framework VS observable-ssta

Thanks for the feedback. We have a PR open to make it easier to register new interpreters (without needing to fallback to .sh or .exe); it’ll let you specify the interpreter associated with a given file extension (e.g., .kts for Kotlin). https://github.com/observablehq/framework/pull/935

As for inputs-driving-data-loaders, that does go against the grain a bit since Framework favors static data snapshots so that the built site is self-contained and performant. But a technique that works well is to generate Parquet files in data loaders representing the superset of data that you want to interact with, and then using DuckDB/SQL in the client to extract the subset you want to visualize. This tends to perform well, though obviously it’s dependent on the size of the superset you want to interact with.

From the Observable Framework point of view, you’re very welcome to use Apache ECharts or any other library instead of Observable Plot, since you can import whatever you like and it’s all just JavaScript.

Since there was a lot of interest in this thread, Mike added a page to the docs with an ECharts example: https://observablehq.com/framework/lib/echarts

There are two pieces of that example code specific to Framework: the html`` tagged template literal creates a DOM element (see https://github.com/observablehq/htl, also usable outside Framework), and the display function inserts it into the document above the code block (see https://observablehq.com/framework/javascript/display). Note that, whereas Observable Plot takes an options object and returns a DOM element, ECharts instead takes a DOM element and mutates it — but in general they should be equally easy to use in Framework.

Like Plot (and Vega-Lite, another great option), ECharts is also now one of Framework’s built-in “recommended libraries” (see https://observablehq.com/framework/javascript/imports#implic...), meaning that if you reference `echarts` Framework will lazy-load it for you. Adding that was a two-line diff: https://github.com/observablehq/framework/pull/811/files#dif.... But I wanna emphasize that Framework doesn’t have to explicitly “support” a given library for you to use it. “Supporting” in this case just means the convenience of saving you a one-line import statement. But don’t wait for our blessing!! Use whatever.

The author’s spot on about framework.

I tried out Observable Framework and built a little interactive plot (https://github.com/willmeyers/observable-ssta). It was incredibly easy to setup and get data plotted.

My only gripe is that I wish you could configure Python data loaders to use virtualenvs.