2021 Jupyter Widgets Dev Meetings

[jasongrout]

Here is a record of the agenda/minutes for our bi-weekly meeting. Everyone is welcome to join.

Let's avoid using this thread for discussion. If you'd like to discuss something in the minutes, open a separate issue and reference this thread.

Meeting Notes

• 21 Dec 2021
• 14 Dec 2021
• 07 Dec 2021
• 30 Nov 2021
• 23 Nov 2021
• 16 Nov 2021
• 09 Nov 2021
• 02 Nov 2021
• 26 Oct 2021
• 19 Oct 2021
• 12 Oct 2021
• 05 Oct 2021
• 28 Sep 2021
• 21 Sep 2021
• 14 Sep 2021
• 07 Sep 2021
• 31 Aug 2021
• 24 Aug 2021
• 17 Aug 2021
• 10 Aug 2021
• 03 Aug 2021
• 13 Jul 2021
• 6 Jul 2021
• 29 Jun 2021
• 22 Jun 2021
• 15 Jun 2021
• 08 Jun 2021
• 01 Jun 2021
• 18 May 2021
• 04 May 2021
• 27 Apr 2021
• 13 Apr 2021
• 08 Apr 2021
• 01 Apr 2021
• 25 Mar 2021
• 18 Mar 2021
• 04 Mar 2021
• 18 Feb 2021
• 02 Feb 2021

[jasongrout]

02 Feb 2021

3pm UTC (Local time)

(This meeting was set up and discussed on Gitter here and here)

Agenda

• Background on 8.0
• high-level goals
• summary of current state of 8.0 release
• triage of current 8.0 issues
• discussion of timeline
• Should we publish widgetsnbextension 4, cutting out the notebook dependency, before ipywidgets 8? See version 8.0.0 seems not working with Jupyter Lab 2.0 ipywidgets#2840 (comment) and ipympl when jupyter and ipython kernel are in different conda environment matplotlib/ipympl#34
• Meetings moving forward

Minutes

• Attending

  • Jason Grout @jasongrout
  • Carol Willing @willingc
  • Vidar Tonaas Fauske @vidartf
  • Matthew Seal @MSeal
  • Ian Hunt-Isaak @ianhi
  • Alex Cabrera @cabreraalex
  • Itay Dafna @ibdafna
  • Matt Craig @mwcraig
  • mariana meireles @marimeireles
  • Martin Renou @martinRenou
  • Maarten Breddels @maartenbreddels
  • David Brochart @davidbrochart
  • Matt Hong @matt1hong
  • Jeremy Tuloup @jtpio

• Introductions:

  • Good mix of new and old faces

• 8.0 Summary:

  • Workshop last year in January
  • Development has since stalled due to shifting priorities
  • Current issues on 8.0 milestone: https://github.com/jupyter-widgets/ipywidgets/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+milestone%3A8.0
  • master is 8.0, and we have a 7.x branch

• Any other main things in 8.0

  • Persistence of image for graphic widgets (perhaps 8.x?)
  • Real-time collaboration on widgets with multiple clients
    • Sylvain and Quantstack working on RTC, possibly for ipywidgets 9.0

• 8.0 Issue Triage: all issues were assigned to someone.

• Further meetings: we will meet every other week. Jason is setting up a poll for a time.

[jasongrout]

18 Feb 2021

Attendees: Jason, Maarten, Jeremy, Ian, Sylvain, Martin, Itay

• Jason

  • Changelog: https://ipywidgets--3132.org.readthedocs.build/en/3132/changelog.html
  • Python 3.5 support
  • lmWidget vs luminoWidget

• Jeremy

  • New cookiecutter based tutorial: https://ipywidgets.readthedocs.io/en/latest/examples/Widget%20Custom.html
  • We should try to finish and merge the 3.0 PR: Update for JupyterLab 3 widget-ts-cookiecutter#83

• Itay

  • Modernizing our python packaging practices: Update packaging to use more modern python practices widget-cookiecutter#87
  • A suggestion to use setuptools_scm

• Ian

  • custom ipywidget howto into docs?
    • Transfer to jupyter-widgets org

• Maarten

  • State sync bug Widget out of sync: fundamental issue? ipywidgets#3111
    • Related issue on echoing comm messages to all clients: Broadcast Comm shell messages on iopub jupyter/jupyter_client#263
  • (post 8.0.0) Only save visible widgets, and save by default: Feature: always save state of widgets, and only those required ipywidgets#3114
  • (post 8.0.0) Embed mime bundles: Feature: save additional mime bundles in notebook ipywidgets#3107

Discussion

• widgets.register what is it for?
  • should it be default in the cookiecutter? - no
  • should be better documented - Ian open an issue.
• Triage 8.0 issues

[ianhi]

4 Mar 2021

Attendees:
@jasongrout, @vidartf, @maartenbreddels, @ianhi, @ibdafna, @jtpio, @marimeireles

