From 1a9b42bda9e61e6beebc10962e68274d17169659 2014-10-16 00:34:56 From: Thomas Kluyver Date: 2014-10-16 00:34:56 Subject: [PATCH] Start describing notebooks for IPython architecture doc --- diff --git a/docs/source/development/how_ipython_works.rst b/docs/source/development/how_ipython_works.rst index e9b050b..515dec0 100644 --- a/docs/source/development/how_ipython_works.rst +++ b/docs/source/development/how_ipython_works.rst @@ -53,4 +53,19 @@ the target language: :doc:`wrapperkernels` - +Notebooks +--------- + +The Notebook frontend does something extra. In addition to running your code, it +stores code and output, together with markdown notes, in an editable document +called a notebook. When you save it, this is sent from your browser to the +notebook server, which saves it on disk as a JSON file with a ``.ipynb`` +extension. + +.. TODO: Diagram of how these pieces fit together. + +The notebook server, not the kernel, is responsible for saving and loading +notebooks, so you can edit notebooks even if you don't have the kernel for that +language—you just won't be able to run code. The kernel doesn't know anything +about the notebook document: it just gets sent cells of code to execute when the +user runs them.