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Quick start

WLJS Notebook requires wolframscript (see Freeware Wolfram Engine or Wolfram Kernel) installed on your PC/Mac. If not, WLJS application will redirect you to the official download page

All algorithms, functions, and other components of the Wolfram Language provided by the Wolfram Engine are the intellectual property of Wolfram Research, Inc.

A lightweight alternative to Mathematica built using open-source tools and freeware Wolfram Engine

Overview 🚀 Demo 📺

note

WLJS Notebook is a freeware software, which is based on Wolfram Engine.

You do not need to have Mathematica installed to run WLJS Notebook. No subscription model, only one-time registration at wolfram.com is needed for a personal use. Please check the license agreement.

If you are new to Wolfram Language, please, check the corresponding page.

There are two ways you can choose from

Desktop application

Notebook interface is shipped as an Electron application, which is cross-platform and has most benefits of a native desktop app. This is the easiest way

Releases

It comes with a launcher, that takes care about all updates, files extension association and etc. Also see releases page for more binaries.

Normal vs offline version

Binaries are given in two formats on releases page. An offline version does contain the fixed versions of all necessary modules, documentation and examples, while a normal one will download the most recent ones from Github during the installation and will keep them to work fully offline.

CLI

You will be prompted to install cli binary. If you agree, it will make a symlink available from the terminal like VSCode. It will allow you to open a folder in WLJS Notebook by the command

wljs .

URL Protocol

App will automatically register wljs-message url protocol, so you can open any published notebooks from web-pages.

Installation on Windows

Use x64 binaries .exe from the releases.

Installation on GNU/Linux

Using deb package

You might need to install libuv dependency, then install the executable.

A note for Ubuntu users There might be a problem with starting related to a new AppArmor issue om Ubuntu 24.04. A temporal fix will be to lift the restrictions

sudo sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0

and then start an app from the terminal wljs-notebook

Using zip archive

Open an extracted folder and run an executable directly.

Installation on MacOS

Using dmg

If you have Apple Silicon, please, download and run -arm64.dmg binary from the releases page, otherwise use just .dmg version.

Using homebrew

If you have Homebrew installed, you can install this app using:

brew install --cask wljs-notebook

Standalone Server

Desktop application is just a wrapper with a built-in Chromium browser, context menu bindings and file associations. WLJS Notebook itself is a web-based application and can run using just wolframscript with no external services or any other programs.

Docker Container

contributed by @yloose

Please follow the instructions

Local run

Clone this repository and run:

wolframscript -f Scripts/start.wls

or on a specific hostname

wolframscript -f Scripts/start.wls host 0.0.0.0 http 8080 ws 8081 ws2 8082 docs 8085

that will open an HTTP server on 8080 port with 8081, 8082 used for realtime communication and docs pages at 8085

Extra arguments

  • set the home folder (overrides settings)
wolframscript -f Scripts/start.wls folder "Demos"
  • disable autolaunch of the evaluation kernel
wolframscript -f Scripts/start.wls noautolaunch True

Showcase

Blog posts

🔗 Link Pages of real-life problems solved using WLJS Notebook and published as interactive notebooks running in your browser. Try it out

WLJS Notebook Demonstration Project

🔗 Link Notebooks posted as static web pages showcase various examples that demonstrate how to use the Wolfram Language and the dynamic features of our frontend.

Media

Publications 📢