picture show

make slideshows with markdown text.

requirements:

• a text editor
• conscript

Install

Run as a conscript program

cs softprops/picture-show

This will will install a program called pshow in your ~/bin directory. Ensure this is your path.

Usage

Once installed you can serve a picture show that exists in the current directory with

pshow

After validating a file called conf.js at the root of your presentation, your slides will be available for viewing by pointing your browser to http://localhost:3000

To service a specific show or host on a specific port use the s and or p command line flags which represent the absolute show path and port respectively

pshow -s=/path/to/show -p=1234

This will serve your show located at /path/to/show at http://localhost:1234

Show path resolution can default to a target directory specified in an environment variable called SHOW_HOME

export SHOW_HOME=/path/to
pshow -s=show

This will serve your show located at /path/to/show at http://localhost:3000

On the go? You can export a show as a static html file that can run anywhere. Just add the flag offline

pshow --offline

This will generate the static contents of your show in a directory relative to your current one called out

To out the produced files to a target directory, add the o flag

pshow --offline -o=/path/to/output

The directory contents of a show are expected to be in the format

/yourshow
  conf.js
  /sectiona
    sectiona.md
  /sectionb
    sectionb.md

Gisting your picture show

You can also host your picture show as gist on github by specficying the gist by url using the g flag.

 pshow -g=https://gist.github.com/asdfasdf

Gists only support a flat file structure. Simply flatten the structure described above and picture show will take care of the rest.

conf-iguration

Shows are configurable through a conf.js file. This file should be in json format should include a sections key with an array of section names to render and an optional title. From the example above

> cat conf.js
{
  "title": "some show title",
  "sections": [
    "sectiona",
    "sectionb"
  ]
}

You can leave out a section or rearrange sections but you should provide at least one.

slides

Slides represent content that is rendered. One slide is rendered at a time and slides are ordered based on the order of configured sections mentioned above.

Slides are generated from the provided markdown (.md) files as denoted with a !SLIDE delimiter.

The example below generates 3 slides.

> cat some.md
!SLIDE

one

!SLIDE

two

!SLIDE

three

Slide content is, by default, expected in the form of markdown which will be transformed into html.

You can also embed images. It's recommended to place them under the section directory of the same markdown file and to use a relative path.

If you have a project with includes a sectiona section with a foo.jpg file

/show
   ..
   /sectiona
     sectiona.md
     foo.jpg

In sectiona.md, you'll want to reference foo.jpg as

 ![foo](sectiona/foo.jpg)

subtitles

Here's how you can add subtitles to a slide.

!SLIDE

ハロー!

#SUB Hello!

assets

js and css

You can customize your show with css and javascript by adding a css/custom.css or js/custom.js /yourshow directory. The content will then be added to the shows header.

files

If you want to embed an image or or other resource in your slides. Use the path from the root of your show

 /show
    /foo
       bar.jpg
       bar.md

cat show/foo/bar.md
#SLIDE!

![bar](foo/bar.jpg "bar")

giter8

An example giter8 template is available via

g8 softprops/picture-show

why?

I say why not. Slideshows should be relatively portable and should not require proprietary formats to run. Slideshow presentations should be as simple as possible for an audience to understand. Software should be the same way.

todo

• use a grownup command line parser of options. possibly scopt
• supported exporting a show to pdf

issues/suggestions

I'll take them here.

doug tangren [softprops] 2010-12