• ian

  • What is advice for people who want blocking widgets
    • (SO + issue)
    • See https://ipywidgets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/examples/Widget%20Asynchronous.html
    • Perhaps we change the kernel protocol to allow the kernel to process comm messages even if it is not idle (for example, if a cell has an await)?
    • We could ship the utility functions in the widget async docs, and make some more examples using them. Especially with dependencies on modern Python + ipykernel, this is more feasiable than before.
    • Make async waiting easier to use - make docs more approachable, ship utility function (ian make issue)
  • Automated releasing secrets? who can add them? Add github action for releasing jupyterlab-sidecar#62
    • We could release based on setting a tag. That makes it very easy, maybe too easy?
    • We could release based on drafting a GitHub release.
    • Ian and Jason getting together to explore this.
  • [not discussed] unify cookiecutter? Unify cookiecutters? #4

• Maarten

  • Saving widget state: Feature: always save state of widgets, and only those required ipywidgets#3114

• Discussion

  • ipywidgets contrib
    • Perhaps open a repo or new github org. Things are merged basically automatically, with very minimal vetting.

[jasongrout]

18 Mar 2021

Attendees: @jasongrout, @SylvainCorlay, @ianhi, @jtpio

• Jason

  • 8.0.0a4 (supporting jlab 3) was released 22 Feb
  • Traitlets 4 vs 5: Traitlets 4 vs 5 changes defaults in message spec ipywidgets#3110 - Sylvain looking into it.

• Ian

  • Making 8.0 happen? (We're going to keep plugging away at it, no firm timeline, dependent on how much work people put into the issues and PRs on the milestone)
  • New Issue Labels? Proposal for new Issue Labels ipywidgets#3161
    • Yes

• Jeremy

  • Initial steps for a widget examples repo: Bootstrap structure for a widget examples repo ianhi/custom-ipywidget-howto#13
    • Plan to move to jupyter widgets organization as it gets polished
  • Update to TypeScript 4.2? Should this go in before 8.0? Update to TypeScript 4.3 ipywidgets#3162
    • Yes

What is the status of pythreejs? It is now a prebuilt extension compatible with JupyterLab 3.

Meeting times: We decided to move to a weekly meeting schedule to help development momentum, and re-evaluate the time to better accommodate those that are actually coming to the meetings. Since we're in the middle of a confusing time where some of us are on Daylight Saving time and others aren't, we'll keep the 7am Pacific Daylight Time meeting for Thursday, 25 Mar. Jason will send out a poll for a new meeting time for a weekly meeting for the following week.

[jtpio]

25 Mar 2021

Attendees: @jtpio, @jasongrout, @vidartf

• Jeremy

  • Export LabWidgetManager and KernelWidgetManager: Export LabWidgetManager and KernelWidgetManager ipywidgets#3166
  • Revive "Restore widgets in batches" PR? Restore widgets in batches to not exceed the zmq high water mark message limit in the kernel ipywidgets#2765

• Vidar

  • Is this ok as is, or does it need any further changes? :)
    • Fix character escapes in combobox options ipywidgets#2972
    • Add datetime and time pickers ipywidgets#2715

• Discussion

  • Time change - new poll going out about a time for the meeting

[jtpio]

01 Apr 2021

Attendees: @jtpio, @ianhi, @jasongrout, @SylvainCorlay, @blois

• Jeremy:

  • Thanks Mehmet for adding visual regression testing: Visual regression testing using Galata ipywidgets#3172
  • Martin did something similar for bqplot: Add visual regression tests for selection bqplot/bqplot#1315

• Ian:
  - Blocking? Include example of ipython_blocking ianhi/custom-ipywidget-howto#17

• Discussion

  • Time change poll about a new time for the meeting

  • Blocking

    • Issue #12786: Create hook for dispatching GUI messages asynchronously  ipython/ipykernel#589
    • Wrap around stdin to get blocking? This is what google colab does:
    • https://github.com/googlecolab/colabtools/blob/main/google/colab/_message.py
    • Can possibly think about it as we have rich output, but not rich input.

  • 8.0 release. Stability of ipywidgets for breaking into multiple releases to get 8.0 done?

[jtpio]

08 Apr 2021

Attendees: @ianhi, @jtpio

• Discussions
  • Next meeting time results: http://whenisgood.net/nx49zs8/results/538da5r
  • Best candidate: Tuesdays at 09:00 am Pacific

[jtpio]

13 Apr 2021

Attendees: @ianhi, @jasongrout

• Discussions
  • Deep dive on potential of using stdin as a mechanism for blocking until a user interacts with a widget.
  • Ian will create an issue summarizing everything that can be used as a starting place for further investigations.

[jtpio]

27 Apr 2021

Attendees: @jtpio, @ibdafna, @ianhi, @vidartf

• Discussions
  • Async widget methods and dispatching GUI messages asynchronously:
    • Async widget methods deadlock due to on_msg not being called ipython/ipykernel#646
    • Issue #12786: Create hook for dispatching GUI messages asynchronously  ipython/ipykernel#589
  • Status of ipywidgets 8.0 release

[jtpio]

04 May 2021

Attendees: @ibdafna, @ianhi, @vidartf

• Ian: Changing defaults?

  • Don't use names=traitlets.All in observe ipywidgets#3193

• Vidar:

  • Maarten posted this on gitter Kernel is the source of truth: support multiple clients and fixes out of sync bug ipywidgets#3195