MaTiSSe.py flavored markdown syntax

In this section the general guidelines for writing a presentation with MaTiSSe.py are reported. Writing a presentation with MaTiSSe.py means:

1. write the contents in MaTiSSe.py-flavored markdown syntax;
2. define the theme of the presentation.

In both the steps MaTiSSe.py is strongly friendly.

The MaTiSSe.py flavored markdown

Markdown is a plain text formatting syntax allows you to write an easy-to-read, easy-to-write sources that can be easily converted to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).

There is no clearly defined Markdown standard, apart from the original writeup and implementation by John Gruber. Many extensions and flavored specialization of original markdown syntax are available, e.g. the GitHub-flavored markdown. MaTiSSe.py fully support (or should fully support) the original markdown and the GitHub flavored one, extending them with new features such as:

• Presentation structuring
• Presentation metadata
• Code listings
• LaTeX equations
• Special Environments
  • Box environment
  • Figure environment
  • Note environment
  • Table environment
  • Columns environment
  • Checklists
• Titlepage
• Including external files

Some of the above MaTiSSe.py flavored extensions are based on the extensions of Python module markdown, while others are directly implemented into MaTiSSe.py.

Before dive into the above list flavored extensions we just want highlight why markdown syntax has been chosen:

• markdown is easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text syntax;
• markdown is designed to work with XHTML;
• markdown is fully supported by many Python modules;
• markdown can be easily extended;
• although markdown is not a standard it is widely adopted, e.g. GitHub relies strongly on markdown.

We know that understanding a new syntax can be boring for a scientific researcher being used to write LaTeX sources, but markdown is tremendously simple to learn and fully adhere its promises to be easy-to-read and easy-to-write. It has only one drawback: it generates dependency.

We suggest to learn the basic of markdown reading the nice GitHub article Markdown Basics. After that you are ready to dive into the MaTiSSe.py flavored markdown. We suggest to start with the Presentation structuring.