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.
147 GetOptions ("help|?" => \$help,
149 "mozembed" => \$mozembed,
151 "splash!" => \$splash,
152 "start=s" => \$start,
153 "verbose" => \$verbose,
154 "version" => \$version,
161 pod2usage (1) if $help;
163 print "@PACKAGE@ @VERSION@\n";
166 die "techtalk-pse: cannot use --start and --last options together\n"
167 if defined $last && defined $start;
169 die "techtalk-pse: too many arguments\n" if !$mozembed && @ARGV >= 2;
171 # Get the true name of the program.
178 chdir $d or die "techtalk-pse: chdir: $d: $!";
180 # XXX In future allow people to specify an archive and unpack
182 die "techtalk-pse: argument is not a directory"
186 # Get the talk directory and set environment variable $talkdir
187 # which is inherited by all the scripts.
188 my $talkdir = getcwd;
189 $ENV{talkdir} = $talkdir;
199 foreach (glob ("*")) {
200 if (/^(\d+)(?:-.*)\.(html|sh)$/) {
201 print STDERR "reading $_\n" if $verbose;
205 warn "techtalk-pse: $_: command file is not executable (+x)\n"
206 if $ext eq "sh" && ! -x $_;
208 my $h = { name => $_, seq => $1, ext => $2, i => $i };
213 print STDERR "ignoring $_\n" if $verbose;
218 $files[0]->{first} = 1;
219 $files[$#files]->{last} = 1;
223 print STDERR "read ", 0+@files, " files\n" if $verbose;
225 warn "techtalk-pse: no files found, continuing anyway ...\n"
228 # Run with --mozembed: see below.
229 run_mozembed () if $mozembed;
231 # Else, normal run of the program ...
233 # Work out what slide we're starting on.
235 if (defined $current) {
236 die "start slide not implemented yet XXX"
239 $current = $files[0];
241 # else $current is undefined
244 my $w = Gtk2::AboutDialog->new;
245 $w->set_authors ("Richard W.M. Jones");
247 "Superior technical demonstration software\n"
249 $w->set_program_name ("Tech Talk Platinum Supreme Edition (PSE)");
250 $w->set_version ("@VERSION@");
251 $w->set_website ("http://people.redhat.com/~rjones");
252 $w->set_license ("GNU General Public License v2 or above");
254 print STDERR "calling \$w->destroy on about dialog\n" if $verbose;
257 # The dialog doesn't really get destroyed here. We have
258 # to add this hack to really destroy it.
259 Glib::Idle->add (sub { Gtk2->main_quit; return FALSE; });
264 if (defined $current) {
265 my $go = show_slide ($current);
267 print STDERR "go = $go\n" if $verbose;
268 last MAIN if $go eq "QUIT";
270 my $i = $current->{i};
271 print STDERR "i = $i\n" if $verbose;
272 $i-- if $go eq "PREV" && $i > 0;
273 $i++ if $go eq "NEXT" && $i+1 < @files;
274 $i = 0 if $go eq "FIRST";
275 $i = $#files if $go eq "LAST";
276 $i = $1 if $go =~ /^I_(\d+)$/;
277 $current = $files[$i];
280 print "No slides found. Press any key to reload directory ...\n";
284 # Reread directory between slides.
287 if (defined $current && !exists $files{$current->{name}}) {
288 # Current slide was deleted.
290 $current = $files[0] if @files;
298 # Display an HTML page.
299 if ($slide->{ext} eq "html") {
300 # MozEmbed is incredibly crashy, so we run ourself as a
301 # subprocess, so when it segfaults we don't care. If all goes
302 # well and it doesn't crash, it should print a line 'RESULT FOO'
303 # where 'FOO' is the instruction (eg. 'NEXT', 'PREV', 'QUIT' etc).
304 my @cmd = ($0, "--mozembed", $talkdir, $slide->{name});
305 print STDERR "running subcommand: ", join (" ", @cmd), "\n"
308 or die "failed to execute subcommand: ", join(" ", @cmd), ": $!\n";
311 if (/^RESULT ([A-Z]+.*)/) {
313 print STDERR "subcommand result: $r\n" if $verbose;
317 # No RESULT line? Subcommand probably segfaulted, just
318 # continue to next slide.
322 # Run a shell command.
323 elsif ($slide->{ext} eq "sh") {
325 # http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/perl/cookbook/ch10_17.htm
326 local *run_process = sub {
328 die "fork: $!" unless defined $pid;
332 exec ("./".$slide->{name});
333 die "failed to execute command: ", $slide->{name}, ": $!";
337 local *kill_process = sub {
338 print STDERR "sending TERM signal to process group $pid\n"
346 my $w = Gtk2::Window->new ();
348 my $s = $w->get_screen;
349 $w->set_default_size ($s->get_width, -1);
351 $w->set_decorated (0);
354 make_button_bar ((exists $slide->{first}),
355 (exists $slide->{last}),
356 sub { $r = $_[0]; $w->destroy },
365 $w->signal_connect (destroy => sub {
374 print STDERR "returning r=$r\n" if $verbose;
379 # If invoked with the --mozembed parameter then we just display a
380 # single page. This is just to prevent crashes in MozEmbed from
381 # killing the whole program.
384 my $w = Gtk2::Window->new ();
385 my $vbox = Gtk2::VBox->new ();
386 my $moz = Gtk2::MozEmbed->new ();
391 $current = $files{$name};
392 my $url = "file://$talkdir/$name";
395 make_button_bar ($current->{first}, $current->{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 $moz->load_url ($url);
418 # Make the standard button bar across the top of the page.
426 my $bbox = Gtk2::Toolbar->new ();
430 my $bnext = Gtk2::ToolButton->new (undef, "Next slide");
431 $bnext->signal_connect (clicked => sub { &$cb ("NEXT") });
432 $bnext->set_sensitive (!$last);
433 $bbox->insert ($bnext, $i++);
435 my $bback = Gtk2::ToolButton->new (undef, "Back");
436 $bback->signal_connect (clicked => sub { &$cb ("PREV") });
437 $bback->set_sensitive (!$first);
438 $bbox->insert ($bback, $i++);
440 if (exists $params{restart}) {
441 $bbox->insert (Gtk2::SeparatorToolItem->new (), $i++);
443 my $brestart = Gtk2::ToolButton->new (undef, "Kill & restart");
444 $brestart->signal_connect (clicked => $params{restart});
445 $bbox->insert ($brestart, $i++);
448 my $sep = Gtk2::SeparatorToolItem->new ();
449 $sep->set_expand (TRUE);
450 $sep->set_draw (FALSE);
451 $bbox->insert ($sep, $i++);
453 my $optsmenu = Gtk2::Menu->new ();
455 my $bfirst = Gtk2::MenuItem->new ("First slide");
456 $bfirst->signal_connect (activate => sub { \&$cb ("FIRST") });
458 $optsmenu->append ($bfirst);
460 my $blast = Gtk2::MenuItem->new ("Last slide");
461 $blast->signal_connect (activate => sub { \&$cb ("LAST") });
463 $optsmenu->append ($blast);
465 my $slidesmenu = Gtk2::Menu->new ();
467 my $item = Gtk2::MenuItem->new ($_->{name});
469 $item->signal_connect (activate => sub { \&$cb ("I_$index") });
470 $item->set_sensitive ($current->{i} != $index);
472 $slidesmenu->append ($item);
475 my $bslides = Gtk2::MenuItem->new ("Slides");
476 $bslides->set_submenu ($slidesmenu);
478 $optsmenu->append ($bslides);
480 my $sep2 = Gtk2::SeparatorMenuItem->new ();
482 $optsmenu->append ($sep2);
484 my $bquit = Gtk2::MenuItem->new ("Quit");
485 $bquit->signal_connect (activate => sub { \&$cb ("QUIT") });
487 $optsmenu->append ($bquit);
489 my $boptions = Gtk2::MenuToolButton->new (undef, "Options");
490 #$boptions->signal_connect (clicked =>
491 # sub { $optsmenu->popup (undef, undef, undef, undef, ?, ?) } );
492 $bbox->insert ($boptions, $i++);
493 $boptions->set_menu ($optsmenu);
502 =head2 START WRITING A TALK
504 [Before you start writing your real talk, I urge you to read
505 L</WHAT MAKES A GOOD TALK> below].
507 To start your talk, all you have to do is to make a new directory
513 A tech talk consists of HTML files ("slides") and shell scripts. The
514 filenames must start with a number, followed optionally by a
515 description, followed by the extension (C<.html> or C<.sh>). So to
516 start our talk with two slides:
518 echo "This is the introduction" > 0010-introduction.html
519 echo "This is the second slide" > 0020-second.html
521 To run it, run the command from within the talk directory:
525 Any other file in the directory is ignored, so if you want to add
526 Makefiles, version control files etc, just go ahead.
528 =head2 TIPS FOR WRITING HTML
530 You may have your own techniques and tools for writing HTML, so
531 this section is just to share my ideas. I start every
532 HTML file with a standard stylesheet and Javascript header:
534 <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" type="text/css"/>
535 <script src="code.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
537 That just ensures that I can put common styling instructions for all
538 my slides in a single file (C<style.css>), and I have one place where
539 I can add all Javascript, if I need to use any (C<code.js>).
541 =head3 BACKGROUNDS, FONTS AND LOGOS
543 To add a common background and font size to all slides, put this in
548 background: url(background-image.jpg) no-repeat;
551 To add a logo in one corner:
554 background: url(logo.jpg) top right no-repeat;
557 =head3 SCALING AND CENTERING
559 Scaling slide text and images so that they appear at the same
560 proportionate size for any screen resolution can be done using
562 L<https://developer.mozilla.org/En/DOM/window.innerHeight>).
564 If you want to center text horizontally, use CSS, eg:
570 To center text vertically, CSS3 is supposed to offer a solution some
571 time, but while you're waiting for that try
572 L<http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/007/center#vertical>.
574 =head3 PREVIEWING HTML
576 I find it helpful to have Firefox open to display the HTML files and
577 styles as I edit them. Just start firefox in the talk directory:
579 firefox file://$(pwd) &
581 When you edit an HTML file, click the Firefox reload button to
582 immediately see your changes.
584 Tech Talk PSE uses Mozilla embedding to display HTML, which uses the
585 same Mozilla engine as Firefox, so what you should see in Firefox
586 should be identical to what Tech Talk PSE displays.
588 =head2 CREATING FIGURES
590 Use your favorite tool to draw the figure, convert it to an image (in
591 any format that the Mozilla engine can display) and include it using
592 an C<E<lt>imgE<gt>> tag, eg:
596 Suitable tools include: XFig, GnuPlot, GraphViz, and many TeX tools
597 such as PicTex and in particular TikZ.
599 =head2 EMBEDDING VIDEOS, ANIMATIONS, ETC.
601 Using HTML 5, embedding videos in the browser is easy. See:
602 L<https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Using_audio_and_video_in_Firefox>
604 For animations, you could try L<Haxe|http://haxe.org/> which has a
605 Javascript back-end. There are many other possibilities.
607 If you are B<sure> that the venue will have an internet connection,
608 why not embed a YouTube video.
610 =head2 DISPLAYING EXISTING WEB PAGES
612 Obviously you could just have an HTML file that contains a redirect to
615 <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0; url=http://www.example.com/">
617 However if you want your talk to work offline, then it's better to
618 download the web page in advance, eg. using Firefox's "Save Page As
619 -E<gt> Web Page, complete" feature, into the talk directory, then
620 either rename or make a symbolic link to the slide name:
622 ln -s "haXe - Welcome to haXe.html" 0010-haxe-homepage.html
624 =head2 TIPS FOR WRITING SHELL SCRIPTS
626 Make sure each C<*.sh> file you write is executable, otherwise Tech
627 Talk PSE won't be able to run it. (The program gives a warning if you
630 A good idea is to start each script by sourcing some common functions.
631 All my scripts start with:
636 where C<functions> is another file (ignored by Tech Talk PSE) which
637 contains common functions for setting shell history and starting a
640 In C<functions>, I have:
642 # -*- shell-script -*-
644 # Place any local environment variables required in 'local'.
645 if [ -f local ]; then source local; fi
649 export HISTFILE=$talkdir/history
656 echo "$@" >> $HISTFILE
661 # Make $HISTFILE unwritable so the shell won't update it
665 # Run gnome-terminal.
