88 pointsby Curiositry3 months ago16 comments
  • articsputnik3 months ago
    I found Presenterm [1] to be optimal for me. Simple and works in the terminal, yet powerful to export to PDF and HTML. It supports Mermaid and images. I'm also collecting a list [2] with other Markdown-first presentation tools, and according to the git stars, reveal.js seems to be the most popular. Tough for me, it was too heavy.

    [1] https://github.com/mfontanini/presenterm

    [2] https://www.ssp.sh/brain/markdown-presentations-or-slides/

    • zenomt3 months ago
      i made a toolset i call "mdslides" for making pure HTML+CSS (no JavaScript) presentations in Markdown. it's just a CSS stylesheet and an 8 line Awk preprocessor for a slide delimiter, adding just enough HTML wrapping to work with the stylesheet. the stylesheet adds page breaks at each slide so you can get a PDF by asking your browser to print/save-as-PDF. it should work with any CommonMark Markdown formatter (i use "md2html" from the MD4C project).

      presentation: https://zenomt.github.io/mdslides/mdslides.html

      repo: https://github.com/zenomt/mdslides

    • nairadithya3 months ago
      There's also marp

      https://marp.app/

      • Curiositry3 months ago
        I tried to use pandoc+revealJS, then tried presenterm (which was really nice but didn't give me enough control over font sizes), and then settled on Marp, which worked great.
  • fodkodrasz3 months ago
    I used https://revealjs.com/ in the past for this successfully. I have very good experience with that from circa 10 years ago.
    • chrismorgan3 months ago
      ... in 22 lines of JavaScript?
      • fodkodrasz3 months ago
        Not, but in an actually useful way.

        ps: one thing I like on HN is the many related projects linked for each interesting topic, which allow discovery of new tools.

  • hecanjog3 months ago
    I love it, but it was very disorienting to use `j` to move forward and `k` to move backward.
    • econ3 months ago
      The other day I was reminded how SketchUp was a 3D drawing application without a learning curve. Today we get a slide show that needs a manual.

      I suppose the right key is to use the space bar. But then the html moves to the next page without any js. (Shift space to page back)

      Presto even loaded the "next>" link if one pressed space at the end of the page.

    • chrisweekly3 months ago
      Fastmail uses these too, as does vim.
      • hecanjog3 months ago
        Ha, yeah I think it's my vim muscle memory that made it feel so weird. `j` going left instead of down and `k` going right instead of up. `h` and 'l` probably would have made me feel right at home though. (And in fairness, changing the keys is trivial in this case!) :-p
    • tbossanova3 months ago
      jk
    • moravak19843 months ago
      lol yeah... "tell me you are lefty without telling me you are lefty"
      • Diti3 months ago
        Those are Vim bindings. The J key rests right under your index finger (and it’s easy to find it thanks to the nudge on your key), which enables you to spend little to no energy to “scroll down”; the K key is for scrolling up.
      • jgtrosh3 months ago
        A vimmer*
        • wosined3 months ago
          or just an evil emacs user
          • branor3 months ago
            not all emacs users are evil!
  • small_scombrus3 months ago
    This is really cute!

    I have a special spot in my heart for tools that do a good job of explaining themselves using their own outputs.

    I wonder how hard it would be to add the cute old PowerPoint style transitions using CSS

  • econ3 months ago
    This is my favorite size project. It allows us to be pedantic about every detail.

    When the key press event is triggered current is to be increased or decreased if two conditions are met. One shouldn't check just one, take action then change it back if the other condition isn't met.

       if(e.key == 'j'){ cur++; }
       if(e.key == 'k'){ cur--; }
       if(cur < 0){ cur = 0; }
       if(cur >= sl.length){ cur = sl.length - 1; }
    
    something like...

       if(cur<sl.length && e.key=='j'){ cur++ }
       else if(cur>0 && e.key=='k'){ cur-- }
    
    The else is there because we don't need to check the other condition if the first is true.

    Not that the original code doesn't work. I just want to execute instructions needed and avoid unnecessary ones if it is simple enough. The case where we try to increase beyond the array size would still trigger the second check. Even more correct would be:

       if(e.key == 'j'){ 
        if(cur < sl.length){
          cur++; 
        }
       }else if(e.key == 'k'){
        if(cur > 0){
          cur--;
        }
       }
       
    To make it uglier the if can go...

       cur<sl.length && e.key=='j' && cur++;
       cur>0 && e.key=='k' && cur-- 
    
    As it won't check the next condition if the first fails.

