Re: [docbook-apps] slides: how to balance presentation and content

[Stefan Seefeld <seefeld@sympatico.ca>]

Dave Pawson wrote:
>
> Where to draw the line? Overlays and slides are javascript + html 
> surely? Same way that Norm added 'next slide' type javascript.
Indeed, incremental display (as well as overlays) is implemented using 
javascript. But it's still something a presentation author wants to 
specify in the markup. While it is clear that incrementals can be 
ignored in handouts, for all others they are media-independent (i.e. no 
matter whether you use HTML or some other fancy tool, you want to 
specify what 'next' stands for).

>
> What markup are you thinking of for incremental lists?
> list continuation attributes? Semantic = continue numbering from
> previous-sibling::list?
I'm not sure. Just a means to indicate how the slide content is chunked 
for incremental display. (And sometimes it's not a simple linear 
chunking, for example when some content has to be kept in sync, such as 
list items and graphic overlays.)


>>
>> Another area is to explicitely allow multi-column displays, with 
>> explicit placement into those columns (or more generally, blocks). 
>> Having content flow automatically is typically not what presentation 
>> authors want.
>
> Which is getting pretty close to xsl-fo? Again, where to draw the line?
> I've used CSS for multi-column presentation of html divs... how to get 
> that back into markup?
>   By the sound of it you want n divs, then a means to lay them out?
> perhaps using some <sect-n> element with an attribute indicating left
> or right layout? is that the sort of thing?

Yes, exactly. Well, it might be good enough to have an indicator (such 
as 'template' enumerator per slide, then use named blocks which content 
is put into. The template enumerator will then indicate how those blocks 
are layed out.) That seems to be similar in spirit to what 
presentational software such as powerpoint or openoffice offer.

>>
>> There is certainly much more to be done. I'm not a presentation 
>> power-user,
>
> <chuckle/> you are, compared to what I've used slides for!
>
>
>  so my use-cases are rather minimal.
>> But this is a start. Or actually, moving docbook-slides to DB5 would 
>> be the start. <wink/>
>
>
> A couple of us moved website to db5 in a week or two. Same effort for
> slides I think.
>
> I'm not 100% at the moment or I'd offer to do it. Not hard though, 
> honest.

And I have never actually used relaxng. May be I should try, some day...

Regards,
       Stefan

-- 

      ...ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin...