[jeeceebees]

Distill[1] is another example of interactive scientific papers (with a focus on machine learning).

But is there really a good reason to not just keep these in browser? I don't really know if there's much value in reading these locally. Maybe this would be a good fit for an electron app?

[1] https://distill.pub/

[MayeulC]

I would like HTML files to mostly replace pdf documents. However, they lack a couple things:

* A way to save back form data. I believe google is working on a js api to access local files (given a few conditions). * A way to bundle the html with every js script, ressource, css, etc, in one file, without making a huge mess.

If you had a tar.gz with an index.html inside, and the browser was to transparently allow r/w access to the archive contents from contained js scripts, this could solve a lot of use cases (heck, even "electron" apps could be replace by this). One exception being printed documents (postscript), at which pdf is quite good.

[nuclx]

I'm in the same boat with browser-based vs electron apps (see my question [1]). I don't think PDF-based forms are an alternative to reactive web forms though, as they aren't dynamic enough. The sole purpose of PDF is page-oriented print, which html(+js) can't deliver.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16773933

[TeMPOraL]

<Insert the long list of arguments about Internet (especially _fast_ Internet) not being as ubiquitous as living in SV could make you think.>

That behind us, there's also a matter of reliability and control. Services live much shorter than data they process; given today's trend, I wouldn't expect an online-only paper to be available after 5-10 years. Having a self-contained bundle would let me archive it independently, and would prevent any third parties from being able to interfere with my reading/exploration.

[the_duke]

You can write self contained, single file .html documents just fine.

[pjmlp]

Not when you need images, and if you need to display 3D data you are required to actually serve textures over a server.

[elcomet]

You can embed images in the HTML as well

[pjmlp]

Sure, if you resort to tricks like Base64 encoding in strings, that won't do for WebGL textures though.