Patat: The Command Line Based Presentation Tool for Presenters on the Go
A brief introduction to the project:
In the modern tech-driven world, presentations are an integral part of business and academic endeavours. Presentations, usually created with graphical user interfaces like PowerPoint or Keynote, often require a significant amount of system resources. For those desiring a lightweight alternative, Patat, a public GitHub project, offers a refreshing solution. Patat, which stands for "Presentations Atop The ANSI Terminal", is a simple and effective terminal-based presentation tool built using Haskell.
Project Overview:
Patat is developed to facilitate easy and effective presentations while ensuring the efficient utilization of computer resources. Traditionally, presentations are created using software that requires a graphical user interface, which might not always be available or efficient. Patat aims to solve this problem by enabling the creation and delivery of presentations directly from the command line. It is targeted towards developers, engineers, data scientists and educators who need a quick, easy-to-use tool to display their thoughts and findings without the overhead of traditional GUI-based software.
Project Features:
Patat's relevance lies in its innovative features and functionalities. The tool enables the creation of dynamic presentations using a straightforward markup language, markdown. You don't need knowledge of complex coding languages to use it. It includes features like automatic slide advancement, enabling users to pre-set time limits for each slide, inline image support, and a flexible theming system. Notably, Patat allows syntax highlighting for different programming languages, adding a layer of readability and maintaining interest levels among the audience.
Technology Stack:
Patat chiefly relies on Haskell, a statically-typed, purely functional programming language known for its expressiveness and safety. Haskell was chosen due to its enhanced capacity to develop robust, high-quality software. The tool also incorporates Pandoc, a universal document converter, to parse the markdown input files. This allows Patat to offer a wider and more convenient range of input formats for its users.
Project Structure and Architecture:
Patat’s project architecture is divided into functional modules interacting with each other logically. The main component is the parser, which converts the user's markdown input into the internal representation (IR). The IR is then rendered to the display system. The display system in Patat uses ANSI codes to display colored text, enabling the console-based application to show syntax-highlighted code snippets.
Contribution Guidelines:
