introducing-deck-deck v1.0.0

introducing...

Workflow

• create an outline
• fill it in/flesh it out
• generally use markdown-esque syntax
• transfer outline into Keynote or Powerpoint (painful)

Keynote / PowerPoint

• easy to get started
• application
  • dual screen, access file system, open file with
• easily convert to PDF format for distribution
• concept of "master slides" for easy layout reuse
• Keynote adds a pleasant aesthetic and feel to slides

Keynote / PowerPoint

• tied to OS
• hard to track changes over time
  • Keynote has a binary format
    • changes without notice
  • Powerpoint has an XML format
    • horrible to version control
• outline transfer is painful
  • particularly from markdown
• have to exit presentation to do demos

Bespoke.js

• supports markdown
• open source
• embed demos in the presentation
• applying version control is possible because of all text source
• Essentially a web page, so can be accessed online

Bespoke.js

• learning curve
  • need to be a web dev
• dual screen is fiddly
• have to theme it yourself
  • themes not as nice as Keynote
• have to build a dist
• No easy handout format (e.g. PDF)
• I want my slides to just contain content
  • No web site boilerplate

Deck

Deck

$ npm i -g @deck/app # npm 2+
$ npm i -g deck-app # npm 1/node 0.10

• CLI application for content management
• GUI application for presentation
  • built for extended-display
• multi-platform (Linux, Mac, Windows)
• multiversion (Node 0.10, 0.12, & 4)

Deck

$ npm i -g @deck/app # npm 2+
$ npm i -g deck-app # npm 1/node 0.10

• multi-device
• networked application
  • slide synchronization
  • graceful live reload
  • tunnelling
• markdown driven (GFM)

Anatomy

Electron vs NW.js

Content Modules

deck init

deck install

deck publish

• A slide deck is simply a module with deck.md as the main file
• Slide decks can be install from npm (or a private repo) and then presented
• You can also simply clone from a git repo and then run deck present within that repo

Content Modules

npm dist-tag add my-deck@2.3.2 advanced
npm dist-tag add my-deck@1.1.4 standard

npm dist-tag add collab-deck@1.2.5 dave
npm dist-tag add collab-deck@1.1.4 matteo

• We can use npm tags to install slide deck content variations
• We map these npm tags to git branches

Content Modules

• For version convention we've informally re-purposed semver as "seshver"
  • Patch version is for typos etc
  • Minor version is content mutations
  • Major version denotes estimated duration in "session" units
    • context-relative: for a talk a session could be 10min, for training it could be 90min

Deck Upstream

deck upstream

• deck upstream automatically create a pull-request from content changes even if edits are made against an installed module instead of a git repo
• the idea is to make it trivial for anyone delivering our content to feedback
• easy editing with cmd + e

Slide Control

• Slides are separated by the markdown HR line ---
  • This leads to neat output for normal markdown rendering (e.g on GitHub)
• Each slide can have a comment header where meta data and instructions can go
  • master - sets the master slide format
  • notes - supply slide notes
  • custom - tweak slide layout with CSS

Skins

• During deck init you can supply a skin
• A skin is simply CSS providing styles on top of bespoke
  • Deck supports/expects the Stylus .styl format but generally Stylus can be written exactly like CSS if preferred
• Only one public skin @deck/skin-light
  • Attempts to capture Keynote look and feel at a basic level
  • Meant for forking and customising

Demos

• Live coding is typically fiddly when attempted along side Keynote or Powerpoint
  • This is why most speakers either do one or the other
  • In training scenarios you really need both
• Deck supports demos by broadcasting the primary screen into the actual presentation
• ctrl + cmd + b

PDF's

• ctrl + cmd + p
• loops through all the slides, takes pictures and streams to a PDF file
• generated files aren't small, but it's a start

The Presenter

• When a slide deck is initialized it includes the @deck/present dependency
• @deck/present is simply an executable that's responsible for starting a server for the GUI (and audience) to connect to
• This means it can be replaced with your own custom Bespoke setup
  • Or something entirely different.

Project Status

• Launching today... Now.... It's launched.
• OPEN open project
  • Any non-trivial PR will automatically be given collaborator perms
• nearForm is currently using it (literally, right now, as we speak) to deliver training to clients
• Our role now is to mostly focus on bug fixing, cross-platform consistency and documentation
• Happy to incorporate new features in the form of PR's though ;)

Project Future/Ideas

• Docs
• Incorporate generic tunnelling service (ngrok)
• Application Packaging
  • Reduce the learning curve further
• Easier slide customisation format
• Implicit master slides based on content
  • System guesses the correct class to apply
• Optimize presentation boot up
• Cross-platform font

Project Future/Ideas

• GUI for content management
• GUI for content creation/editing
  • Dynamically Switch between editable markdown and HTML output within the GUI display
• Integration (gh-pages, slide-share, ...)
• Dynamic port assignment strategy
• More skins
• Configuration story (preferences etc.)

Summary

• It's getting easier and easier to cater to niche areas with JS
• There is a place for Networked Desktop applications within the full stack JS context

Thanks

@davidmarkclem