# rust-beam
beam is a plaintext slideshow format you can write in faster than beamer.
This is the Rust implementation of the informal beam specification.
## Dependencies
### Build
Rust stable.
### Runtime
A working installation of LaTeX with beamer.
## Installation
Run `cargo install rust-beam` to install the latest stable version of rust-beam.
Run `cargo install --git https://gitlab.com/chennisden/rust-beam.git` to install rust-beam from source.
## Specs
Here is an informal specification for the beam file format.
Slides
- Slides are separated by a `~` mark. Whatever text follows `~` is the title of
the slide. Leave no text after `~` if you do not want to set a title.
- Leading and trailing whitespace in a line is ignored.
Special characters
- `#` will start a new section, and the title will be the text that follows it
on the same line.
- `~` will create a new slide, and the title will be the text that follows it
on the same line.
- `-` can be used to make a list of bullet points. Under the hood, it calls the
"itemize" environment in LaTeX.
- `>` starts a block. The first line is used as the title (leave it blank for no title).
- `<` starts an exampleblock. Again, the first line is used as the title.
- `!` starts an alertblock. Again, the first line is used as the title.
- `@` can be used to create a slide with a certain image. It is possible, but
discouraged, to add text to such a slide. Under the hood, it uses
```
\setbeamertemplate{background}{
\includegraphics[width=\paperwidth,height=\paperheight]{IMAGEPATH}
}
```
- `*` can be used to insert an image into the slide. Under the hood, it calls
```
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=6cm]{IMAGEPATH}
\end{center}
```
- `^` will directly input text verbatim into the preamble. This lets you set
the theme, title, and author of a presentation. If a line starts with `^`, it
will end the current slide, without exception.
- Character escaping is handled by LaTeX, not beam. That means it's impossible
to display a line that starts with a raw `-`, `!`, `>`, or `<` character.
This is regarded as a design flaw, but a very minor one.
You can also use % to act as a comment, since it's also a comment in LaTeX. Be
careful not to start a new slide by accident though.
## Examples
All examples can be found in `examples/`, and it is assumed that you are in that directory.
An example is contained in "example.beam". Provided that `rust-beam` is on your
system, run
rust-beam example.beam
beam will generate an intermediate TeX file and then compile it through
`latexmk`. The example is reproduced below.
^ \documentclass{beamer}[12pt]
^ \title{beam}
^ \author{Dennis Chen}
\titlepage
# Introduction
~ What is beam?
- beam is a file format to write presentations with
- beam is a program that converts beam files into beamer
~ Why?
beam does for beamer what Markdown does for HTML
- beamer takes far too long to write.
- We only need a subset of beamer's features
# Features
~ Frametitles
Use the ``~'' character to set the frametitle.
~ Bullet points
- You've already seen it in this presentation.
- Bullet points invoke the ``itemize'' environment.
~ Block
> How to make a block
> This symbol makes a block.
~ Exampleblock
< How to make an exampleblock
< This symbol makes an exampleblock.
~ Alertblock
! How to make an alertblock
! This symbol makes an alertblock.
~ Images
Use the ``\@'' character to set a background image.
~
@beach.jpg
~
You can also use the ``\*'' characater to include an image in the slide.
*beach.jpg
# Miscellaneous
~ Stylization
beam should be written in all lowercase, even at the start of a sentence.