6 # Copyright (C) 2010 Red Hat Inc.
8 # This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
9 # it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
10 # the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
11 # (at your option) any later version.
13 # This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
14 # but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
15 # MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
16 # GNU General Public License for more details.
18 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
19 # along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
20 # Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
29 use Cwd qw(getcwd abs_path);
30 use Glib qw(TRUE FALSE);
38 techtalk-pse - superior technical demonstration software
42 cd /path/to/talk/; techtalk-pse
44 techtalk-pse /path/to/talk/
48 Tech Talk "Platinum Supreme Edition" (PSE) is Linux Presentation
49 Software designed by technical people to give technical software
50 demonstrations to other technical people. It is designed to be simple
51 to use (for people who know how to use an editor and the command line)
52 and powerful, so that you can create informative, technically accurate
53 and entertaining talks and demonstrations.
55 Tech Talk PSE is good at opening editors at the right place, opening
56 shell prompts with preloaded history, compiling and running things
57 during the demonstration, displaying text, photos, figures and video.
59 Tech Talk PSE is I<bad> at slide effects, chart junk and bullet
62 This manual page covers all the documentation you will need to use
63 Tech Talk PSE. The next section covers running the tool from the
64 command line. After that there is a L</TUTORIAL> section to get you
65 started. Then there is a detailed L</REFERENCE> section. Finally
66 there is a discussion on L<WHAT MAKES A GOOD TALK>.
68 =head1 RUNNING THE TOOL FROM THE COMMAND LINE
70 A Tech Talk PSE talk is not a single file, but a directory full of
71 files. (If you want to start a new talk, see the L</TUTORIAL> section
72 below). To display or run the talk, change into the directory
73 containing all those files and run the C<techtalk-pse> command:
75 cd /path/to/talk/; techtalk-pse
77 You can also run C<techtalk-pse> without changing directory, instead
78 specifying the path to the talk:
80 techtalk-pse /path/to/talk/
92 Display brief help and exit.
100 Start at the last slide.
102 You cannot use this with the B<-n> / B<--start> option.
108 =item B<-n SLIDE> | B<--start SLIDE>
110 Start at the named slide. I<SLIDE> is the shortest unique prefix of
111 the slide name, so to start at a slide named
112 I<00010-introduction.html>, you could use I<-n 00010> or I<-n 00010-intro>,
113 or give the full filename I<-n 00010-introduction.html>.
115 The default is to start at the first slide in the talk.
123 Don't display the initial "splash" screen which advertises Tech Talk
124 PSE to your audience. Just go straight into the talk.
132 Display verbose messages, useful for debugging or tracing
133 what the program is doing.
141 Display version number and exit.
149 GetOptions ("help|?" => \$help,
151 "mozembed" => \$mozembed,
152 "mozembed-first" => \$mozembed_first,
153 "mozembed-last" => \$mozembed_last,
155 "splash!" => \$splash,
156 "start=s" => \$start,
157 "verbose" => \$verbose,
158 "version" => \$version,
165 pod2usage (1) if $help;
167 print "@PACKAGE@ @VERSION@\n";
170 die "techtalk-pse: cannot use --start and --last options together\n"
171 if defined $last && defined $start;
173 # Run with --mozembed: see below.
174 run_mozembed () if $mozembed;
176 # Normal run of the program.
177 die "techtalk-pse: too many arguments\n" if @ARGV >= 2;
179 # Get the true name of the program.
186 chdir $d or die "techtalk-pse: chdir: $d: $!";
188 # XXX In future allow people to specify an archive and unpack
190 die "techtalk-pse: argument is not a directory"
194 # Get the talk directory and set environment variable $talkdir
195 # which is inherited by all the scripts.
