- Standard Course Template
This course template provides standard structure and technology for managing and dstribution courseware. The three areas of focus are written material, participant files, and video presentations.
Over the years our choice of formatting tools has evolved, and we are back at an old standby, LaTeX. The learning curve for LaTex appears higher if you go look at it because it is text-based and not what-you-see-is-what-you-get. But in fact, the structure of these LaTeX documents is such that you really do not need to know much about LaTeX at all!
All that is really necessary is to understand where to put image files and how to use the macros that have been defined for you. You should simply be able to plug your content into the templates and everything will work. Note: #, $, %, &, _, {, and } are usually special characters in the LaTeX world; you may need to "escape" them by putting a backslash in front of them in your text. Several other characters cannot be escaped with a backslash: for ^ use \^{} or \textasciicircum{}, for ~ use \textasciitilde, and for \ use \textbackslash{}.
So, it really is not any more difficult to use for this template than HTML, XML, or Markdown. In fact, it is much simpler, you just have to learn our handful of macros, and a couple of LaTeX things like: wrap text with \textbf{...} for bold characters, and \textit{...} for italics, or better yet \emph{...} for emphasis/italics (replace the elipses with your text). The rest of what you need to know comes below.
And, best of all, it is definiately faster than trying to fight with a WYSIWIG editor (but you can use one for LaTeX if you want to)!
The course template is licensed under the MIT license. The corresponding courseware when developed may not be. You may use and modify all or part of it as you choose, as long as attribution to the source is provided per the license. See the details in the license file or at the Open Source Initiative
Since I give stuff away for free, and if you would like to keep seeing more stuff like this, then please consider
a contribution to Joel's Coffee Fund at Smallrock Internet to help keep the good stuff coming :)
If the major version number has not changed, then merging the new _Preambles folder content with an existing project, and merging in any changes to workbook.tex and workbook-slides.tex should be sufficient. Any new features should be additions, and backward compatible to previous versions with the same major number. You will simply be able to incorporate the new features from this point on.
If there is a major version number has changed, then the folder layout for a course project has likely changed and some of the commands will not be backward compatible. Their names may have changed, or perhaps they do not even exist anymore. You should be able to restructure an exsiting project and merge in the new files without significant trouble, but you may need to do some global changes over all your LaTeX files if the command names have been changed. Read the documentation below on Working with the Workbook to see which, if any, commands have changed.
LaTex is a text-based typesetting language with definable macros and is perfect for developing course material. Comparable in technique to HTML, XML, or Markdown, with supporting tools almost any outcome may be targeted including PDF and e-publishing formats.
Visit this page at the official Latex Project for details about how to install the tool: https://www.latex-project.org/get/.
On MacOS MacTex the simple way to install LaTeX is through Homebrew:
$ brew tap homebrew/cask
$ brew install mactex --cask
The executable files for LaTeX should be installed to /usr/local/texlive/2021/bin. This file needs to be in the environment PATH variable ahead of any other TeX installed on the computer.
On Microsoft Windows this template has been tested with the TeX Live distribution, found at https://www.tug.org/texlive/. However, we have found that the network install of TeX Live 2018 does not seem to be complete, and we have only been successful using a full install from an ISO download. We last tested this with the textlive2018-20180414.iso downloaded from http://mirrors.rit.edu/CTAN/systems/texlive/Images/texlive2018-20180414.iso.
Visual Studio Code from Microsoft is an excellent tool for editing course projects, it works in all of the major operating system environments: Windows, MacOS, and Linux. VSCode was used to build this template project. You may want to add the "LaTeX Workshop" extension by James Yu, it helps with compiling the source files and has a built-in PDF previewer. You may also want the "Spelling Checker (RU, EN)" extension by Julia to help avoid gramatical and spelling errors.
The structure of the workbook uses subfolders, so LaTeX Workshop must be configured for the subfolders. The tools settings need to be included in the VS Code JSON settings manually. Open VS Code settings and search for latex-workshop.tools. Click the link to Edit in settings.json to open the JSON settings document, and then add the following JSON text.
The two settings that are added to the default settings here are the -output-directory to isolate each subfolder work, and the -cd option to make latexmk work in the subfolder instead of the main folder. The output folder name is ./.latex-temp. latexmk will create the folder relative to each subfolder (and the main folder) when it builds the document parts.
"latex-workshop.latex.tools": [
{
"name": "latexmk",
"command": "latexmk",
"args": [
"-synctex=1",
"-interaction=nonstopmode",
"-file-line-error",
"-pdf",
"-output-directory=./.latex-temp",
"-cd",
"%DOC%"
]
},
{
"name": "pdflatex",
"command": "pdflatex",
"args": [
"-synctex=1",
"-interaction=nonstopmode",
"-file-line-error",
"-output-directory=./.latex-temp",
"-cd",
"%DOC%"
]
},Without this setting, the compiler files are placed alongside the .tex files, cluttering up the project!
There is a process to viewing the PDF compilation of the LaTeX file being edited. The LaTeX Workshop instructions focus on individual documents or a complex document; in our development cycle we are really only looking at the document currently being edited and treat it as a single document.
Given normal configuration, except for changing the output folder to ./.latex-temp, on every file save the LaTeX output will be rebuilt. If this is turned off and the file is built manually from the Command Palette with "LaTeX Workshop: When the PDF file exists in the output directory, and only if it exists, the Command Palette command "LaTeX Workshop: View LaTeX PDF file in VSCode tab", the edit window button "View LaTeX PDF file", and the shortcut (Ctrl-Alt-V or Command-Alt-V) will work and show the PDF in a new tab. As long as the PDF tab remains open, it will be refreshed every time the LaTeX file is rebuilt.
WHen the whole book is built, the resulting PDF file ends up in the Distribution folder. It can still be viewed, when double clicked the message "The file is not displayed in the editor because it is either binary or uses an unsupported text encoding." If you click the link "Do you want to open it anyway?" it will open as binary, and then be immediately displayed using the LaTeX Workshop PDF viewer.
The course project starts as a single Git repository, but will be split into two repositories immediately after cloning this project. The main project will still be in the primary repository, but the directory that lives under Student_Files will be converted into a separate repository. This will allow the student files to be distributed through GitHub as a separate project, directly to class participants.
We keep the student files repository as a submodule of the course respository first to effectively tie it to the course, and more importantly because it makes the source available in the same project while course material is being worked on.
These instructions assume a basic familiarity with Git.
- Clone this project into a new course project on your local computer.
- Use the command git rm -r --cached Student_Files/Rename-Me in the project to remove that folder from Git control (--cached leaves the actual folder intact).
- Move to the Student_Files/Rename-Me folder and run git init to turn it into a Git project.
- Update the README.md and LICENSE.md files; the instructions in them are self-evident.
- Change the name of each 01_Rename-Me folder in Examples, Resources, and Solutions to match the first chapter name.
- In the new project folder (it should still be Student_Files/Rename-Me) use git add --all to add everything to the Git staging area (the index).
- Commit the staging area with git commit -m "Initial commit of student file project.".
- Change the name of the folder Student_Files/Rename-Me to COURSE-NUMBER_Student_Files, e.g. NS00t03_Student_Files.
- Create a remote origin repository for the student files (probably at GitHub). The format of the project names at GitHub is always COURSE-NUMBER_Student_Files, for example https://github.com/nextstepitt/NS60603_Student_Files is the path to the student files for React Programming using TypeScript. Student file repositories are usually public and may be cloned or downloaded by anybody.
- Add the new origin remote to the project: git remote add origin .
- Push the local repository to the remote (it should have only the master branch).
- Use an appropriate branching scheme of your choice for development of the student files project: GitFlow, Trunk Based Development, etc.
Special note: after publication the student files may be cloned or downloaded as a ZIP file from https://github.com/nextstepitt. When downloaded as a ZIP file the top-level folder will be the name of the folder in student_files, with "-master" appended to it. This is the default action of GitHub to append the branch name being zipped up, and is irrelevant to the students. They can leave the name with "-master" or remove it from the folder name if they choose.
- Move to the course repository folder.
- Link the new student files origin to course respository with git submodule add . Use the URI to the origin, not the local copy, so that if this repository is cloned it will point to the origin for the student files.
- Move to the Workbook folder.
- Use git mv 01_Rename-me 01_ and rename the first chapter.
- Edit the workbook-chapters.tex file and change the name of the first chapter where it is used to link to the subfiles (there are four links).
- Use git status to make sure that Git has the submodule link and the modified workbook-chapters.tex file in the staging area.
- Commit the staging area with git commit -m "Initial commit of course .".
- Use git remote -v to list the current remote repositories, and if there are any use git remote remove to remove each one.
- Create a new remote origin repository for the course project at whatever provider you use for private repositories. The format of the project name should be COURSE-NUMBER_Course_Name, for example https://gitlab.com/nextstepitt/NS60603_React_Programming_using_TypeScript. Course repositories are usually private to the authors of the course, which is why we personally put them at GitLab instead of GitHub.
