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Appendix A

JupyterLab Overview

Project Jupyter creates open-source software that helps people work with different programming languages interactively through a web browser, and JupyterLab is the Jupyter web interface. Think of JupyterLab sort of like a web-based Python IDE that allows you to write and step through code one block at a time, while also allowing you to document your work using markdown.

Many of the hands-on exercises in this repository use JupyterLab because we found that JupyterLab is a great way to work through our code development in small, repeatable steps, visualize an entire automated workflow, and provide inline documentation that make our study materials reusable.

If you use the development environments included in this repository, all you need to know before you can use JupyterLab is:

  1. The JupyterLab server starts automatically when you bring the development environment container online.
  2. You can connect to the JupyterLab server by navigating to http://localhost:8888.
  3. Any file in the repository with an .ipynb extension is an interactive Jupyter Notebook that you can open in JupyterLab.
  4. You can open other file types in JupyterLab, including text files, images, etc., for viewing.

More Information

Our experience is, most people find JupyterLab to be intuitive and simple to use. If you are new to JupyterLab, have questions about the UI, or if you just want more information, the JupyterLab User Guide provides a short yet helpful introduction. The JupyterLab user guide has descriptions of JupyterLab interface elements, short video demonstrations, keyboard shortcut help, answers to common questions, and much more.