[Interest] QML Presentation System, detailed docs & roadmap?

[Sletta Gunnar]

Hi Charley,

Thanks you for your interest in this project :)

The original idea I had for the presentation system was to make it convenient to mix a slide deck with live QML. It makes the assumption that the user understands QML.

I agree with you that there are tons of improvements that could be made, but I tend to only devote time to that project when I need to write presentations of my own, so right now things are standing a bit still. 

The "docs" are all located in the examples/tutorial file. It covers every feature the system has and is meant as a starting point and a guide. 

As for extending the current system, I would also like to see that. Things that come to mind is an easier way of overriding fonts and layouts. A better way of defining custom transitions. And finally a suite of templates so that some choice is available out of the box.

The project is hosted on Qt Project's codereview, so if you have patches to either the docs or structural changes to the API to make it a better system, please send them for review to qml-presentation-system.git under:
https://codereview.qt-project.org/#admin,projects

cheers,
Gunnar

On Sep 6, 2013, at 11:33 PM, Charley Bay <charleyb123 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Gunnar's post on his "QML Presentation System" in 2011 was absolutely inspiring, IMHO:  http://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2011/05/30/a-qml-presentation-system/
> 
> At the time, (and still now), I viewed this as a *brilliant* application of QML that would ultimately be a better approach for creating presentations than any of the existing commercial "presentation-software" out there.  Very clever idea, with great potential.
> 
> Correct me on any of these points:
> 
> =WHERE HOSTED
> 
> *- It's on both Gitorious and GitHub ... I guess both of these are being maintained?
>   Gitorious: (last commit May-2013):  http://qt.gitorious.org/qt-labs/qml-presentation-system/source/171c7228d39e5fcb7d034f3f6bbb82ad61a33eb8:
>   GitHub: (last commit May-2013): https://github.com/qtproject/qt-labs-qml-presentation-system
> 
> =OTHER SIMILAR PROJECTS
> 
> It looks like it inspired "Quickshow", which I think might now be abandoned?
> 
> http://www.ohloh.net/p/quickshow
> 
> Not sure if it also inspired other efforts?
> 
> =EXAMPLES AND DOCS
> 
> IMHO, the Git repository is adequate:  The README and examples are good.  (Minor "nit" is that the examples run fine on Win7/Qt5.1, the "printslides" project builds/works fine, but I failed so far to get the "Src.pro" project working -- not sure how I'm supposed to use that yet).
> 
> I think the best "training/existing-docs" is actually Gunnar's original video in his blog entry (and reading the QML source itself).  I have some questions on how some of these QML files are intended-to-be-used (e.g., what files to copy-and-change for new presentations, what to use as-is through library-import for "reusable-slide-definitions", how to physically organize files and extend standard slides for library-imports, etc.)
> 
> Most of these questions, I'm sure, relate to my current mis-understanding as to how to standardize/productize QML file collections as generic-reusable-libraries (I'm delving into that now).
> 
> =ROADMAP -- ?
> 
> Is there one, or interest in one?  I think there is *HUGE* potential here.
> 
> For example:
> 
> (A)- Establish good (more detailed) documentation:
> 
>   (1) A theory-of-op for how it works.
> 
>   (2) Productization of existing QML-presentation-types (bundled/ready-to-deploy) so the user can merely "import-modules" for standard-presentation-types; (e.g., "standard-module-namespaces", etc.)
> 
>   (3) Document minimal steps to create a new presentation, including provided "Hello World" example (using import-module from (2))
> 
>   (4) How to "override/customize" the "standard" QML-presentation types to modify default behavior, with example implementation
> 
>   (5) How to "extend/add-to" the "standard" QML-presentation types (such as to add new "slide-types" or "slide-transitions"), with example implementation
> 
> (B) Centralize presentation "Theming" so colors/fonts/etc. can be changed in a single spot for use across the presentation; enabling standardized "themes" that can be applied to a presentation.
> 
> (C) Add new capability, such as using an OS or plugin-interface that auto-detects and establishes display resolutions, default fonts, etc., and style-izes the presentation at load/run-time to the local projector-or-computer.
> 
> (D) Create a "QML-bundler" that establishes a self-executing presentation, or that "deploys" the QML-files collection needed to present
> 
> (E) (Possibly) Create a QML-code-generator that generates the QML files for a presentation by reading in some "resource" information that describes the slides.  (This is less-necessary if the user can mark-up minimal QML files directly; and more-necessary if the user is expected to copy-and-paste files to change the contents for a new presentation.)
> 
> (F) Create a QML-Presentation-Authoring interface (e.g., IDE or GUI to manage slides)
> 
> (G) ...etc.
> 
> =WEB INFO / EXAMPLES / BLOGS I MISSED?
> 
> I'm rather surprised that web searches didn't turn up more on Gunnar's QML Presentation System, like blog entries, tutorials, presentation examples, etc.  Can anyone point me in that direction?  (Surely I missed them somehow?)
> 
> At present, I'm still trying to understand "how to use it" in the case where I need to create many presentations, and I want to share much of this logic across presentations.  The "examples" run fine, but I don't understand and fail to run the "src/Src.pro" (how am I supposed to use that?)
> 
> Gunnar suggested "patches welcome!" in his original blog post, so I'm trying to better understand the "use-metaphor" so I can help there.  (I'm particularly interested in creating/helping-with the tooling to make it approachable to idiots, because I'm an idiot.)  However, I thought it best to start with asking about:
> 
> "What is the current status-and-plans for this project?", which IMHO:
> 
> *- It's awesome *now*, but I want *more*
> 
> *- A little bit of docs/tools would make it more approachable
> 
> *- I can't understand why it's currently not being used for more presentations, as it seems like a superior metaphor/design (but perhaps not sufficiently "productized"?)
> 
> --charley
> 
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