    This hideous bit...

       b+=("j"==d)-("k"==d)
    
    Could be slightly less ugly and one character shorter

       b+=d=="j";b-=d=="k"
    
    Then we can shovel the other conditions inthere too!

       b+=d=="j"&&b<l;b-=d=="k"&&b>0
    
    You see, with just a little effort we may improve nothing.
  • asplake3 months ago
    Could add clicker support (which I have done previously). Note however that clickers vary between Up/Down and PgUp/PgDown. Enabling the former was potentially annoying if you like to use the arrow keys to scroll, so I made that configurable. Alternatively you configure mappings per device outside the browser.
    • jakegmaths3 months ago
      I find it infuriating when clickers say they send page up/down but actually send regular up/down key events.
  • chrismorgan3 months ago

      (i = slide.nextElementSibling)?.className == "slidenote" ? i : slide
      ]),
    
    An alternative approach:

      slide.querySelector(":scope+.slidenote") ?? slide
    
    (|| would work just as well as ??, but ?? feels more appropriate.)
    • econ3 months ago
      You could also make the notes mandatory.
      • chrismorgan3 months ago
        Or put the notes inside the slide, and then CSS is enough, the JavaScript doesn’t even need to know about notes:

          Notes:
          <label><input type=radio name=notes id=notes-hide checked> Hide</label>
          <label><input type=radio name=notes id=notes-inline> Inline</label>
          <label><input type=radio name=notes id=notes-only> Only</label>
        
          <section>
              Slide
        
              <aside>
                  Notes
              </aside>
          </section>
        
          <style>
              section {
                  position: relative;
              }
        
              aside {
                  background: #feb;
                  padding: 1em;
        
                  body:has(#notes-only:checked) & {
                      position: absolute;
                      inset: 0;
                  }
        
                  body:has(#notes-inline:checked) & {
                      margin-top: auto; /* concept: if the slide uses flex, notes can try sticking to the bottom */
                  }
        
                  body:has(#notes-hide:checked) & {
                      display: none;
                  }
              }
          </style>
        • econ3 months ago
          I think one would want either slides or notes?

          This seems perfectly heretical.

              <script>
              document.write(`
              <style>
              .${location.search.replace(/\W/g, '')}{
                display:none
              }
              </style>
              `)
              </script>
  • lukaslukas3 months ago
    Haha, I see people talking about slides everywhere, from specific moment in my life... that's when I started coding slidepicker.com!

    Anyway, nice work! I created something similar for our product (a list of divs that switch visibility based on keyboard input).

  • xiphias23 months ago
    The original code is really nice:

      // golfed minslides, 173 bytes
      let a=document.getElementsByClassName("slide"),b=0,c=a.length-1;
      document.addEventListener("keypress",({key:d})=>{b+=("j"==d)-("k"==d),b=0>b?0:b>l?l:b,a[b].scrollIntoView()})
  • fjfaase3 months ago
    I use HTML for my presentations and publish them online mentioning the URL at the top, such that people can open them on their device, which is often a smart phone. I take that into account for the interactive parts of the presentation.
    • econ3 months ago
      The backend could be just...

          if( is_numeric($_GET['current']) ){
            file_put_contents( 'current.txt',$_GET['current']);
          }
      
      Then could post it it when the clock advances by a second, shortly before the slide advances on the main screen. Aggressively poll it on the clients to figure out how many ms after the whole second to poll.

      All the screens would advance simultaneously which would impress the developers.

      If someone in the audience has a question they can press a button to have their face and audio streamed to the big screen. Modified by LLM of course, or it would be pointless to have.

  • cachius3 months ago
    I find the notes mode confusing. You can't tell if you're viewing a note or a slide.

    Why would you use it? In PowerPoint the point of notes is to have an aside view for the presenter for extra info. Here all is revealed to the viewer.

    • sunnyam3 months ago
      You could share a screen with the slides and have the notes visible to yourself. Also the notes mode has a dashed border around it.

      This is just a simple demo but it's really cool how simple and easy it is in practice.

    • jy148983 months ago
      Open the page in two windows, with one that has note mode enabled
  • Jotalea3 months ago
    one thing that I immediately noticed is that this site has no mobile support at all.

    that's why I will link this presentation I made, in just a few hours, for a school project. it has mobile support, automatic fullscreen, and is still lightweight. unfortunately, I lost the code for the engine alone, so I only have the "exported product".

    https://jotalea.com.ar/tests/tpanticx

  • jeromechoo3 months ago
    I’m sure this is great on desktop but lack of mobile support today is kindof a bummer. It doesn’t even degrade gracefully.
    • econ3 months ago
      Having the notes on a phone seems useful.
  • mbo3 months ago
    self plug: one of my articles also has its own slide infrastructure (exposed to the reader as well!): https://maxbo.me/a-html-file-is-all-you-need.html#:~:text=Sl...
  • virajk_313 months ago
    Nice, I hv been working on engine that renders pptx (without compromising original styles) in web browsers...
    • TheSilva3 months ago
      Have you check https://pitch.com/ ?
      • virajk_313 months ago
        nope, however my use case requires high level of customization so I had to build it from scratch...
  • wosined3 months ago
    Maybe it would be easy to add the shortcuts g - jump to first slide G - jump to last slide