12 ms·

Can you suggest another presentation tool that makes it as easy to author and maintain slides? Nothing like this existed when Rob and I wrote present.

by enneff 10y ago

Cyph0n 10y ago
I'm not sure what your exact requirements were, but I immediately thought of the following: * Beamer: write slides in LaTeX, maintainable for a long time to come and easy to build. * Reveal.js: use JS and HTML to author slides, easy to present, and pretty maintainable I think. * Pandoc[1]: use Markdown or RST to write your slides, then compile to HTML (e.g., Reveal.js) or LaTeX (Beamer). * Google Slides I'm not sure if any of these (except Beamer) were available back when you wrote the tool, but given some of the complaints in this thread (e.g., not mobile-friendly), wouldn't it make sense to migrate to some other tool going forward? [1]: Absolutely fantastic tool all-round, and written in Haskell to top it off. I used it a few years back to write a LaTeX report in Markdown. It's definitely not as good as writing LaTeX directly, but it's a great place to start. I can't praise Pandoc enough.
- enneff 10y ago
  Reveal wasn't a thing when I wrote present. I probably would have used it as a front end, had it existed. Tools like Keynote and Google Slides were exactly the kind of thing we were trying to improve upon. They're great for making pretty slides, but a total PITA for authoring and editing technical content. Can any of those tools execute code from within the slides? https://youtu.be/f6kdp27TYZs?t=380 https://youtu.be/f6kdp27TYZs?t=380 https://talks.golang.org/2012/concurrency.slide#16 https://talks.golang.org/2012/concurrency.slide#16 And do they let us store our code snippets in actual testable (or at least buildable) source files?
  - Cyph0n 10y ago
    > Can any of those tools execute code from within the slides? > And do they let us store our code snippets in actual testable (or at least buildable) source files? Not that I'm aware of, no. That's a pretty cool feature actually! As you kindly said, Reveal.js may probably work for you as a frontend for your tool.
    - enneff 10y ago
      Those features were the impetus for the tool, and as far as I'm aware they were Not Invented Anywhere at the time. :-)
      - Cyph0n 10y ago
        I guess I missed those features at first glance. I apologize for that.

Can you suggest another presentation tool that makes it as easy to author and maintain slides? Nothing like this existed when Rob and I wrote present.

by enneff 10y ago

Can you suggest another presentation tool that makes it as easy to author and maintain slides? Nothing like this existed when Rob and I wrote present.

Cyph0n 10y ago

I'm not sure what your exact requirements were, but I immediately thought of the following: * Beamer: write slides in LaTeX, maintainable for a long time to come and easy to build. * Reveal.js: use JS and HTML to author slides, easy to present, and pretty maintainable I think. * Pandoc[1]: use Markdown or RST to write your slides, then compile to HTML (e.g., Reveal.js) or LaTeX (Beamer). * Google Slides I'm not sure if any of these (except Beamer) were available back when you wrote the tool, but given some of the complaints in this thread (e.g., not mobile-friendly), wouldn't it make sense to migrate to some other tool going forward? [1]: Absolutely fantastic tool all-round, and written in Haskell to top it off. I used it a few years back to write a LaTeX report in Markdown. It's definitely not as good as writing LaTeX directly, but it's a great place to start. I can't praise Pandoc enough.

enneff 10y ago
Reveal wasn't a thing when I wrote present. I probably would have used it as a front end, had it existed. Tools like Keynote and Google Slides were exactly the kind of thing we were trying to improve upon. They're great for making pretty slides, but a total PITA for authoring and editing technical content. Can any of those tools execute code from within the slides? https://youtu.be/f6kdp27TYZs?t=380 https://youtu.be/f6kdp27TYZs?t=380 https://talks.golang.org/2012/concurrency.slide#16 https://talks.golang.org/2012/concurrency.slide#16 And do they let us store our code snippets in actual testable (or at least buildable) source files?
- Cyph0n 10y ago
  > Can any of those tools execute code from within the slides? > And do they let us store our code snippets in actual testable (or at least buildable) source files? Not that I'm aware of, no. That's a pretty cool feature actually! As you kindly said, Reveal.js may probably work for you as a frontend for your tool.
  - enneff 10y ago
    Those features were the impetus for the tool, and as far as I'm aware they were Not Invented Anywhere at the time. :-)
    - Cyph0n 10y ago
      I guess I missed those features at first glance. I apologize for that.