- Add the new origin remote to the project: git remote add origin .
- Push the local repository to the remote (it should have only the master branch).
- Use an appropriate branching scheme of your choice for development of the course project: GitFlow, Trunk Based Development, etc.
- Before you publish an actual release, replace this file with a README.md that describes the project (we assume you need to keep it around for now to help you develop the course material). Use the README-PROJECT.md file as a template.
The remainder of this document describes the project structure and how to build out the course.
| Folder | Description |
|---|---|
| .common | Contains assets for README.md |
| Distribution | This folder contains the outcome products; usually this includes the PDF of the participant workbook, a PDF of the slide presentation, video outputs, etc. |
| Multimedia | Scripts and audio-video files for multimedia presentation of the material. This material should probably be arranged by chapter to parallel the workbook folder below. |
| Resources | |
| └── Documents | Local and third-party documents about the course. |
| └── Graphics | Source graphics used in the course, both local and third-party. |
| Student_Files | |
| └── [Course Name] | A separate git project in a folder named as the course. |
| Workbook | |
| └── _Front‑Matter | Foreword, introduction, preface, and prelude sections. |
| └── _Images | A single collection of all images used in the workbook. Experience guides that this works better when all the images are placed in the same folder, instead of sub-folders or trying to put the images in the chapter folders. |
| └── _Preambles | workbook-def.tex contains the workbook definitions and macros. |
| └── _Presentation-Notes | Contains the change-log.tex and presentation-notes files that are assembled into the end of the book. |
| └── .latex‑temp | Output folder created during LaTeX compilation. |
| └── 01_Overview | Each chapter is numbered and titled. |
|     └── section-0.tex | The chapter header. |
|     └── section-1.tex | Each chapter section is numbered. |
|     └── section-lab.tex | The lab section. |
| └── workbook‑chapters.tex | This LaTeX document organizes the chapter sections and is used for both the book and slides. |
| └── workbook‑slides.tex | This defines the structure of the slide document. |
| └── workbook.tex | This defines the structure of the book. |
| logo.png | The logo for the project displayed by some Git servers, especially GitLab. |
| LICENSE.md | The MIT License file for this project. |
| README.md | The contents of this document should be replaced with new information to reflect the project being released, and if not freely available then the MIT License should be removed. |
The student files always follow the same structure, the top-level folder is a unique name with course number followed by "_Student_Files" and can co-exist side-by-side with the files from other courses in a "Student_Files" folder. If this project is a presentation rather than a course, then rename the folder with "_Participant_Files". This folder is the root of a separate Git project that is accessible publically by the students at https://github.com/nextstepitt. Git will not merge the projects; if a .git folder exists in the student files course folder then its contents will ignored when commits are made to the course. Instead, Git will add a reference to the student files project. While it is a separate project, it is nested in the course project to make it easy to check or work on labs at the same time as the workbook.
The student files are layed out in a specific way:
Student_Files
│
└── NS60601_Student_Files
└── Examples
│ └── 02_Components
│ └── ...
│
└── Labs
│ .gitignore
│
└── Resources
│ └── 02_Components
│ └── ...
│
└── Solutions
└── 01_React
└── 02_Components
└── ...
- All courses have a unique named folder under Student_Files so they can exist side-by-side.
- The Labs folder is always an empty space to do your work. We want participants to work in this folder because it is adjacent to the Resources folder where we place any resources that they need for the lab work.
- The Examples and Resources folders parallel the structure of the Solutions folder, one folder for each chapter. These should follow the same names as are asigned to the chapters in the workbook.
- Empty folders contain an empty .gitignore file so that they are included in zip compression (normally empty folders are dropped).
- Make sure that any files that should not make it into the repository are put in .gitignore for the student files project. For example, if this is a NodeJS-based project, then the folder node_modules/ should be ignored. The modules installed from the npmjs.com registry can always be re-installed when the project is cloned from Git, there is no reason to clutter up our repository with them (and node_modules is very likely to be large).
The workbook is a multi-document project typeset initially to Acrobat PDF using LaTeX. The structure of the LaTeX documents is such that you really do not need to know much about LaTeX. All that is really necessary is to understand where to put image files and how to use the macros that have been defined for you! You should simply be able to plug your content into the templates and everything will work. If you need more help a guide to the LaTeX typesetting system is available at https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX.
