For years, building interactive widgets in Python notebooks meant wrestling with toolchains, platform quirks, and a mountain of JavaScript machinery. Most developers took one look and backed away slowly. Trevor Manz decided that barrier did not need to exist. His idea was simple: give Python users just enough JavaScript to unlock the web’s interactivity, without dragging along the rest of the web ecosystem. That idea became anywidget, and it is quickly becoming the quiet connective tissue of modern interactive computing. Today we dig into how it works, why it has taken off, and how it might change the way we explore data.

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Links from the show

Trevor on GitHub: github.com

anywidget GitHub: github.com
Trevor's SciPy 2024 Talk: www.youtube.com
Marimo GitHub: github.com
Myst (Markdown docs): mystmd.org
Altair: altair-viz.github.io
DuckDB: duckdb.org
Mosaic: uwdata.github.io
ipywidgets: ipywidgets.readthedocs.io
Tension between Web and Data Sci Graphic: blobs.talkpython.fm
Quak: github.com
Walk through building a widget: anywidget.dev
Widget Gallery: anywidget.dev
Video: How do I anywidget?: www.youtube.com

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Watch this episode on YouTube: youtube.com
Episode #530 deep-dive: talkpython.fm/530
Episode transcripts: talkpython.fm

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