[enriquto]

> They contain code, rendered Markdown, images, plots, video players, widgets, etc.

The code could be verbatim python code (or whatever language the notebook uses), and the rest could be embedded inside comments. I don't see any problem with that (besides the very concept of "rendered Markdown" being totally out of order). The fact that they are saving it as json by default seems more to be laziness by the developers than a well thought-out solution, that could be just a straightforward serializer.

[Jugurtha]

>and the rest could be embedded inside comments. I don't see any problem with that

Do you mean embedding images and plots inside comments? If yes, please elaborate on how you see that happening in the real world.

>The fact that they are saving it as json by default seems more to be laziness by the developers than a well thought-out solution, that could be just a straightforward serializer.

So, how would that well thought-out solution in the form of a "straightforward serializer" work? I have a flat file, and I want to display images, plots that you can zoom into out of, figures, etc. as comments. How would that happen?

[disgruntledphd2]

Well you could look at the source for org-mode, which does what Jupyter does but in Emacs, and using plain-text files.

https://github.com/bzg/org-mode

[enriquto]

> How would that happen?

At the very least, you could put the whole json stuff inside a comment. It's already plain text, isn't it?

[lenkite]

Python supports multi-line strings for this. No need for comments.

[Jugurtha]

>At the very least, you could put the whole json stuff inside a comment. It's already plain text, isn't it?

So instead of having the whole file as JSON, which is lazy and not well thought-out, we'll put all content in JSON, then put that JSON inside a comment in a plain text file. Do I read you correctly?

I feel we're making progress faster than these lazy Jupyter org bandits.

[enriquto]

> we'll put all content in JSON, then put that JSON inside a comment in a plain text file

Only the "output" content. The code inside the cells is verbatim, and the markdwon cells are regular text comments.

See, I'm not discussing you just because. I have a legitimate problem with ipynb: very often I want to run the code of a notebook from the command line, or import it from another python program. This is quite cumbersome with the ipynb, but it would be trivial if it was a simple program with comments.

[Jugurtha]

I believe people reading this are not detecting the sarcasm. I'm demonstrating that the Jupyter folks are not lazy engineers, and the "obvious" solutions people come up with are not that well thought-out when you start actually thinking about them.