Explore alternatives

[maximlt]

Some projects have started to use nbval (e.g. Panel) but we should make sure we have a look around before replacing nbsmoke by nbval everywhere:

• list what features of nbsmoke are currently in use
• check if nbsmoke has some special internal handling for the HoloViz packages
• find what new features may be required. For example, if we have more and more documentation based on MyST Markdown files (or using the pyodide directive), we should find a tool that can deal with that or find a tool that can easily be extended to cope with that. Another example, we may use some features of MyST-NB to tag particular cells that are not meant to be executed in a docs build, the tool(s) should be able to handle that.
• have a look at the alternatives. Candidates include nbval, nbmake, pytest-notebook, and more? Also have a look at jupytext, (papermill)[https://github.com/nteract/papermill] and nbdev. The ExecutableBooks project may have a solution for that too, or at least it'd be worth asking them.