196 my $talkdir = getcwd;
197 $ENV{talkdir} = $talkdir;
207 foreach (glob ("*")) {
208 if (/^(\d+)(?:-.*)\.(html|sh)$/) {
209 print STDERR "reading $_\n" if $verbose;
213 warn "techtalk-pse: $_: command file is not executable (+x)\n"
214 if $ext eq "sh" && ! -x $_;
216 my $h = { name => $_, seq => $1, ext => $2, i => $i };
221 print STDERR "ignoring $_\n" if $verbose;
226 $files[0]->{first} = 1;
227 $files[$#files]->{last} = 1;
231 print STDERR "read ", 0+@files, " files\n" if $verbose;
233 warn "techtalk-pse: no files found, continuing anyway ...\n"
236 # Work out what slide we're starting on.
238 if (defined $current) {
239 die "start slide not implemented yet XXX"
242 $current = $files[0];
244 # else $current is undefined
247 my $w = Gtk2::AboutDialog->new;
248 $w->set_authors ("Richard W.M. Jones");
250 "Superior technical demonstration software\n"
252 $w->set_program_name ("Tech Talk Platinum Supreme Edition (PSE)");
253 $w->set_version ("@VERSION@");
254 $w->set_website ("http://people.redhat.com/~rjones");
255 $w->set_license ("GNU General Public License v2 or above");
257 print STDERR "calling \$w->destroy on about dialog\n" if $verbose;
260 # The dialog doesn't really get destroyed here. We have
261 # to add this hack to really destroy it.
262 Glib::Idle->add (sub { Gtk2->main_quit; return FALSE; });
267 if (defined $current) {
268 my $go = show_slide ($current);
270 print STDERR "go = $go\n" if $verbose;
271 last MAIN if $go eq "QUIT";
273 my $i = $current->{i};
274 print STDERR "i = $i\n" if $verbose;
275 $i-- if $go eq "PREV" && $i > 0;
276 $i++ if $go eq "NEXT" && $i+1 < @files;
277 $i = 0 if $go eq "FIRST";
278 $i = $#files if $go eq "LAST";
279 $current = $files[$i];
282 print "No slides found. Press any key to reload directory ...\n";
286 # Reread directory between slides.
289 if (defined $current && !exists $files{$current->{name}}) {
290 # Current slide was deleted.
292 $current = $files[0] if @files;
300 # Display an HTML page.
301 if ($slide->{ext} eq "html") {
302 # MozEmbed is incredibly crashy, so we run ourself as a
303 # subprocess, so when it segfaults we don't care. If all goes
304 # well and it doesn't crash, it should print a line 'RESULT FOO'
305 # where 'FOO' is the instruction (eg. 'NEXT', 'PREV', 'QUIT' etc).
306 my @cmd = ($0, "--mozembed");
307 push @cmd, "--mozembed-first" if exists $slide->{first};
308 push @cmd, "--mozembed-last" if exists $slide->{last};
309 my $url = "file://$talkdir/" . $slide->{name};
311 print STDERR "running subcommand: ", join (" ", @cmd), "\n"
314 or die "failed to execute subcommand: ", join(" ", @cmd), ": $!\n";
317 if (/^RESULT ([A-Z]+.*)/) {
319 print STDERR "subcommand result: $r\n" if $verbose;
323 # No RESULT line? Subcommand probably segfaulted, just
324 # continue to next slide.
328 # Run a shell command.
329 elsif ($slide->{ext} eq "sh") {
331 # http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/perl/cookbook/ch10_17.htm
332 local *run_process = sub {
334 die "fork: $!" unless defined $pid;
338 exec ("./".$slide->{name});
339 die "failed to execute command: ", $slide->{name}, ": $!";
343 local *kill_process = sub {
344 print STDERR "sending TERM signal to process group $pid\n"
352 my $w = Gtk2::Window->new ();
354 my $s = $w->get_screen;
355 $w->set_default_size ($s->get_width, -1);
357 $w->set_decorated (0);
360 make_button_bar ((exists $slide->{first}),
361 (exists $slide->{last}),
362 sub { $r = $_[0]; $w->destroy },
371 $w->signal_connect (destroy => sub {
380 print STDERR "returning r=$r\n" if $verbose;
385 # If invoked with the --mozembed parameter then we just display a
386 # single page. This is just to prevent crashes in MozEmbed from
387 # killing the whole program.
390 my $w = Gtk2::Window->new ();
391 my $vbox = Gtk2::VBox->new ();
392 my $moz = Gtk2::MozEmbed->new ();
395 make_button_bar ($mozembed_first, $mozembed_last,
396 sub { print "RESULT ", $_[0], "\n"; $w->destroy }
399 $vbox->pack_start ($bbox, 0, 0, 0);
402 #$w->set_default_size (640, 480);
405 $w->signal_connect (destroy => sub {
411 $moz->load_url ($ARGV[0]);
417 # Make the standard button bar across the top of the page.
425 my $bbox = Gtk2::Toolbar->new ();
429 my $bnext = Gtk2::ToolButton->new (undef, "Next slide");
430 $bnext->signal_connect (clicked => sub { &$cb ("NEXT") });
431 $bnext->set_sensitive (!$last);
432 $bbox->insert ($bnext, $i++);
434 my $bback = Gtk2::ToolButton->new (undef, "Back");
435 $bback->signal_connect (clicked => sub { &$cb ("PREV") });
436 $bback->set_sensitive (!$first);
437 $bbox->insert ($bback, $i++);
439 if (exists $params{restart}) {
440 $bbox->insert (Gtk2::SeparatorToolItem->new (), $i++);
442 my $brestart = Gtk2::ToolButton->new (undef, "Kill & restart");
443 $brestart->signal_connect (clicked => $params{restart});
444 $bbox->insert ($brestart, $i++);
447 my $sep = Gtk2::SeparatorToolItem->new ();
448 $sep->set_expand (TRUE);
449 $sep->set_draw (FALSE);
450 $bbox->insert ($sep, $i++);
452 my $optsmenu = Gtk2::Menu->new ();
454 my $bfirst = Gtk2::MenuItem->new ("First slide");
455 $bfirst->signal_connect (activate => sub { \&$cb ("FIRST") });
457 $optsmenu->append ($bfirst);
459 my $blast = Gtk2::MenuItem->new ("Last slide");
460 $blast->signal_connect (activate => sub { \&$cb ("LAST") });
462 $optsmenu->append ($blast);
464 my $sep2 = Gtk2::SeparatorMenuItem->new ();
466 $optsmenu->append ($sep2);
468 my $bquit = Gtk2::MenuItem->new ("Quit");
469 $bquit->signal_connect (activate => sub { \&$cb ("QUIT") });
471 $optsmenu->append ($bquit);
473 my $boptions = Gtk2::MenuToolButton->new (undef, "Options");
474 #$boptions->signal_connect (clicked =>
475 # sub { $optsmenu->popup (undef, undef, undef, undef, ?, ?) } );
476 $bbox->insert ($boptions, $i++);
477 $boptions->set_menu ($optsmenu);
486 =head2 START WRITING A TALK
488 [Before you start writing your real talk, I urge you to read
489 L</WHAT MAKES A GOOD TALK> below].
491 To start your talk, all you have to do is to make a new directory
497 A tech talk consists of HTML files ("slides") and shell scripts. The
498 filenames must start with a number, followed optionally by a
499 description, followed by the extension (C<.html> or C<.sh>). So to
500 start our talk with two slides:
502 echo "This is the introduction" > 0010-introduction.html
503 echo "This is the second slide" > 0020-second.html
505 To run it, run the command from within the talk directory:
509 Any other file in the directory is ignored, so if you want to add
510 Makefiles, version control files etc, just go ahead.
512 =head2 TIPS FOR WRITING HTML
514 You may have your own techniques and tools for writing HTML, so
515 this section is just to share my ideas. I start every
516 HTML file with a standard stylesheet and Javascript header:
518 <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" type="text/css"/>
519 <script src="code.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
521 That just ensures that I can put common styling instructions for all
522 my slides in a single file (C<style.css>), and I have one place where
523 I can add all Javascript, if I need to use any (C<code.js>).
525 =head3 BACKGROUNDS, FONTS AND LOGOS
527 To add a common background and font size to all slides, put this in
532 background: url(background-image.jpg) no-repeat;
535 To add a logo in one corner:
538 background: url(logo.jpg) top right no-repeat;
541 =head3 SCALING AND CENTERING
543 Scaling slide text and images so that they appear at the same
544 proportionate size for any screen resolution can be done using
546 L<https://developer.mozilla.org/En/DOM/window.innerHeight>).
548 If you want to center text horizontally, use CSS, eg:
554 To center text vertically, CSS3 is supposed to offer a solution some
555 time, but while you're waiting for that try
556 L<http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/007/center#vertical>.
558 =head3 PREVIEWING HTML
560 I find it helpful to have Firefox open to display the HTML files and
561 styles as I edit them. Just start firefox in the talk directory:
563 firefox file://$(pwd) &
565 When you edit an HTML file, click the Firefox reload button to
566 immediately see your changes.
568 Tech Talk PSE uses Mozilla embedding to display HTML, which uses the
569 same Mozilla engine as Firefox, so what you should see in Firefox
570 should be identical to what Tech Talk PSE displays.
572 =head2 CREATING FIGURES
574 Use your favorite tool to draw the figure, convert it to an image (in
575 any format that the Mozilla engine can display) and include it using
576 an C<E<lt>imgE<gt>> tag, eg:
580 Suitable tools include: XFig, GnuPlot, GraphViz, and many TeX tools
581 such as PicTex and in particular TikZ.
583 =head2 EMBEDDING VIDEOS, ANIMATIONS, ETC.
585 Using HTML 5, embedding videos in the browser is easy. See:
586 L<https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Using_audio_and_video_in_Firefox>
588 For animations, you could try L<Haxe|http://haxe.org/> which has a
589 Javascript back-end. There are many other possibilities.
591 If you are B<sure> that the venue will have an internet connection,
592 why not embed a YouTube video.
594 =head2 DISPLAYING EXISTING WEB PAGES
596 Obviously you could just have an HTML file that contains a redirect to
599 <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0; url=http://www.example.com/">
601 However if you want your talk to work offline, then it's better to
602 download the web page in advance, eg. using Firefox's "Save Page As
603 -E<gt> Web Page, complete" feature, into the talk directory, then
604 either rename or make a symbolic link to the slide name:
606 ln -s "haXe - Welcome to haXe.html" 0010-haxe-homepage.html
608 =head2 TIPS FOR WRITING SHELL SCRIPTS
610 Make sure each C<*.sh> file you write is executable, otherwise Tech
611 Talk PSE won't be able to run it. (The program gives a warning if you
614 A good idea is to start each script by sourcing some common functions.
615 All my scripts start with:
620 where C<functions> is another file (ignored by Tech Talk PSE) which
621 contains common functions for setting shell history and starting a
624 In C<functions>, I have:
626 # -*- shell-script -*-
628 # Place any local environment variables required in 'local'.
629 if [ -f local ]; then source local; fi
633 export HISTFILE=$talkdir/history
640 echo "$@" >> $HISTFILE
645 # Make $HISTFILE unwritable so the shell won't update it
649 # Run gnome-terminal.
653 --geometry=+100+100 \
656 -e '/bin/bash --norc' \
660 By initializing the shell history, during your talk you can rapidly
661 recall commands to start parts of the demonstration just by hitting
662 the Up arrow. A complete shell script from one of my talks would look
667 add_history guestfish -i debian.img
668 terminal --title="Examining a Debian guest image in guestfish"
670 This is just a starting point for your own scripts. You may want to
671 use a different terminal, such as xterm, and you may want to adjust
676 =head2 ORDER OF FILES
678 Tech Talk PSE displays the slides in the directory in lexicographic
679 order (the same order as C<LANG=C ls -1>). Only files matching the
680 following regexp are considered:
682 ^(\d+)(?:-.*)\.(html|sh)$
684 For future compatibility, you should ensure that every slide has a
685 unique numeric part (ie. I<don't> have C<0010-aaa.html> and
686 C<0010-bbb.html>). This is because in future we want to have the
687 ability to display multiple files side by side.