Note: %, $, {, #, &, _, and } are special characters in LaTeX text and must be escaped by preceeding them with a backslash. These characters are not special in a code block. Full details about LaTeX special characters is available at https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Special_Characters.
The workbook is divided into a preamble of LaTeX definitions for consistent course material, and a series of subfiles in each chapter of the book. The book starts with a 00_Front-Matter chapter that contains subfiles for:
- copyright.tex - the copyright page for the book
- foreword.tex - possibly a foreword written by a field expert
- introduction.tex - the author's introduction
- preface.tex - the author's preface
- prelude.tex - a description of the course (may make the introduction unnecessary), the class setup requirements, participant prerequisite requirements, an agenda for the class, and a rundown about facilities and class etiquite.
The copyright is boilerplate, but the title and copyright dates must be inserted, an ISBN number should be assigned before publication, and the trademark list may need to be updated.
The foreword, introduction, and preface need to be written if they are to be included. If you want to skip something, the links to include these documents should be commented out in the workbook.tex file.
The prelude description, setup requirements, prerequisites, and agenda all need to be updated.
The workbook source is designed to also be used to generate a PDF slide deck, with one section topic per slide in high-definition ratio. If the content of a topic is more than will fit on a single slide, it will be extended onto the next slide. Becaue the topics are separated differently, and may extend across more than one page, the slide numbers will never line up with the book page numbers. This is why the chapters, sections, and section topics are all numbered in the text. See the paragraph on Building and Publishing for more details about compiling the book, slides, and outline.
The "how to" for the workbook is broken into:
- Sections
- section-0.tex
- section-(1-n).tex
- Images
- Code Blocks
- Tables
- Lists
- Descriptive Text
- section-lab.tex
Each chapter folder contains two or more LaTeX sections files: section-0.tex, section-1.tex, section-2.tex, section-3.tex, and section-lab.tex. There may or not be a section-2 or section-3, but there should never be more than three sections (rule of threes). The lab section is optional, it depends on the type of material being prepared.
The section-0.tex file is the chapter title page, with four pieces: the title, a list of topics, a bullet list of objectives (no more than three), and a one or two sentence overview of what the chapter is about.
\chapter{[Insert Chapter Title]}
\chaptersectiontitles{
\sectiontitle{[Insert Section One Title]}
\sectiontitle{[Insert Section Two Title]}
\sectiontitle{[Insert Section Three Title]}
\sectiontitle{Lab - [Insert Chapter Title]}
}
\chapterobjectives
\bulletlist{
\item First objective
\item Second objective
\item Third objective
}
\chapteroverview
[Describe what will be discussed in this chapter].
\chapter is pure LaTeX defining the chapter section and the title. The macro has been redefined to place the chapter title right-aligned and vertically centered on the page.
The chaptertopics environment is defined in LaTeX to build a list of topics, right-aligned below the chapter title. The \topic macro sets up each topic title correctly.
The chapter objectives are simply an itemized list, no periods. There should be three objectives for the chapter, studies show that people handle things best in groups of three (the rule of threes).
Each one of these files is a separate part of the chapter; there should be no more than three (rule of threes).
At the beginning of each section is the section title, which should match the corresponding title in the \chaptertopics{} from the chapter title page in section-0. \sectiontopics is the same macro as \chaptertopics, with the same topic list, except that it is left aligned. A new macro, \topicselected, is introduced to typeset the current topic in bold:
\section{[Insert Section One Title]}
\sectiontitles{
\sectiontitleselected{[Insert Section One Title]}
\sectiontitle{[Insert Section Two Title]}
\sectiontitle{[Insert Section Three Title]}
\sectiontitle{Lab - [Insert Chapter Title]}
}
Each individual topic in a section (not to be confused with the section topics) is identified with \subsection{topic}. The subsections are made up of figures, code blocks, and/or tables, followed by a bullet list explaining the topic.
\subsection{[Insert Topic One Title]}
\fig{nsbanner}
\bulletlist{
\item This is the first bullet point of the topic
\item This is the second bullet point of the topic
}
Follow the template to set up the content of the sections:
\fig{imagename}
A topic figure can be inserted using the \fig macro, where the argument is the name of the image. Images are located relative to the \graphicspath defined in each LaTeX file; this is set up in the template to point to the Workbook/_Images regardless if LaTeX is compiling the whole book or an individual section file so leave it alone and put the images in _Images.
Image names do not include the file extension, LaTeX will figure out the right image just from the name.
\fig is defined to center the image on the page with some extra margin space around it. When the slides are formatted, the image will be reduced in height and there will be considerable horizontal margins to keep it on the slide.
