provide better defaults for colortheme and two fontsizes

[eddelbuettel]

This improves (or so I hope) three different YAML header values:

• the colour theme become monashwhite unless overridden
• the default fontsize is 14pt unless overridden (same code as in Presento)
• the default titlefontsize is 22pt as before (and can be overriden)
  which shortens the YAML header.

I guess toc and compress can/should stay. Defaults for these two are less obvious.

Thumbs up or down, @robjhyndman and @izahn ?

[robjhyndman]

I had put these defaults inside the theme file, and they only got over-ridden in the template if the user had specified something in the yaml. Putting them in the template directly is fine, but then we don't need them also specified in the theme file -- only like to lead to confusion.

I'd prefer to include at least colortheme and titlefontsize in the skeleton yaml, so users can easily see how to modify these. fontsize is less important. toc should stay for the same reason. I'm ok with removing compress.

[eddelbuettel]

That's what eg the vignette is for: showing all possible values. The YAML header is not where documentation should be.

I prefer the skeleton (header) to be minimally viable (ie to work with minimal settings). And it wasn't really -- I had started by deleting these values as a test, and the generated pdf just doesn't look right (just try it in the master branch). Whereas now it does (in the PR branch).

[robjhyndman]

Fair enough re yaml. But we still need to not include default values in two places.

[eddelbuettel]

I agree that the 'not in two places' is not ideal, but it hardly hurts.

Ie for fontsize we now do (in template.tex):

\documentclass[$if(fontsize)$$fontsize$,$else$14pt, ...

where the else part is now -- and that is better. I'll make the same change to Metropolis and IQSS (checking what their preferred values is). I don't think this was set at all for Monash (just how it isn't for the other two -- yet).

For titlefontsize we now have

$if(titlefontsize)$
  \setbeamerfont{title}{series=\bfseries,parent=structure,size=\fontsize{$titlefontsize$}{32}}
$else$
  \setbeamerfont{title}{series=\bfseries,parent=structure,size=\fontsize{22pt}{32}}
$endif$

and you had a 24 set. Maybe I overlooked that and it worked -- I changed both at the same time.

As for the color theme, the style does indeed set a default, but the wrong one. We could could just remove that line. My preference would be to use template.tex as it is clearer how to get from YAML header to it -- any yaml variable foo becomes $if(foo)$ which is reasonably simple. OTOH those who know how to read .sty files (but how many Rmd users do?) would know where to alter it. But that is hard for a semi-permanent usage solution via binb -- changing YAML, and copying in another titlepage (whose name we may want to make a YAML variable with titlepage.png as fallback) is way easier. At least to me :)

[eddelbuettel]

Also, pointing to template.tex as an answer to 'what the heck can I customize easily' is a decent strategy (short of the ideal yet utopian "we just document everything and keep it current" which never happens). It is just one file per style, it always exists, and we can tell folks to look for all the $if(foo)$ constructs. Those values are what the corresponding YAML header should support.

[eddelbuettel]

One more though: How about adding a % Also set in template.tex via a parameter adjustable from the YAML header comment to the value in the .sty file?

Another related concern is: what is going to be your master source for the these, and how do we keep them current? "Manually" may work as they are not that big / do not change that often. Thoughts on this for IQSS, @izahn ?

[izahn]

I'm fine keeping the copy of the IQSS theme in binb in sync by hand. I guess the alternative is git submodules, but I've not really used them before.

…

On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 7:22 AM Dirk Eddelbuettel ***@***.***> wrote: One more though: How about adding a % Also set in template.tex via a parameter adjustable from the YAML header comment to the value in the .sty file? Another related concern is: what is going to be your master source for the these, and how do we keep them current? "Manually" may work as they are not that big / do not change that often. Thoughts on this for IQSS, @izahn <https://github.com/izahn> ? — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#13 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AATm0xHUGrffowxdeUQSuvI66xw5sygnks5ujdiFgaJpZM4XUZqy> .

-- Ista Zahn Data Science Specialist The Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard http://dss.iq.harvard.edu

[robjhyndman]

Good idea to add the suggested comments to the sty file.

I've actually removed the monash beamer template from my MonashEBSTemplates package, so the binb package is now its master source. That's much easier for me than remembering to make changes twice. I added a comment in the MonashEBSTemplates help files to warn any users.

[eddelbuettel]

Cool. I like that too. And obviously it's "your" theme so I should let you pick defaults. Ok to leave it with monashwhite, toc and compress true (in yaml), 14pt font and whatever the title has (22 or 24, I'll streamline and check if I get to it).

[robjhyndman]

I'm ok with those defaults.

[eddelbuettel]

Ok -- take a look at the commit 265eca3 I just made: for colortheme and titlefont size, the file template.tex no longer needs else branches as I updated the default to 'monashwhite' (and left what we had there for size). I tested, both work well as defaults and are alterable.

Good to merge? If so I will and also update the GH repo README.md with a Monash demo etc pp.

[robjhyndman]

Looks good to me.