Getting Started

Installation

There are different ways to have access to the slipshow compiler:

In addition to this, for advanced users, you also have the following options:

  • You can always compile from source! This solution is convenient for opam users.

  • A javascript version of the slipshow compile is distributed through npm. It lacks some features but might be useful in some setups

The VS Code plugin

The VS Code plugin can be downloaded from the official marketplace as well as from open VSX. This means that searching the slipshow extension directly from within VS Code should yield a result in most cases!

The VS Code plugin provides two commands: - Compile presentation. Open the command palette, and type “Compile slipshow”. This should compile the presentation in a .html of the same name. - Preview presentation. Open the command palette, and type “Preview slipshow”. This should open a new window with a live preview of your presentation!

Precompiled binaries

Precompiled binaries are available to download in the release page of the project. Save the file corresponding to your architecture, and make it available by moving to a directory included in your $PATH, eg /usr/local/bin.

You can test that the slipshow binary is available by running:

$ slipshow --help

If the help shows up, you successfully installed slipshow!

Then, you can use slipshow to compile your documents:

$ slipshow presentation.md            # Compiles to `presentation.html`
$ slipshow --serve presentation.md    # Compiles to `presentation.html` and serves a live-preview on 127.0.0.1:8080

The sliphub online editor

The sliphub online editor is a quick way to try out slipshow, as it does not require any setup. This link will open a page with an editor on the left, and a preview on the right.

Currently, the interface is quite minimal. Your progress is saved “live” and you can even do collaborative editing: two people editing the same document.

Remember the link to be able to come back to your document later! And save your work locally: This is still experimental.

The slipshow editor

The slipshow editor is an editor specialized in writing slipshow presentations. It provides live-previewing of your presentation.

However, since the project is very new compared to most editors, you might miss features from eg VS Code, Emacs or Vim.

Compiling from source

This requires opam.

Run the following command:

$ opam pin slipshow git+https://github.com/panglesd/slipshow.git
$ # test your installation:
$ slipshow --help

and you are done!

Using npm

For a reason described below, installing slipshow through npm will install a slightly slower version, with less functionalities. So, installing it like that is somehow discouraged, unless you don’t mind the missing functionalities!

$ npm install slipshow
$ # Test your installation
$ npx slipshow -- --help

So, here are the limitations of the npm version of slipshow: - It is slower (might not be a problem, since it still is very fast!) - The --watch argument is not (yet) available. This argument lets slipshow compiler run in watch mode, every file modifications triggering a recompilation. You can use inotifywait ou fswatch to mimick the behaviour! - The --serve argument is not (yet) available. This argument lets slipshow serve the file through an http server, and provide live-reloading on file changes! You can use the live-reload npm package to mimick the behaviour.

The reason for such limitations is that slipshow is written in OCaml, not javascript. Luckily, OCaml can compile to javascript! But for some functionalities, like file-watching (which relies on a C library), this compilation cannot be meaningful.

Your first presentation

Copy and paste the following example file in my-first-slipshow.md:

# My first presentation!

Here is a paragraph.

{pause}

- some items
- and some others!

{.definition pause up}
This is a definition

This is the source file that you can edit when writing your presentation. For the syntax, see the syntax reference.

Now, compile the file:

$ slipshow my-first-slipshow.md
$ # or npx slipshow my-first-slipshow.md if you installed it through npm

Your presentation has been compiled to a standalone file named my-first-slipshow.html! You can open it in your favorite browser to see the result. You can send the file to anyone, they can open it and it will work, even without internet connection!

For a description of the syntax, you can read the syntax reference. For a tutorial on the many features of slipshow, you can have a look at the tutorial.