669 --geometry=+100+100 \
672 -e '/bin/bash --norc' \
676 By initializing the shell history, during your talk you can rapidly
677 recall commands to start parts of the demonstration just by hitting
678 the Up arrow. A complete shell script from one of my talks would look
683 add_history guestfish -i debian.img
684 terminal --title="Examining a Debian guest image in guestfish"
686 This is just a starting point for your own scripts. You may want to
687 use a different terminal, such as xterm, and you may want to adjust
692 =head2 ORDER OF FILES
694 Tech Talk PSE displays the slides in the directory in lexicographic
695 order (the same order as C<LANG=C ls -1>). Only files matching the
696 following regexp are considered:
698 ^(\d+)(?:-.*)\.(html|sh)$
700 For future compatibility, you should ensure that every slide has a
701 unique numeric part (ie. I<don't> have C<0010-aaa.html> and
702 C<0010-bbb.html>). This is because in future we want to have the
703 ability to display multiple files side by side.
705 Also for future compatibility, I<don't> use file names that have an
706 uppercase letter immediately after the numeric part. This is because
707 in future we want to allow placement hints using filenames like
708 C<0010L-on-the-left.html> and C<0010R-on-the-right.html>.
710 =head2 BASE URL AND CURRENT DIRECTORY
712 The base URL is set to the be the directory containing the talk files.
713 Thus you should use relative paths, eg:
717 You can also place assets into subdirectories, because subdirectories
718 are ignored by Tech Talk PSE, eg:
720 <img src="images/fig1.gif">
722 When running shell scripts, the current directory is also set to be
723 the directory containing the talk files, so the same rules about using
724 relative paths apply there too.
726 The environment variable C<$talkdir> is exported to scripts and it
727 contains the absolute path of the directory containing the talk files.
728 When a script is run, the current directory is the same as
729 C<$talkdir>, but if your script changes directory (eg. into a
730 subdirectory containing supporting files) then it can be useful to use
731 C<$talkdir> to refer back to the original directory.
733 =head1 WHAT MAKES A GOOD TALK
735 I like what Edward Tufte writes, for example his evisceration of
736 PowerPoint use at NASA here:
737 L<http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB>
739 However it is sometimes hard to translate his ideas into clear
740 presentations, and not all of that is the fault of the tools. Here
741 are my thoughts and rules on how to deliver a good talk.
743 B<First, most important rule:> Before you start drawing any slides at
744 all, write your talk as a short essay.
746 This is the number one mistake that presenters make, and it is partly
747 a tool fault, because PowerPoint, OpenOffice, even Tech Talk PSE, all
748 open up on an initial blank slide, inviting you to write a title and
749 some bullet points. If you start that way, you will end up using the
750 program as a kind of clumsy outlining tool, and then reading that
751 outline to your audience. That's boring and a waste of time for you
752 and your audience. (It would be quicker for them just to download the
753 talk and read it at home).
755 B<Secondly:> How long do you want to spend preparing the talk? A good
756 talk, with a sound essay behind it, well thought out diagrams and
757 figures, and interesting demonstrations, takes many hours to prepare.
758 How many hours? I would suggest thinking about how many hours of
759 effort your audience are putting in. Even just 20 people sitting
760 there for half an hour is 10 man-hours of attention, and that is a
761 very small talk, and doesn't include all the extra time and hassle
762 that it took to get them all in one place.
764 I don't think you can get away with spending less than two full days
765 preparing a talk, if you want to master the topic and draw up accurate
766 slides. Steve Jobs is reputed to spend weeks preparing his annual
767 sales talk to the Apple faithful.
769 B<Thirdly:> Now that you're going to write your talk as an essay, what
770 should go in the slides? I would say that you should consider
771 delivering the essay, I<not> the slides, to people who don't make the
772 talk. An essay can be turned into an article or blog posting, whereas
773 even "read-out-the-bullet-point" slides have a low information
774 density, large size, and end-user compatibility problems (*.pptx
777 What, then, goes on the slides? Anything you cannot just say:
778 diagrams, graphs, videos, animations, and of course (only with Tech
779 Talk PSE!) demonstrations.
781 B<Lastly:> Once you've got your talk as an essay and slides, practice,
782 practice and practice again. Deliver the talk to yourself in the
783 mirror, to your colleagues. Practice going backwards and forwards
784 through the slides, using your actual laptop and the software so you
785 know what to click and what keys to press. Partly memorize what you
786 are going to say (but use short notes written on paper if you need
791 The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint, Tufte, Edward R.
795 Richard W.M. Jones L<http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/>
799 Copyright (C) 2010 Red Hat Inc.
801 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
802 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
803 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
804 (at your option) any later version.
806 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
807 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
808 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
809 GNU General Public License for more details.
811 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
812 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
813 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.