BSbsimpson·Aug 21, 2024
Isn't Observable also open source?
https://github.com/observablehq/runtime
In Show HN: Srcbook – A TypeScript notebook for rapid prototypingobservablehq
runtime
JavaScript2019–2024
observablehq / runtime
runtime
The reactive dataflow runtime that powers Observable Notebooks
4Distinct people
5Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
1.1KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
The reactive dataflow runtime that powers Observable Notebooks
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 12:54:37 PM UTC.
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Mentions over time
HN mentions by year5 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2019-06-14 20:17:35 UTC to 2024-08-21 04:47:17 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
What Hacker News says
5 sourcesYou can read about our reactive runtime here (it’s the same as Observable notebooks even though Framework uses vanilla JavaScript syntax):
https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/how-observable-runs
And the source is here:
https://github.com/observablehq/runtime
The “trick” is to structure all code as reactive variables (or nodes, defined as pure functions) within a dataflow graph. So if you replace one variable (by replacing a function with a new import), you then have to recompute any downstream variables that depend on the replaced variable, while cleaning up old variables and updating the display.
Invalid syntax doesn’t prevent other code blocks from running (though if it means a variable is then undefined, that might cause downstream errors). Syntax errors are displayed in the page, and also in the console for the running preview serv
Read the rest
er. We’d like to improve the error display in the console to show more context around where the error occurred, since unlike notebooks the code isn’t immediately adjacent to the output.
We don’t support TypeScript yet, but there’s a PR (https://github.com/observablehq/framework/pull/129) and we are interested in stronger validation at build time to catch more errors.
And yes, we’re making different tradeoffs, optimizing for data apps and dashboards (more polished presentation) rather than ad hoc exploration in notebooks. So it’s more work to find and edit the code, but conversely it’s a more careful, deliberate process that allows code review, unit tests, continuous integration, etc. And we think that’s appropriate for data apps that are depended on by many people.
But still, a view source link back to your source control would be nice, yes!
Observable works like this (for arbitrary JavaScript):
https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/how-observable-runs
Here’s the runtime source:
https://github.com/observablehq/runtime
In How to Recalculate a Spreadsheetthere's observable runtime https://github.com/observablehq/runtime
In Learn D3And it kinda is. We provide a parser¹ and a runtime², and you can download a copy of any notebook compiled to a JavaScript module: https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/downloading-and-embed...
That said, we’re explicitly designing for the reactivity of the notebook environment. Working on fundamentally reactive code in a traditional text editor is ... alright, I guess. You’re still stuck reloading the whole enchilada any time you make a change. It’s nowhere near as exciting as working on reactive code in an editor that understands and respects the reactivity, and can keep your program running and re-evaluating as you tweak it!
That said, if you're interested something less notebook-y, check out what Rich Harris is doing with Svelte 3. It's totally a not-so-distant cousin.
1. https://github.com/observablehq/parser
2. https://github.com/o