Re: [O] New exporter, beamer confusion

[Nicolas Goaziou]

Hello,


> I'm attaching an org file that illustrates a couple of the beamer
> formatting options that I used a lot in the old exporter.

See below.

> 1. I *did* use the block environment to emphasize some text by pulling
> it out of the "itemize" bullet lists. If I customize blockenv in org
> to render as "itemize," then I lose the ability to do this (or, I have
> to call "block" something else).
>
> 2. BMCOL (column) layouts are completely ignored.

No. BMCOL are just different.

> 3. Strong *emphasis* now renders in red, instead of keeping the text's
> original color and switching to boldface.

Indeed. Strong emphasis in Beamer's jargon is \alert{...} (see Beamer
documentation about it). Letter are so large that \textbf{...} doesn't
fill the job well enough. I'm not saying that \textbf{...} is useless
(though I think it), but "alert" was preferred.

> I get the feeling here that the new beamer exporter was written
> without a lot of real-world user requirements.

FWIW, I have used it almost daily since I wrote it.

> Certainly, it's understandable that HTML, LaTeX article-style and ODT
> exporters would be more widely used and more important to get right
> first. For beamer, though, I can't reconcile the announcement ("Even
> though the internals are completely different, the new exporter mostly
> behaves like its predecessor. There are only a few noticeable
> changes") with the fact that the new beamer exporter is a rather
> different animal that completely breaks compatibility with org files
> written for the old exporter, and may actually require a complete redo
> of the org markup for each file.

You are half correct. I admit: I forgot to mention that Beamer back-end
was a bit different from its predecessor. Though, it doesn't require
a complete redo, there's just some work to do at the headline level.

> I know my emacs-lisp chops are not up to the task of fixing what is
> broken in the new beamer exporter.

Nothing is broken in it (at least AFAIK). There are just some changes to
do.

> I can supply a couple dozen source
> files, to help decide what level of backward compatibility is
> feasible. I'm not sure how else I can help.

Let's start slowly. I think you can get how to make the changes yourself
with a couple of examples. Since you seem to like lists (you know that
Till Tantau frowns upon the use of third level lists in presentations,
don't you?), the first rule to know is:

  Headlines will never, ever, become lists in the new Beamer back-end.

If you want lists, use lists. There's a handy command to do that change:
mark the subtree you want to change, and use "C-c -".

New back-end is more block friendly than lists friendly.

> At least, it would be good to clarify, with respect to the
> announcement, if the new beamer exporter is intended to be reasonably
> backward-compatible with the old (with not-too-intrusive tweaks).

It all depends on what you mean by reasonably. You can obtain the same
output, but there are changes to make in Org files.

> If that was the intent, then it's not ready for release. Otherwise,
> I'd be happy to help draw up an upgrade path for people like myself
> who have developed workflows for the old exporter that will eventually
> not be supported anymore.

Thank you. I'll try to help you get started. You might even come to like
the new back-end in the process.

> In the meantime, I must stick with the old exporter, though I'll keep
> the discussion alive to hash out on the mailing list what needs to be
> done to make the new one production-ready for me.

Fair enough.

I'm attaching an updated version of your simple document. Besides moving
subtree to lists, there only other change was at the columns level.

If you use a headline with only a BEAMER_col property, its title will be
ignored and can be used as a container. If you provide it an additional
environment (like block), the new environment will be put in the column
and will fill it. Moreove, the :BEAMER_col: property requires a decimal
number as value, not a length.

Oh, yes, and BEAMER_FRAME_LEVEL doesn't exist anymore. It's H:... in the
OPTIONS line.

#+begin_src org
#+LANGUAGE:  en
#+OPTIONS:   H:2 num:t toc:t \n:nil @:t ::t |:t ^:t -:t f:t *:t <:t
#+OPTIONS:   TeX:t LaTeX:t skip:nil d:nil todo:t pri:nil tags:not-in-toc

#+startup: beamer
#+LaTeX_CLASS: beamer
#+LaTeX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [presentation]
#+BEAMER_THEME: default
#+COLUMNS: %45ITEM %10BEAMER_env(Env) %10BEAMER_act(Act) %4BEAMER_col(Col) 
%8BEAMER_opt(Opt)
#+PROPERTY: BEAMER_col_ALL 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 0.0 :ETC

#+TITLE:     Testing new beamer exporter
#+AUTHOR:    H. James Harkins
#+EMAIL:     address@hidden
#+DATE:      7 November 2012

#+BEGIN_LaTeX
\AtBeginSection[] % Do nothing for \section*
{
\begin{frame}<beamer>
\frametitle{Outline}
\tableofcontents[currentsection]
\end{frame}
}
#+END_LaTeX

* Section A
** Slide 1
   - Third-level
     - Fourth-level
** Ancient history: *Music \emph{n}* languages
   - Early pioneers at *Bell Labs* in New Jersey
     - Max Mathews, Jean-Claude Risset, John Chowning
     - They could make the digital tapes, but not play them
     - Drove the tapes up to Columbia University (NYC)
       - ... just to find out that it didn't work
   - Mainframe, batch processing
     - Prepare /instrument/ and /score/ files
     - Run the program
     - An audio file comes out... hours later
   - Modern version: *csound*
     - Modern CPUs can render faster than real-time
#+BEAMER: \pause{}
*** *Without these early researchers, there is no Cubase, no Logic... nothing.*
** SuperCollider live
   - Map /processes/ onto MIDI keys
   - /Driver processes/ for complex transitions
   - Map /global controls/ to MIDI controllers
     - Synthesis parameters (filters, etc.)
     - Composition parameters (rhythmic activity, probabilities etc.)
*** Left column (title ignored)                                            
:BMCOL:
    :PROPERTIES:
    :BEAMER_col: 0.3
    :END:
    - This is my own design
    - SC has no standard GUI!
    - You decide what /you/ need
*** Right column (title ignored)                                           
:BMCOL:
    :PROPERTIES:
    :BEAMER_col: 0.7
    :END:
    - GUI

      #+ATTR_LaTeX: :options "width=6.5cm"
      [[ /media/39ED-A99A/cubase/2012audio/10-intro-sc/img/controlpanel.pdf]]
#+end_src


Regards,

-- 
Nicolas Goaziou