What is the status of Framework now that Notebooks 2.0 have been announced?

[iconara]

There seems to be a big overlap between Framework and Notebooks 2.0. Will Framework be developed independently, folded into Notebooks, deprecated, or what will happen?

[mbostock]

Thanks for the question! Notebooks 2.0 represents our attempt to incorporate lessons learned from Framework back into Notebooks.

Specifically, in Notebooks 2.0 we are: adopting a local-first, file-based workflow to allow greater flexibility in asynchronous collaboration and sharing; as part of that, establishing an open file format (file over app); adopting static site generation to improve performance and give greater control over what is shared, including via continuous deployment; and eventually (at least starting with SQL), supporting polyglot workflows (i.e., code that runs outside the browser). I wrote more about this in our tech preview announcement.

In building Framework, we realized we also missed the fluidity of Notebooks for rapid exploration and collaboration. You can make beautiful dashboards in Framework, but the side-by-side development style (code in your editor, live preview in your browser) of Framework — combined with only being able to share static sites — make it less conducive for exploratory data analysis. We’re excited about the dual interface approach of Notebooks 2.0, where there’s a specialized editor that’s great for exploration (currently only for desktop, but coming soon to the web and with real-time collaboration), combined with building static sites for sharing. This also allows us to make different trade-offs in interface design, optimizing the editor for editing and built sites for viewing.

Add to this, we also now have Canvases for visual exploration and cross-functional collaboration. Whereas Notebooks are focused on the data analyst persona and writing code, Canvases are designed for a broader audience: everyone in your organization that wants to explore data and consume analysis.

All of this to say, our goal is that use cases currently supported by Framework should eventually migrate to Notebooks 2.0 and/or Canvases. Framework will continue to work and be supported, and as an open-source project can always be extended by the community, but our development efforts are currently focused on Notebooks and Canvases. If there is functionality that we could add to Notebooks 2.0 or Canvases to better meet your needs, please let us know!

[MoritzStefaner]

Love the direction this is taking! Any plans to bringing framework-style loaders in other languages (python, R, …) into Notebooks 2.0? I have seen this to be a major plus in terms of adoption from non-JS-first data science practitioners.

[jack-davison]

Sorry to piggy back on this thread! But on a similar theme-

our development efforts are currently focused on Notebooks and Canvases

I'm just keen to understand - is Observable Plot part of Observable's new focus? It's a fab tool to support using Notebooks & Framework, but there are some features like brushing / panning / zooming that'd be great to see to help round out what it can do.

[mbostock]

@MoritzStefaner Thanks! In fact, I’m working on that right now; see observablehq/notebook-kit@82ae796. We’re starting with Node.js data loaders, but the approach should be readily extensible to other languages.

[mbostock]

@jack-davison Yes, we’re still developing and supporting Observable Plot. It hasn’t gotten much attention lately because of the other things we’re building, but we’d like to get back to it soon. Brushing, panning & zooming are at the top of the list. Usage of Plot is growing steadily and we’ll continue to invest in it.