheet - http://taekwond0.hostei.com/worksheet.html
> Notebook style 1 - http://taekwond0.hostei.com/nb_home.html
> Notebook style 2 - http://taekwond0.hostei.com/nb_home1.html
>
> I personally prefer notebook style 2 but I'm not really sure yet. Opinions?
>

This is great stuff!

There are several other efforts going on as well with the sage notebook.
Maybe it would be good for us to have a google+ hangout where someone
(I'd do it if no one else volunteers) walks through the current sage
notebook source and explains the directory layout, basic process flow,
etc. Then we can take questions.

I know at least that Kyle Brooks at UPS is working on the notebook
(implementing tags and folders, IIRC), and Keshav Kini and several
others have been committing pull requests. I also have 4 students
working with me on the Sage cell server, with a secondary goal of
developing IPython notebook experience so that we can evaluate working
with them on the notebook effort.

I've put up a Doodle for times next week to do a 1 hour Google+ hangout
on the Sage notebook here:

http://www.doodle.com/6qw82adkxsf3a8hs

Just check the times that are good for you (pay attention to the
timezone, of course).

If none of those times works for someone that really wants to develop in
the notebook, let me know.

Thanks,

Jason

[Samuel]

Sounds great. I'd definitely be interested in a Google+ hangout. A Sage Notebook bootcamp is exactly what I need. I was not aware that those other projects existed... that's pretty cool stuff.

Samuel

[Dan Drake]

On Fri, 25 May 2012 at 10:33AM -0700, Samuel wrote:
> Since I've been out for the summer, I decided to give Sage another
> try. The first thing I did was open up an account on the sagenb.org
> site and I was somewhat put off by the interface so I put together a
> new one in the last few days. Check it out
>
> Worksheet - http://taekwond0.hostei.com/worksheet.html
> Notebook style 1 - http://taekwond0.hostei.com/nb_home.html
> Notebook style 2 - http://taekwond0.hostei.com/nb_home1.html
>

Those look really nice. I'd like to see your work get merged.

There will be a Sage Days meeting soon where people will work on the
notebook (http://wiki.sagemath.org/days41). Could you attend that?

Dan

--
--- Dan Drake
----- http://mathsci.kaist.ac.kr/~drake
-------

[Samuel]

Maybe, I just heard about the Sage Days a few hours ago so I may or may not be able to come in person. If not, I will probably be able to attend remotely. Either way, I'm looking forward to it.

Samuel