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Instructions for Pluto.jl developers and contributors

Hey! Thank you for your interest in working on THE FUTURE our modest little project! We hope you are enjoying Pluto. Look 👀 at the different ways you can contribute to Pluto's future:

If you like using Pluto

Use it often, and leave feedback with the built-in suggestion box! We only have a limited view of all the things that can be done with Julia. We rely on YOU to figure it out, and let us know!

If you are interested in educational writing, and you have a topic that you want to share, consider writing a sample notebook for Pluto! We want to get a diverse set of topics. Here are some tips to begin:

  • A sample notebook can - and should - invite the reader to explore. How can you use that to teach something new?
  • Try to match the atmosphere and style of existing sample notebooks - more like a conversation, less like a script.
  • Sample notebooks will have the Unlicense - do you agree?
  • Contact us while writing a sample notebook to make sure that we are all on the same page.

If you want to work with Julia

Pluto needs more sample notebooks, example code, and good compatibility with other packages. Many packages work well in Pluto, but some were designed with a specific IDE in mind (e.g. Jupyter, Juno). Getting them working with Pluto is often a minor fix!

As for working with Pluto's internals, the foundation of the Pluto's backend in Julia is mostly done. (Most upcoming goals are JavaScript projects.) However, there are many long-term goals that require tricky Julia code, so if you are interested, have a look at the GitHub issues or ask us!

If you want to work with JavaScript

If you want to work on Pluto's internals, this is where the fun is! As you'll see on our GitHub Issues, there is lots to do here!

Getting started with JavaScript for Pluto is a snap 🚀

  • No build tools needed! Just change the JS code and refresh your browser. (Use the browser dev tools and VS Code.)
  • Test only on the latest Firefox and Chrome browsers.
  • The front-end is written in React (actually, Preact with htm instead of JSX). If you know React, you can jump straight in. If not, you can read up on the basics of React, but many TODO items are doable without an understanding of the overall structure.
  • The Pluto.jl has a .vscode folder that will automatically set up your development environment with the right extensions and debugging tools.
  • If you are working on a large feature, we recommend setting up editing CSS source files directly from the Chrome inspector.

We are always happy to do a video/audio call to talk about the project, about your project, and to help you get started! Get in touch over email/slack/zulip/Pluto feedback!

Pluto is an opinionated project serving beginner programmers

We are excited to hear what you want to work on, but be sure to chat with us before endeavouring on a large contribution, to make sure that we are on the same page. Why? Because Pluto is different from many other open source projects in two important ways:

  • The intended audience for Pluto is beginner programmers. That's right, you are not the intended audience. Our driving goal is to make scientific computing more accessible, and we start by focusing on people with very little programming experience. This means that we are very interested in things like sample notebooks, Live Docs, a Pkg GUI, unintimidating UI, and so on. We will not work on things like a vim mode, customizable everything and other "pro tools". Maybe later!
  • We will not implement every feature suggestion, even if it is objectively nice. We try to keep a minimal and orthogonal feature set. Pluto's development is currently not a straight path to perfection, it is more like a simulated annealing process. By having a small set of (tasteful) features, we keep the project maintable and flexible.

Setting up for the first time

First, fork the project and git clone the project somewhere, perhaps into a ~/dev/Pluto.jl/ directory.

Next, open the project's folder in VS Code/Atom (we use VS Code), and make sure that you have a nice programming environment for Git, Julia and JavaScript. But since you are interested in Pluto, we probably don't need to tell you that! 😚

If you have npm installed, go to the frontend/ folder and run npm install. This will set up some extra type declarations, for a better editing/linting experience in VS Code.

Create a clean package and testing environment

Pluto is an IDE, so we will also create a clean package environment to use it in:

  1. Create a directory and start julia.
mkdir ~/pluto_tests
cd ~/pluto_tests
julia
  1. Next, type ] at the julia> prompt to enter the package manager:
julia> ]
(@v1.7) pkg>
  1. Activate the environment and load the local Pluto.jl package:
(@v1.7) pkg> activate .
(pluto_tests) pkg> dev ~/dev/Pluto.jl

We have just created a clean package environment called pluto_tests. We then 'added' the local Pluto.jl package into that environment pluto_tests.

In the next section, we'll tell you how to get started. But first, let us explain three different package environments:

  1. The ~/pluto_tests environment - this environment has only one project package: your local version of Pluto.jl. It's created and maintained by you - a Pluto developer. It also contains two other Julia basic packages, Base and Core.
  2. The ~/dev/Pluto.jl environment - this environment is the Pluto.jl package, and contains exactly all dependencies of Pluto (which are listed in ~/dev/Pluto.jl/Project.toml). You probably don't want to activate this environment, nor change it. You also don't launch Pluto from this environment.
  3. Any other environment that uses Pluto (including the default environment) - you probably want to add "Pluto" from the Julia package registry, not your local development version. A Pluto notebook worker will probably run in a different package environment than the one you launched Pluto from. This is confusing - and will be changed at some point.

Okay!

How to start your day

Open a terminal (why do programming guides always start with that 😡) and launch your local version of Pluto.jl:

cd ~/pluto_tests
julia --optimize=0 --project="." -e "import Pluto; Pluto.run()"

When changing JavaScript code, just save and refresh the browser.

When changing Julia code, press Ctrl+C in the terminal, then Arrow up, then Return to restart Pluto.

Note: this will not do a clean shutdown when you press Ctrl+C, so only use this during development!

To run the Julia tests:

julia --project="."

then ] to enter the package manager, and type

(pluto_tests) pkg> test Pluto

To run the tests a second time, do Arrow up, then Return.

Tip: edit the runtests.jl file to put your tests at the top!

How to run specific version of Pluto:

Method 1: use git

If you are fluent in git (I am not), then you can git magic your local clone into whatever you want, and if you did pkg> dev path/to/my/clone then it will always work! You can do most of it using the VS Code git GUI, it took me a while to learn though.

Method 2: use the package manager

Use the Julia REPL package manager to activate an empty environment and then add the branch/version of Plutp. This is best explained using some examples.

Example: run an old Pluto version

You need Julia 1.5 for --temp, otherwise do import Pkg; Pkg.activate(mktempdir()).

(v1.5) pkg> activate --temp
(jl_khadsfkj) pkg> add Pluto@0.8.0
julia> import Pluto; Pluto.run(1234)

Example: check out a PR

This PR: fonsp/Pluto.jl#530

is on a fork pupuis/Pluto.jl, on its own branch find-and-replace (nice!)

(v1.5) pkg> activate --temp
(jl_khadsfkj) pkg> add https://github.com/pupuis/Pluto.jl#find-and-replace
julia> import Pluto; Pluto.run()

Example: check out a specific commit

You need to find the 'git SHA' of the commit. This is either a 7-character cutie or a 40-character biggie. Copy it:

image

And paste after # in the URL:

(v1.5) pkg> activate --temp
(jl_khadsfkj) pkg> add https://github.com/fonsp/Pluto.jl#f5050048668b31318afc3459bf81ce3b9cce6854
julia> import Pluto; Pluto.run()