Coding Presentations

Following the trend to code diagrams, now searching for options on how to code presentations. Don't get the 'coding' word. Its basically textual representation of diagrams and software (PlantUML) converting or compiling in to visual. There are many benefits of textual representation such as versionable, separation of art from content, etc...

This is post is about coding presentations. The Markdown format really influenced the industry. It is simple than HTML, less size, easy to work with, etc,. So the search mainly focused around presentation technologies that support Markdown.

 

Below is a humble comparison of presentation technologies. Ideally, this should be in Markdown and in Gist. It will be done later and update here. Till then bear with this HTML table format. 

Criteria

• Free tools
• Supports markdown either native or inside HTML

Name	Markdown	HTML	How it works	Pros	Cons
Hackmd	Native	Yes	Hosted	GitHub integration Freemium model
Marp	Native		VS Code CLI		Less Documentation
RemarkJS	Inside HTML	Yes	Boilerplate start Save and refresh browser
RevealJS	Inside HTML	Yes	Hosted Standalone VS Code support	Transitions,  Blogs, tutorials available	Markdown support is limited. eg: cannot add header using md
Swipe	Native		Hosted	Live presentation	Only 5 presentations in free tier

What I ended up using is RevealJS. Below are the rationale

• Transition support
• Vertical slides
• Editing in VS Code
• Long time in the market. The first presentation I created in 2013 to take a session about HTML 5. The slide deck itself made the audience that HTML 5 is something really capable.

I don't think these technologies reached a point that can replace PowerPoint.

Other presentation technologies

Below are some other presentation technologies which are not in the above table.

https://github.com/jxnblk/mdx-deck

https://github.com/adamzap/landslide

https://github.com/jacksingleton/hacker-slides

https://pandoc.org/

https://github.com/FormidableLabs/spectacle

Other comparisons

https://dzone.com/articles/presentation-as-code-why-i-abandoned-powerpoint?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedpress.me&utm_campaign=Feed:%20dzone%2Fdevops

https://gist.github.com/johnloy/27dd124ad40e210e91c70dd1c24ac8c8
https://opensource.com/article/18/5/markdown-slide-generators
https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-build-interactive-presentations-with-jupyter-notebook-and-reveal-js-c7e24f4bd9c5/
https://dzone.com/articles/presentation-as-code-why-i-abandoned-powerpoint