You do not need to know this to use the template, but it might be useful at some point to understand how the LaTeX compiler is finding images in the source files:
\providecommand{\main}{..}
\documentclass[../workbook]{subfiles}
\graphicspath{ {\main/_Images/} }
A problem exists, because compiling a LaTeX document in a chapter individually and compiling the whole book work differently. Each section in a chapter is marked as a subfile of ../workbook, and that means the preamble is read from the ../workbook.tex file at the top of the document. When the book is compiled the path graphics path is relative to the top of the Workbook folder, but when an individual file is compiled (as in a preview in the editor) the graphics path needs to be relative to the parent folder!
The lead-in for the section document fixes this by defining \providecommand{\main}{..}. In the workbook.tex file \main is defined as ".", but in the section it is defined as "..". However, when the workbook is compiled, the \providecommand in the section is ignored! So, the change to ".." only takes place if the section is compiled by itself.
The images on the cover page for the workbook and slides, and the slide background, are branded to NextStep IT Training. The images are used in workbook-def.tex and are easy enough to change, by replacing the files in .images:
- workbook-cover.png
- slide-cover.png
- slide-background.jpg
Code blocks are set up in an easy-to-use LaTeX environment, codeblock:
\begin{codeblock}{javascript}
const x = 5
const y = 6
console.log(x + y)
\end{codeblock}
This environment is built from the mdbox and lstlistings packages. All that is necessary is to specify the coding language as the parameter to the block. All of the languages defined for highlighting have strictly lowercase names. The supported langagues added to the default LaTeX list are: text, javascript (or *js), jsx, json, typescript (or ts), tsx, csharp (or cs), and html5. Also, text and console are plain text definitions without highlighting. The definitions for these languages and new languages are always being added, and you can easily follow the definitions in the workbook-def.tex file and the reference in the Listing document to change or add new stuff.
Tables can be a bit wordy to set up in LaTeX, and since they are supposed to look the same throughout the book three macros have been created to reduce the structure to this:
\topictable{|l|X|}{
\tableheader{Header Column One}{Header Column Two}
\tablerow{Row one, column one}{Row one, column two}
\tablerow{Row two, column one}{Row two, column two}
}
The first argument to the table macro defines how the columns will look, and is fed right into the tabularx package. The vertical bars indicate that vertical bars should be on the borders of the table cells. The letters indicate: l - align left an only use the necessary amount of space, c - align center, r - allign right, X distribute the remaining space evently among all X columns.
The second argument between the braces at the beginning and end is the content of the table. The table content should be one header row (it becomes bold text) and one or more table rows. Each row has to have the same number of column arguments as the first argument defines columns.
Lists are almost pure LaTeX. Almost every topic should have bullet points below an image, codeblock, or table. Bullet lists are expected to be created with \bulletlist{}, which adjusts the spacing around the bullet points. A bullet list can be created with an itemize environment, but the spacing will not be correct. Items should be simple, no periods because this encourages long points. There should be one to three points, no more (rule of threes):
\bulletlist{
\item This is the first point
\item This is the second point
}
There is also an environment for bullet lists, which is the preferred usage because then you can nest them. As with \bulletlist, the between-item spacing has been adjusted, so this is preferred over \begin{itemize}:
\begin{bulletlist}
\item This is the first point
\item This is the second point
\end{bulletlist}
In the labs we use numbered lists, which are just created using \\begin{numbers}.
numbers is a redefinition of enumerate, with the same spacing as bullets.
Lists can be nested, which is sometimes necessary in the lab instructions.
LaTeX will switch from numbers to a, b, c for the second level.
Codeblocks can appear between list elements:
```text
\begin{numbers}
\item These are detailed project steps.
\begin{numbers}
\item Lists may be nested.
\item Second nested list item.
\end{numbers}
\item Second outer list item.
\begin{codeblock}{javascript}
Code blocks may be inserted between items.
\end{codeblock}%
\item Third outer list item.
\end{numbers}
Occasionally it is necessary to start a new numbered list continuing the sequence from the previous list. Our preamble has a counter pre-defined to assist with this, currentListNumber. It is used to save the current counter at the end of the first list, and then reset the counter at the beginning of the second list:
\begin{numbers}
\item This is the first point
\item This is the second point
\setcounter{currentListNumber}{\value{enumi}}
\end{numbers}
\par{
Something else.