689 Also for future compatibility, I<don't> use file names that have an
690 uppercase letter immediately after the numeric part. This is because
691 in future we want to allow placement hints using filenames like
692 C<0010L-on-the-left.html> and C<0010R-on-the-right.html>.
694 =head2 BASE URL AND CURRENT DIRECTORY
696 The base URL is set to the be the directory containing the talk files.
697 Thus you should use relative paths, eg:
701 You can also place assets into subdirectories, because subdirectories
702 are ignored by Tech Talk PSE, eg:
704 <img src="images/fig1.gif">
706 When running shell scripts, the current directory is also set to be
707 the directory containing the talk files, so the same rules about using
708 relative paths apply there too.
710 The environment variable C<$talkdir> is exported to scripts and it
711 contains the absolute path of the directory containing the talk files.
712 When a script is run, the current directory is the same as
713 C<$talkdir>, but if your script changes directory (eg. into a
714 subdirectory containing supporting files) then it can be useful to use
715 C<$talkdir> to refer back to the original directory.
717 =head1 WHAT MAKES A GOOD TALK
719 I like what Edward Tufte writes, for example his evisceration of
720 PowerPoint use at NASA here:
721 L<http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB>
723 However it is sometimes hard to translate his ideas into clear
724 presentations, and not all of that is the fault of the tools. Here
725 are my thoughts and rules on how to deliver a good talk.
727 B<First, most important rule:> Before you start drawing any slides at
728 all, write your talk as a short essay.
730 This is the number one mistake that presenters make, and it is partly
731 a tool fault, because PowerPoint, OpenOffice, even Tech Talk PSE, all
732 open up on an initial blank slide, inviting you to write a title and
733 some bullet points. If you start that way, you will end up using the
734 program as a kind of clumsy outlining tool, and then reading that
735 outline to your audience. That's boring and a waste of time for you
736 and your audience. (It would be quicker for them just to download the
737 talk and read it at home).
739 B<Secondly:> How long do you want to spend preparing the talk? A good
740 talk, with a sound essay behind it, well thought out diagrams and
741 figures, and interesting demonstrations, takes many hours to prepare.
742 How many hours? I would suggest thinking about how many hours of
743 effort your audience are putting in. Even just 20 people sitting
744 there for half an hour is 10 man-hours of attention, and that is a
745 very small talk, and doesn't include all the extra time and hassle
746 that it took to get them all in one place.
748 I don't think you can get away with spending less than two full days
749 preparing a talk, if you want to master the topic and draw up accurate
750 slides. Steve Jobs is reputed to spend weeks preparing his annual
751 sales talk to the Apple faithful.
753 B<Thirdly:> Now that you're going to write your talk as an essay, what
754 should go in the slides? I would say that you should consider
755 delivering the essay, I<not> the slides, to people who don't make the
756 talk. An essay can be turned into an article or blog posting, whereas
757 even "read-out-the-bullet-point" slides have a low information
758 density, large size, and end-user compatibility problems (*.pptx
761 What, then, goes on the slides? Anything you cannot just say:
762 diagrams, graphs, videos, animations, and of course (only with Tech
763 Talk PSE!) demonstrations.
765 B<Lastly:> Once you've got your talk as an essay and slides, practice,
766 practice and practice again. Deliver the talk to yourself in the
767 mirror, to your colleagues. Practice going backwards and forwards
768 through the slides, using your actual laptop and the software so you
769 know what to click and what keys to press. Partly memorize what you
770 are going to say (but use short notes written on paper if you need
775 The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint, Tufte, Edward R.
779 Richard W.M. Jones L<http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/>
783 Copyright (C) 2010 Red Hat Inc.
785 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
786 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
787 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
788 (at your option) any later version.
790 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
791 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
792 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
793 GNU General Public License for more details.
795 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
796 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
797 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.