standardizing slideshow outpout, a la pandoc

standardizing slideshow outpout, a la pandoc

[Matt Price]

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Hi everyone,

I'm co-teaching a class this term and my co-instructor is a markdown user,
so I am getting to know a little bit about pandoc.  One feature I really
love is the unified slideshow export:

http://pandoc.org/demo/example19/Producing-slide-shows-with-Pandoc.html

All the export filters use the same syntax for slide divisions, slide
"builds" (dynamic appearance of slide contents), and sub-slides (reveal.js
creates two-dimensional slideshows), as well as for speaker notes.  The use
of standard markdown features also makes the writing process very
convenient.

By contrast, some of these features can be a little confusing in Org, and
moving from one export format to another can take a certain amount of
work.  If I want a "build" to work properly in both deck.js and reveal.js,
for instance, I need both a properties drawer and an #+ATTR_HTML line.  In
pandoc I need neither.

Does anyone else think it would be worthwhile to standardize some of these
features within org itself -- either by adding new syntax/options, or by
interpreting existing syntax in a uniform way across export filters?  The
first option is less invasive, I think, while the second option would be
slightly more convenient going forward (for new users at least).  Pandoc
chooses the second option -- new slides are indicated by a horizontal rule,
for instance.

If other people like the idea I would be willing to draw up a more complete
proposal and write some preliminary code for the export back-ends I'm
familiar with.  I am unfortunately a slow coder though, so a positive
resolution would still be a ways away.

Looking forward to hearing what you all think.
Thanks!
Matt

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