nteract v2 Project Outline

[rgbkrk]

Project Overview

Objective: Develop nteract v2 as a performant and stable desktop notebook application, focusing on fluid user experience and rapid prototyping.

Key Features

• Fluid User Experience: Emphasis on speed and responsiveness, particularly in creating and manipulating notebook cells.
• Backend-Managed State: State management primarily handled by the Rust backend.
• Performance Focus: Leverage Tauri's performance benefits to enhance application efficiency.

Lessons from nteract v1

• Transition away from nteract web, content refs, myths, and bundled components.
• Adopt a one notebook per window approach.
• Discontinue play.nteract.io and webpack configurator.

Strategy for nteract v2

• Build an integrated application, not a modular toolkit.
• Offload outputs to a content store for standardization and performance.
• Emphasize a design that facilitates fluid interactions and rapid prototyping.
• Switch to Tailwind CSS and/or shadcn/ui for UI development.

Technical Decision: Tauri vs. Electron

• Preference for Tauri due to its performance benefits and alignment with the project's renewed focus, despite Electron's familiarity and more complete API set.

Phases of Development

Initial Phase: Planning and Research

👇🏻 You are here 👇🏾

• Define the project scope and technical requirements.
• Research Tauri's capabilities
• Investigate integration with Jupyter kernels.
• Draft a detailed design document outlining the desired user experience.

Ongoing Phases: Development, Integration, and Deployment

Backend Development (Rust)

• Implement functions for notebook manipulation and interaction with Jupyter kernels.
• Develop CRDT logic for real-time document synchronization.
• Establish communication protocols with the frontend.

Frontend Development

• Design and implement the notebook viewing and editing interface using Tailwind CSS.
• Integrate CRDT logic for real-time editing and synchronization with the backend.
• Focus on creating a immersively iterable notebook for prototyping

Integration and Testing

• Continuous integration of separate backend and frontend components
• Develop end-to-end tests using a real kernel

Deployment and Documentation

• Ongoing preparation for frequent releases with a focus on CI/CD efficiency
• Continuous development of documentation and user guides
• Foster community involvement and establish contribution guidelines

Risk Management

• Address challenges in adopting new technology (Tauri) and integrating it with existing systems.
• Ensure a balance between performance focus and maintaining an intuitive and engaging user interface.

[rgbkrk]

[rgbkrk]

[jarmokivekas]

This came up in my notification feed and I felt like popping in and wishing y'all good luck with this project. I've really enjoyed using the previous nteract so I'm curious to see where this will go :)