7.0 Release Plan

[jtpio]

This is an issue for 7.0 release planning. It will continue to be updated as we plan and develop Jupyter Notebook v7.

From the Notebook v7 Jupyter Enhancement Proposal:

The next major release of the Jupyter Notebook application, version 7, will be based on the JupyterLab codebase, but will provide an equivalent user experience to the current (version 6) application.

Notebook v7 Project Board

Issues and PRs related to Notebook v7 are tracked in this board: Notebook v7 (view)

We also use the 7.0 milestone to add any issue and PR relevant to the 7.0 release: https://github.com/jupyter/notebook/milestone/45

Relevant Links

• Notebook v7 JEP: https://jupyter.org/enhancement-proposals/79-notebook-v7/notebook-v7.html
• 7.0 pre-release
  • Issue: Pre-release plan for Notebook v7 #6266
  • Release: https://github.com/jupyter/notebook/releases/tag/v7.0.0a1
• [Discuss] The future of the classic notebook interface #6210

[gutow]

May 28, 2022 - interface testing from perspective of one of the users who would like to maintain parity with the old notebook interface.
First: this is looking really good from the user interface perspective. I am still trying to get set up to port extensions and will comment on that later/elsewhere, as appropriate.

1. The interface recovers most of the simplicity of the classic notebook. It is not identical, but it is still relatively simple.
2. It is odd to have it start up in collaborative mode. I am not sure that should be the default. Although, I am not sure it causes a problem.
3. Automatic saving on by default seems a little strange to me. That said, fewer things are likely to be lost. I think problems depend on the rate of checkpointing. If somebody makes a mistake it may be necessary to role back quite a bit. With only intentional saves, things are not accidentally overwritten. However, most students are conditioned to expect automatic saving. It might be worth having a menu item for checkpoint rate and number of checkpoints to keep.
4. "Close and Shutdown notebook" does not exit the browser tab. This is very confusing.
5. I believe the notebook metadata specifies the kernel. If a kernel is specified the notebook should open with that kernel by default if the kernel is available.
6. There is no way to access cell metadata for editing. It looks as if this is being addressed in Cell tools for notebook v7 #6419.
7. It would also be nice to have the trusted/untrusted indicator back.

Things are looking good.

[jtpio]

Many thanks @gutow for the feedback 👍

It is odd to have it start up in collaborative mode. I am not sure that should be the default. Although, I am not sure it causes a problem.

Probably you were trying using the Binder link in the README? It sets the collaborative flag by default so it's easier to test RTC on Binder:

notebook/jupyter_config.json

Line 3 in 16a297a

"JupyterNotebookApp": { "collaborative": true, "expose_app_in_browser": true }

Automatic saving on by default seems a little strange to me.

This is also a side-effect of having RTC enabled, and should not be the case when starting without the collaborative flag.

You can try the latest v7 pre-release with the following gist on Binder which doesn't have RTC enabled: https://gist.github.com/jtpio/0f3c67a6a1767360df0e79b52d74a5fe

"Close and Shutdown notebook" does not exit the browser tab. This is very confusing.

Mind opening an issue? Or maybe this could be part of #6397.

It would also be nice to have the trusted/untrusted indicator back.

Yes, there was a previous attempt at adding it in the former RetroLab repo: jupyterlab/retrolab#279
Which could be ported over here.

[gutow]

Many thanks @gutow for the feedback +1

You're welcome. Sorry about the slow reply. I was traveling.

It is odd to have it start up in collaborative mode. I am not sure that should be the default. Although, I am not sure it causes a problem.

Probably you were trying using the Binder link in the README? It sets the collaborative flag by default so it's easier to test RTC on Binder:

Actually, I was working with a clone of the repository locally. I am hoping to get things to the stage where I can test porting some of my widgets to the JLab within this interface.

"Close and Shutdown notebook" does not exit the browser tab. This is very confusing.

Mind opening an issue? Or maybe this could be part of #6397.

I think this belongs as part of #6397 and will add to that.

It would also be nice to have the trusted/untrusted indicator back.

Yes, there was a previous attempt at adding it in the former RetroLab repo: jupyterlab/retrolab#279 Which could be ported over here.

Please port.

[frenzymadness]

I'm interested in this from a different perspective. I maintain a lot of notebook/jupyter-related RPM packages in Fedora Linux. We had only Notebook packaged for a long time because Lab required too many dependencies and nobody was willing to invest time to package them. When I saw the effort to make Notebook 7 work on components from Lab, I started with packaging the long tree of dependencies and I'm almost done and Lab will soon be available in Fedora Linux as an RPM package.
Right now, we have Notebook version 6.4.12 and I'm thinking whether it makes sense to update it to 6.5.2. The problem is that Notebook 6.5.2 needs nbclassic package which we don't have yet and which is not needed for Notebook v 7. How long do you think it will take before the release of Notebook 7? Does it make sense to invest my time to packaging nbclassic and updating Notebook to 6.5.2 or better is to wait for Notebook 7?

[jtpio]

Many thanks @frenzymadness for your work on packaging! And for raising the question here 👍

whether it makes sense to update it to 6.5.2

Normally the 6.5.x line is only for preparing the transition to 7. And potentially getting some critical security updates. There is more information in this blog post: https://blog.jupyter.org/jupyter-notebook-6-5-0-release-candidate-4c229c6dab55

Does it make sense to invest my time to packaging nbclassic

At first glance I would say the current list of dependencies for nbclassic should overlap quite a lot with the ones of the current Notebook 6 and JupyterLab 3. Looking at the list I am however wondering whether all of them are required.

How long do you think it will take before the release of Notebook 7?

The Notebook 7 release is conditioned by the JupyterLab 4 release, which is tracked in jupyterlab/jupyterlab#9647. In the last JupyterLab dev meeting, we discussed entering a feature freeze by the end of February 2023, so a beta would follow shortly after. Once a beta of JupyterLab 4 is available there will likely be a beta for Notebook 7 as well, and so on until the final release. Hopefully all of this will happen in the coming month although there is no clear date yet.

[frenzymadness]

Thank you for the quick and useful answer. Fedora 38 (currently in development) has its beta freeze on the 21st of February so my current plan is to package nbclassic and update notebook to 6.5 before the beta freeze and update notebook to 7 in Fedora 39. Notebook is in Fedora for years so it should remain stable, and therefore small steps are better for it. I'd also like to add Lab (alpha/beta release) into Fedora 38/39 as soon as possible so users can test it and provide feedback.