}
\begin{numbers}
\setcounter{enumi}{\value{currentListNumber}}
\item This is the first point
\item This is the second point
\end{numbers}
If really necessary, a pure-LaTeX paragraph can be placed under a topic to provide a detailed description. We discourage the use of large blocks of text, the book is supposed to be a guide for the participants and instructor, not a detailed instruction manual.
\par{
This is paragraph text.
}
Use the LaTeX command \emph{} to emphasize text in the bullet points and paragraphs. This will be the same as using \textit{} (italics) when the PDF is generated, but is more generic and adaptable. You also have the LaTeX command \textbf{} to make the text bold. This should be used more sparingly, it tends to draw the eye immediately causing the user to skip over other text on the way.
The lab section works slightly differently. The subsections in the lab are not topics, and in the slides outcome they are not placed on separate pages. Rather the subsections define the different information needed to complete the lab: goals, synopsis, requirements, steps, and results.
Look at the source to the section-lab.tex file, and it will become apparent how to define each part.
There are two files that are assmebled into the end of the workbook: presentation-notes.tex and change-log.tex. The presentation notes contains chapter-by-chapter, topic-by-topic notes for the presenter.
The change log should be re-created as a new file for every edition. The change log for previous editions may be recovered using Git. If you are editing a new edition of the workbook, note the changes on a chapter-by-chapter, topic-by-topic basis. Major changes to a chapter, the deletion of a chapter, or the inclusion of a new chapter should just be mentioned at the chapter level. Changes, deletions, and additions to topic-slides are made at the topic level. Inserting an deleting new topics proves somewhat difficult because of the number changes; refer to the numbers in the original topic. When adding, refer to the topic number the new topic is added after.
The Outline folder contains the file outline.tex, whih is a standard template for building an outline to deliver to customers. The format of the outline is self-explanatory. It is one of the three outputs that can be built by the scripts in the next paragraph: workbook, slides, and outline, which will be placed into the Distribution folder.
The instructions for adding LaTeX to your system were provided at the top of this document.
In the new project this file (README.md) should be replaced with a README.md file appropriate for the project. README-PROJECT.md is a good template to start with.
The outline, book, and slides are PDF files, they are created using these commands (Linux/MacOS bash shell format) to build them in the Workbook and Outline folders (the $ is the command prompt). You need to be in the correct directory to build each:
$ cd Outline
$ latexmk -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode -file-line-error -pdf -output-directory=./.latex-temp outline.tex
$ cp ./.latex-temp/outline.pdf ../Distribution
$ cd Workbook
$ latexmk -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode -file-line-error -pdf -output-directory=./.latex-temp workbook.tex
$ cp ./.latex-temp/workbook.pdf ../Distribution
$ latexmk -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode -file-line-error -pdf -output-directory=./.latex-temp workbook-slides.tex
$ cp ./.latex-temp/workbook-slides.pdf ../Distribution
Changing the output directory keeps LaTeX from making all the compiled versions next to the original .tex files, but it also means that workbook.pdf and workbook-slides.pdf will be placed in the .latex-temp folder. .latex-temp is ignored by Git. If the PDF files are the final publication versions for the current course version, then move them to the Distribution folder before committing the version changes to the project.
To make things simple we have built a bash script and a Windows batch file to do the work and placed them in the project folder: build and build.bat.
Edit the script or batch for your system, and change the course number to the current course. The Distribution folder will have the workbook, slides, and outline from the course template; you may delete these.
The script or batch file has five commands: workbook, slides, outline, all, and clean:
$ ./build
usage: build [workbook|slides|outline|all|clean]
$ ./build workbook # (or build.bat workbook on a Windows computer)
The all command builds everything, the PDF files are copied to the Distribution folder. The clean command removes the .latex-temp folders from the Workbook and Outline folders.
Warning: you may get a LaTeX compilation warning from the package scrlfile.sty: "Command @footnotemark has changed. Check if current package is valid." This happens becauase of the way dependent packages are loaded in the source files. You may also see warnings coming out of some of the other packages for similar reasons. To be honest, we really can't fix the warnings comming out of the dependent packages, that would be the responsibility of the authors of those packages.
Thank you for considering this standard template as a foundation for your courseware development. This template is an ever-evolving project, and the technology we use changes frequently, so therefore the template does as well. Check back, the current version will always offer you the best results, and that is what you are going to get anyways if you follow the instructions to clone this repository when you start a new project. Enjoy!
We are always looking for ways to make the template better. But remember: Keep it simple. Keep it minimal. Don't add every single feature just because you can, add a feature when a feature is required.
- Joel Mussman