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I kinda want Observable to be it's own language that can compile to JS... not saying it would be a good general purpose lang by any means, but it would be interesting to experiment with a 'first-class observable' language.


And 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/observablehq/runtime


Thanks for the information. Also, yes, I've been keeping a very close eye on Svelte 3 and have been experimenting with it :)


I agree. I also would bet this is where they will go.




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