[Wylug-discuss] Anything Happening in FLOSS Presentation Software?

[Dave Fisher]

I'm in the process of writing and re-writing several training courses.

Since compositing the content is going to be a time-consuming process
(whatever method I use) I thought I better look around to see if there
were any better alternatives to my current methods of generating
HTML/PDF slides and accompanying printed manuals (TOC, indexes,
hands-on exercises, extra background, follow-up materials, etc) from a
single markup/markdown source.

Unfortunately, I'm finding it practically impossible to generate
search results which aren't full of irrelevant noise, or don't focus
on 5 to 6-year old tools like Eric Meyer's S5.

So I figure I've a better chance of finding something useful if I ask
around to see if anyone has been keeping an eye on developments in
this field.

At present half of my course materials are generated by an old tool
which generates HTML+CSS slides and PDF manuals from XML sources using
a GBdirect-specific DTD (for which I still thank Aaron Crane, Smylers
and Geoff Richards).

The other half are written in S5-compatible HTML (generating S5
slideshows directly) and then filtered through OpenOffice to generate
PDF manuals (more thanks Geoff).

Sadly, both are proving a bit clunky and limiting.

This is partly, because hardware and browser developments have
outdated some of the assumptions behind the HTML/CSS/Javascript slide
presentations in both systems; and partly because I want to do a lot
more with my students and (hence) with the presentation of slides and
manuals.

Given more time than I have available, I could probably roll my own
upgrade to the S5-based system, but anything more than trivial coding
is out of the question.

So here are my parameters:

* Sources should be easily writeable in a plain text editor (UTF-8)
* The mark-up (or markdown) should support most HTML metadata,
including micro-formats
* Screen presentation should be easy on any common OS with a default
PDF viewer or Browser (preferably both)
* It should be possible to drive the slide show entirely by keyboard
on all platforms
* Screen output should be fully scaleable at 4:3 aspect on screen
widths from 800 px to 2500 px, i.e. all page components should scale
proportionally in 3 dimensions (including layers) and the aspect
retained.
* Printed output should have the kind of metadata and typesetting
capabilities associated with LaTeX, e.g. automatic TOCs, Indexes,
Footnotes, End-notes, Cross-referencing, Bibliographies, Appendices,
etc.
* Page Layout, including graphics and tables should be easier, richer
and more flexible than it was traditionally in LaTeX, e.g. SVG,
overlays, flowing text around irregular polygons and curves, text that
scales with the graphics it's embedded in or overlaid on. (I'm really
out of date on TeX-based developments, so I'd be willing to consider
any suggestions of newer stuff, given some guidance).

I am not remotely interested in PPT-style mouse-driven presentation
packages like the OO Presenter, Google Docs, and clones. I just can't
stand the way they screw up entire slide shows and style-sheets,
merely because you inadvertently place an insertion or selection point
on the wrong side of a control character that you can't actually see.

Any ideas?

Dave