Re: Re: epresent and Org-mode: using Emacs to run presentations of Org-mode docs

["Eric Schulte" <schulte.eric@gmail.com>]

Hi Scot,

Scot Becker <scot.becker@gmail.com> writes:

> Eric,
>
> This is cool and very useful.  Thanks.
>

Thanks, it was fun to work on.  Also, most of the cool functionality
already existed in Tom's original version, I just rebased it against
Org-mode.

>
> This must be Zeitgeist-y because I was thinking about preparing
> presentations in Emacs this week.  Then I saw slidy, now this and s5.
>
> Here's a further idea, to see what people think.  Do you think it would be
> possible to make a temporary org-mode display configuration to display
> org-mode-written presentations (similar to epresent) without leaving org
> mode, and leaving the displayed slides editable?
>
> I once saw a video of someone doing a live presentation on something Emacs-y
> and he did the presentation by typing headlines, lists and detail in a clean
> Emacs buffer as he went along, similar to the way that some teachers might
> write out subject headings or outlines on the chalkboard or overhead
> projector as they lecture.  I liked this a lot. As I see it, for less formal
> presentation situations, it lets you annotate and record class discussions
> discussions.  It also lets the talk proceed in a less scripted manner:  you
> can for example re-work the problem on the fly according to the way the
> group has defined it in the moment, not only according to the way you
> planned it at home.
>
> But doing it on the fly means that you don't have any of the advantages of
> typical slide-style presentations: an outline to prompt you, important
> figures, tables and visuals already there, links, detail, and the rest,
> pre-assembled.
>

There is always the option of just upping the font size of a full screen
Emacs buffer.  In the past I've recorded macros which

1) widen
2) org-get-next-sibling
3) org-narrow-to-subtree

or

1) widen
2) org-get-last-sibling
3) org-narrow-to-subtree

and have found those nearly sufficient for giving a live editable
presentation in Org-mode.

>
> I've wondered whether org mode might not be a nice vehicle to combine
> these things.  For example, you create your script (just like in
> Eric's ' present.org'), but instead of showing in a custom display
> mode, you actually tweak the display parameters of org-mode itself to
> look slide-like (no stars, bigger fonts for titles, invisible /markup
> characters/, etc.), and then display the slides by displaying each top
> level subtree in a narrowed buffer one at a time.  You add key
> bindings for moving back and forth, even perhaps a temporary minor
> mode for single key frame navigation that you could go in and out of
> (vi-like, I suppose).
>
> This way you'd be in (a slightly modified) org mode all the time, and could
> edit as you go, using all the structural features of org mode, and at the
> end you'd have a neat record of the way the lecture actually went, that you
> could distribute as you wish.
>
> Can anyone think why this might not be doable?
>

That does seem eminently doable, and I think that epresent could be a
good jumping off point, all that should be required is changing epresent
from a major to a minor mode (although that may not be required since it
inherits from Org-mode) and moving some of the key-bindings behind less
invasive key-bindings.

That said I definitely do not have the time to build upon or even really
support this code, so you'll be on your own in the implementation
(although I'll be happy to help in terms of answering questions).

Cheers -- Eric

>
> Scot
>