Re: [dev] About a beamer back-end

[suvayu ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com>]

Hi Nicolas,

On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 4:37 PM, Nicolas Goaziou <n.goaziou@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> If you want to try them out (there has been no serious debugging for
> them), you can
>
>  (defalias 'org-metaup 'org-element-drag-backward)
>
> `org-element-drag-backward' is a strict super-set for `org-metaup'.
>

I will try this out today.

> I'll keep headlines for blocks.  But I think I'll introduce a couple of
> small changes.
>
> - Sectioning and packages are extracted from `org-e-latex-classes'.
>  Since calling Beamer back-end is explicit, it can be applied on any
>  tex file, not only when that file starts with
>  "\documentclass{beamer}".  Additionally, an equivalent to
>  `org-beamer-use-parts' is unnecessary.
>

This would be a welcome addition in line with the org philosophy of
org documents being backend agnostic.

> - An headline at `org-e-beamer-frame-level' level becomes a frame,
>  unless it has the "noframe" tag.  In that case, its contents are
>  inserted between surrounding frames.
>

In one of your follow-up replies you mention you are not sure what could
be the use case. The beamer package has the option handout, that allows
one to produce handouts for your slides with text in between frames
included in the final pdf. This addition would make that process as
simple as adding the handout option to beamer and recompiling the latex
source!

> - Any headline above that level has a block type (depending on the
>  BEAMER_env property).  Without that property, the headline is still
>  a block ("\begin{block}{title}...\end{block}").
>

This is also a very nice addition.

> - Since above some level, everything is a block, there is no "low level
>  headline" anymore.  Thus, the H:num OPTION item sets
>  `org-e-beamer-frame-level'.  There's no use for BEAMER_FRAME_LEVEL
>  keyword.  It also means you can't make lists out of headlines.
>

This will again cleanup the syntax and make it more uniform across
backends. :)

> - An headline below `org-e-beamer-frame-level' with an "appendix" tag
>  becomes an appendix part.
>

I would appreciate this feature a lot!

> - An headline with a "note" tag becomes a note between frames if at
>  `org-e-beamer-frame-level', within current frame otherwise.
>
> - There is no separate syntax for \alert{} command: it is the default
>  output for bold objects (i.e. *text* becomes \alert{text}).
>

I am a little apprehensive about this. Bold is something I use (and see
others use) frequently in presentations. I would suggest changing the
choice to something that is less used in presentations. The `_' markup
could be a good candidate or one of the two `=' or `~' could be used
(since they render to something very similar in the pdf). But this is
not an important point; as long as this is configurable, I'm happy. :)

> - Obviously, all special tags specified in this list are customizable.
>

A huge thank you for all the wonderful and hard work you have put in.

:)

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.