sent/README.md

sent
====

A simple plaintext presentation tool.

sent does not need latex, libreoffice or any other fancy file format, it uses
plaintext files and png images. Every line represents a slide in the
presentation. This may limit the use, but for presentations using the [Takahashi
method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takahashi_method) this is very nice and
allows you to write down the presentation for a quick lightning talk within a
few minutes.

The presentation is displayed in a simple X11 window colored black on white for
maximum contrast even if the sun shines directly onto the projected image. The
content of each slide is automatically scaled to fit the window so you don't
have to worry about alignment. Instead you can really concentrate on the
content.

Demo
----

To get a little demo, just type

	make && ./sent example

You can navigate with the arrow keys and quit with `q`. If you get

	sent: could not find a scalable font matching -*-dejavu sans condensed-bold-r-*-*-0-0-*-*-*-0-*-*

you should add the dejavu fonts dir (customize path to fit your distribution)
with:

	xset fp+ /usr/share/fonts/dejavu

Configuration
-------------

Edit config.h to fit your needs. The font has to be in the X servers font path,
see `man xset` for how to add it.

Usage
-----

	sent [-f FONTSTRING] FILE1 [FILE2 ...]

If one FILE equals `-`, stdin will be read. Use png images by prepending a `@`
before the filename. Lines starting with `#` will be ignored. A presentation
file could look like this:

	sent
	why?
	@nyan.png
	easy to use
	depends on Xlib, libpng
	no bloat
	how?
	sent FILENAME
	one slide per line
	# This is a comment and will not be part of the presentation
	# The next line starts with a whitespace, it will not produce an image slide
	 @FILE.png
	thanks / questions?

future features
---------------

* multiple lines per slide?
* light colored background and table of contents
* second window for speakers laptop (progress, time, notes?)
* markdown?