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Jupyter notebooks
Raised as a usability problem by 61 people on Hacker News over 11 years (2015–2025), in 43 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Running cells out of order gives inconsistent resultsUnreviewed
20152026- Hidden state from re-running or deleted cells makes variables confusing and hard to reproduce2025-11-04
- Manually running cells in any order gives inconsistent results2025-07-29
- Cells can run out of order, so variables from deleted or later cells still work and cause subtle errors2024-06-14
Notebook files are hard to use with gitUnreviewed
20152026- Notebooks have bad git interaction and confusing non-deterministic state that frustrates beginners2024-01-13
- Notebook git diffs are not sane, making version control hard to do frequently2019-09-25
- Notebook files are hard to use with git and version control2019-05-08
Must launch Jupyter instead of running a plain Python fileUnreviewed
20152026- Jupyter notebooks feel over-engineered and under-featured compared to RMarkdown2024-06-28
- Jupyter visual interface is harder to follow for runbook instructions2024-06-04
- Notebook format forces spinning up Jupyter instead of running a plain Python file2019-03-04
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Hidden state from re-running or deleted cells makes variables confusing and hard to reproduce2025-11-04
- Notebook export produces no usable static publishable output, forcing manual rework2025-11-04
- Manually running cells in any order gives inconsistent results2025-07-29
- Auto-named Untitled notebooks pile up, so authors can't tell what each contains2025-03-19
- Notebook tools feel awkward and slow to code in, like writing in Word2024-09-18
- Can't tell which cell order or version produced the plots2024-07-31
- Easy to get confused and mess up, forgetting to restart and re-run all2024-07-09
- Can't import preferred keybindings, so the shortcuts are hard to use2024-07-08
- Jupyter notebooks feel over-engineered and under-featured compared to RMarkdown2024-06-28
- Cells can run out of order, so variables from deleted or later cells still work and cause subtle errors2024-06-14
- Spends most of her time confused, copy-pasting code between notebooks2024-06-14
- Non-linear state and independently runnable code blocks hinder interactive exploration2024-06-13
- Jupyter visual interface is harder to follow for runbook instructions2024-06-04
- Notebooks have bad git interaction and confusing non-deterministic state that frustrates beginners2024-01-13
- Notebook hidden state makes reproducing colleagues' work hard and error-prone2024-01-12
- Autocomplete works in browser but not in the IDE notebook, and user can't find how to enable it2023-06-05
- Installing and updating pip, conda, jupyter and fixing Python versions takes a full session2023-04-14
- Install requires command line, pip errors, googling and copy-pasting commands from websites2023-03-17
- Editing raw notebook files is difficult and unergonomic, slowing the user down2022-12-27
- Each word of code sits in its own field, so touch selection of a line is impossible2022-11-24
- Notebook UI refuses to open files with merge markers, forcing manual fixes in a plain text editor2022-08-26
- Ipynb format is diff-unfriendly, so Git diffs are hard to read2022-08-26
- Notebooks behave inconsistently across environments and hang or block the IDE when re-executing cells2022-07-29
- Becomes unusably slow after about fifty pages of content2022-06-28
- Setting up and configuring many auxiliary tools is a pain2022-01-12
- Converting notebook code to a Python module means manual cut-and-paste, and notebooks mix code with data2022-01-12
- Changed modules aren't picked up on re-import, forcing kernel restarts that lose all state2021-12-26
- Writing code in the browser has bad usability and performance2021-04-27
- Notebook state drifts out of sync with the code, causing inconsistent results2021-02-14
- Notebook-based development is an atrocious experience, several steps back from plain text editing2020-12-23
- Extra syntax around code blocks, and must enable inline math and image display settings2020-08-12
- Hard to work in: always fighting it, can't configure it, inconsistent state easy to reach2020-04-14
- Must manually re-run all following cells after editing an earlier cell2020-04-14
- Mixed working and broken cells make notebooks hard to run and understand later2020-03-28
- Editor auto-inserts braces wrongly and lacks global search and replace2020-01-28
- Notebook git diffs are not sane, making version control hard to do frequently2019-09-25
- Hard to make sense of code; methods and classes appear unexplained, with many imports2019-05-09
- Notebook files are hard to use with git and version control2019-05-08
- Notebook uses global Jupyter's Python path, so venv packages like caffe fail with module not found2019-05-08
- Notebook format forces spinning up Jupyter instead of running a plain Python file2019-03-04
- Git does not work well with notebook files2018-12-13
- Writing Python in cells is hard: indentation breaks and autocomplete suggestions are poor2018-12-13
- Cells share global state, so it's unclear what runs and what state results2018-12-12
- Out-of-order cell execution makes workflows confusing; loading and restarting kernels is slow2018-11-03
- Hidden state in notebooks makes code behaviour confusing to follow2018-10-31
- Hard to do real coding work in Jupyter; PyCharm feels far more convenient2018-10-31
- Cells run out of order makes notebook state confusing to follow2018-10-30
- Autocomplete is much worse than in IDEs, making coding in notebooks hard2018-10-30
- Notebooks have hidden state and out-of-order cells, so code breaks when run for learners2018-08-28
- Cramped cells make working and reading output awkward, and plots can't be viewed side by side2018-08-28