GitHub - ozanbora/JSynth: A visual editor for Julia: wire inputs, functions and plots together on a canvas, run the design with Julia, and see every value on its node. Exports to plain Julia scripts. Windows, Linux and macOS.

A visual editor for Julia. Wire inputs, functions and plots together on a canvas, run the design with Julia, and see every value on its node. Any design can be exported as a plain Julia script.

JSynth runs on Windows and Linux, including WSL.

Install

The install scripts download the latest release, install what it needs, and add it to the Start menu or applications menu. They install Julia too, with juliaup, if it isn't there yet.

Windows (64-bit), in PowerShell:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ozanbora/JSynth/master/install/install.ps1 | iex

Linux (x64) and macOS (Apple Silicon), in a terminal:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ozanbora/JSynth/master/install/install.sh | sh

On Linux, this installs fontconfig with your package manager (asking for your password) if it's missing. JSynth goes in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\JSynth on Windows, and in ~/.local/share/jsynth with a jsynth command in ~/.local/bin elsewhere. To serve JSynth over VNC as well, add --vnc (sh -s -- --vnc; -Vnc doesn't apply on Windows, where VNC needs nothing more). To remove it, run the script again with --uninstall (Windows: download it and run .\install.ps1 -Uninstall); your settings and designs stay.

You can also download a release yourself and unpack it: the release page says what each system needs.

What it does

A design is a graph of nodes:

• Inputs: numbers, vectors, matrices, sparse matrices, arrays built with zeros, rand, range and friends, and arrays loaded from CSV, Matrix Market (.mtx), JLD2 or PNG files.
• Functions: Julia code you write, with typed parameters. Each parameter is an input port, and the function's value is its output.
• Outputs: Display (a value), Plot (line, scatter or heatmap) and Save to file.

Wiring an output into an input passes the value along. Press F5, and JSynth turns the design into a Julia script and runs it in a Julia session it keeps open. Each node then shows its value, a ✓ or ✗ badge and how long it took. The output panel lists every value by its variable name.

Designs can also work through data as it comes:

• Files in a folder: all the files at once, or one at a time, as a loop.
• Watch folder: new files as they arrive, or a web address fetched every few seconds.
• Every: a tick every few seconds.
• Button: a value each time it is pressed.
• Map, Window, Only when, Zip and Merge: apply a function to each value, keep the last few, filter, and combine streams.

Features

• Parameters panel: put inputs in it to set them with sliders and boxes. The design runs again a moment after each change.
• Names: an input given a name keeps it as its variable in the script (loan = 250000.0 rather than x1), so the output says which value is which.
• Breakpoints: pause a run on a wire (F9), optionally on a condition, see the value, then continue (F5) or step to the next value (F10).
• Frames and groups: frames are titled boxes around nodes. Groups turn several nodes into one node. Double-click a frame's title to make it a group, and use the group's ⧉ button to open it again.
• Library: save nodes and groups under a name, and add copies of them to any design.
• Tabs: several designs open at once, each with its own undo history. A tab can open in a window of its own.
• Packages: packages a design uses but doesn't have are offered for installation.
• Arranging: Ctrl+Shift+A arranges the nodes, keeping each frame's nodes together.
• Saving: designs autosave a moment after each change. A design never saved is kept and reopened at the next start.
• Export: export the design as a Julia script, or as a PNG image of the canvas.
• Look: a light or dark theme, following the system's setting unless one is chosen. The interface uses Julia's colours.

Examples

File → Examples and the start page open these. Examples with large datasets ask before downloading them, and to where.

Keyboard shortcuts

On the canvas, a drag pans, Ctrl+drag selects with a box, and right-click adds nodes.

Requirements

• .NET SDK 10 or newer (the projects target net10.0). global.json enforces this.
• Julia, preferably through juliaup. JSynth looks for it on the PATH and in the usual install folders. You can also choose the Julia program from the sidebar, or with Run → Choose Julia….

Build and run

dotnet run --project JSynth.Desktop
dotnet test JSynth.Tests

Some tests run real Julia, and skip themselves when Julia isn't found. Tests using an example's downloaded data skip themselves when the data isn't there.

Run dotnet run --project JSynth.Desktop -- --help for the command-line options:

• Rendering options, and --enableVncServer to run without a window, shown to VNC viewers instead.
• --open <file>: open one design file, alone in the window.
• --untitled <file> --name <name>: open a design that was never saved, alone in the window. This is what a tab opened in a new window uses.

Settings, the library, a design never saved and the logs (Logs) are kept in %AppData%\JSynth on Windows and ~/.config/JSynth on Linux.

Linux and WSL

JSynth runs on Linux, including Ubuntu under WSL 2 with WSLg (Windows 11 shows the window on the Windows desktop).

1. Install the native library Skia needs:

   sudo apt install libfontconfig1

2. Install .NET. Ubuntu 22.04's apt doesn't offer SDK 10, so use Microsoft's install script:

   curl -sSL https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh -o dotnet-install.sh
   bash dotnet-install.sh --channel 10.0 --install-dir ~/.dotnet
   export PATH=~/.dotnet:$PATH DOTNET_ROOT=~/.dotnet

3. Install Julia with curl -fsSL https://install.julialang.org | sh.

Under WSL, clone the repository into the Linux file system (for example ~/JSynth) rather than building from /mnt/c, so Linux and Windows builds don't share bin and obj folders.

Alternatively, publish a self-contained build from Windows and run it in WSL with only libfontconfig1 installed:

dotnet publish JSynth.Desktop -c Release -r linux-x64 --self-contained -o publish/linux-x64

Troubleshooting

• The window has a taskbar icon but nothing shows, and its title starts with [WARN:COPY MODE]. WSLg couldn't set up the shared memory it uses to send windows to Windows; /mnt/wslg/weston.log shows rdp_allocate_shared_memory: Failed to open .... This affects every Linux app, not only JSynth. Restart WSL from Windows with wsl --shutdown (this stops all running distros), then start JSynth again.
• The app exits at startup with Unable to load shared library 'libSkiaSharp'. Install libfontconfig1 (step 1 above).
• The build fails with A compatible .NET SDK was not found. The .NET SDK is older than 10; check with dotnet --version and install a newer one (step 2 above).

Project layout

It is built with Avalonia 12, ReactiveUI, AvaloniaEdit for the code editor, and ScottPlot for plots.

Credits

Fonts, all under the SIL Open Font License:

• Inter for the interface.
• JuliaMono for code, values and types.
• Noto Sans Math for the nodes' symbols.

Data the examples download. Each download writes the full attribution next to the files.

• Radar: the Boreas dataset, Autonomous Space Robotics Lab, University of Toronto (CC BY 4.0).
• Bearings: the IMS bearing data, NSF I/UCR Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems, University of Cincinnati, from the NASA Prognostics Data Repository.
• Seismograms: the Global Seismograph Network (IRIS/IDA) and the Southern California Seismic Network, from the EarthScope Consortium's FDSN web services.
• Video: the CDnet 2014 change detection dataset.
• Storm surge: water levels and tide predictions from NOAA CO-OPS, and Hurricane Helene's best track from the National Hurricane Center's HURDAT2 database.
• Air traffic: the OpenSky Network live API.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome: see CONTRIBUTING.md for building, running the tests and what a pull request needs.

License

JSynth is under the MIT License. The fonts and the example data keep their own licenses, listed above.

JSynth is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Julia project. Julia is a trademark of JuliaHub, Inc.