the RIF slides Format

What is the secret of the slides?


It is intended to be a 3D enhanced version of Microsoft Powerpoint. We admit however that our socalled .pvl format lacks many of Powerpoint original features. But, on the other hand, Powerpoint does not offer many of the features we provide.

the pvl format language

We use a simplified form of HTML, with some additional features.

example

 

   

  
   <h4>A header</h4>
   <ul>
   
  •  item 1 </li>
   
  •  item 2 </li>
   </ul>
   
    •

    displaying slides

     The slides can be displayed in a number of ways: <ul>
  • in latex, text slides </li>
  • in (dynamic) HTML, for presentation </li>
  • in VRML, for presentation and the annotation of virtual worlds </li> </ul>

    To realize presentations a collection filters is needed, among which the vr-ml.flt

    For how the slides are used see also: 

    
  www.cs.vu.nl/~eliens/online/guide.html

    • presentation level

    In VRML display mode, there may be multiple levels in a slide. Levels are used to allow for incremental presentation of the content of slide.

    Each element in a slide, may have an indication of start and end level. Some tags allow for a indicating automatic increments of the start level, which is usually indicated with level=auto.

    creating slides

    There are a number of contexts, and associated file types, in which slides may be created: <ul>

  • .t -- the ultimately generic format, uses all filters </li>
  • .tm -- limited .t format with VRML support, uses ht-ml.flt + vr-ml.flt </li>
  • .pvl -- VRML slides support, uses vr-ml.flt -pvl </li>
  • .es -- for the use of slides in worlds </li> </ul>

    See example makefiles for actual usage

    • parameters for vr-ml.flt

    <ul>

  • none -- plain generation of VRML </li>
  • -pvl -- generates pvl includes </li>
  • -x -- creates also links for hrefs (UDF) </li> </ul>

    • afterthoughts on formatting

    The VRML protos supporting the slides format must be kept simple and basic. In some cases extra tags are needed to get the desired result (or an approximation of that).

    extra tags

     <ul>
  • <+n> -- create n additional horizontal space (float n) </li>
  • <-n> -- for negative spacing </li> </ul>

    beware of

     <ul>
  • always use a <p> tag after ending a list or display. </li> </ul>

    Also, the filtering is done on an as best as possible basis. In some cases it will be very hard to get what you want. Actually, since it is a legaccy format, you're not even supposed to use it. So, why bother.

    • on the design of the tag structure

    To accomodate the various modes of formatting and the various uses that can be made of the slide format, we make a number of assumptions: <ul>

  • processing (in presentation mode) should be fast </li>
  • the tags must be intuitive, and easy to type (keyboard-wise) </li>
  • the tags must support a sufficiently rich rethoric repertoire </li> </ul>

    • the slide tag

     <ul>
  • id -- unique name (obligatory) </li>
  • caption -- slides caption (for use in latex) </li>
  • mode -- UDF (undocumented feature) </li>
  • style -- generic style attribute (UDF) </li>
  • transform attributes -- trans, scale, rotate </li>
  • (VRML) style tags -- bgcolor, textcolor </li> </ul>

    • the text tag (VRML only)

     <ul>
  • transform attributes -- trans, scale, rotate </li>
  • (VRML) style tags -- bgcolor, textcolor </li> </ul>

    • the dl list tag

    Should have <ul>

  • level </li> </ul>

    Use the <dt> and <dd> tags to create the items for the list.

    • displays

    To allow for unformatted text, such as program text the display tag is supported, which is like the <pre> tag in HTML. <ul>

  • level -- with level=auto lines will appear in order </li>
  • size -- to give the size of the text used in the display </li> </ul>

    • the font tag

     <ul>
  • color </li>
  • size </li>
  • style </li>
  • family </li> </ul>

    • font abbreviations

     <ul>
  • <i>...</i> -- italic </li>
  • <b>...</b> -- bold </li>
  • <em>...</em> -- emphasize </li>
  • <tt>...</tt> -- typewriter </li>
  • <rm>...</rm> -- roman </li> </ul>

    • font color abbreviations

     <ul>
  • <red>...</red> -- red </li>
  • <blue>...</blue> -- blue </li>
  • <yellow>...</yellow> -- yellow </li>
  • <green>...</green> -- green </li>
  • <white>...</white> -- white </li>
  • <black>...</black> -- black </li>
  • <gold>...</gold> -- gold </li>
  • <silver>...</silver> -- silver </li> </ul>

    • the object tag

     Transform { translation 9 0 -4 children [ ] }

    It might be worthwhile to incorporate VRML objects in a slide. These are only visible in VRML, naturally.

    As an example: 

    
  <object>
  Transform { translation 9 0 -4 children [
  <include file=sensor.wrl>
  ] }
  </object>

    Note that the VRML text is automatically hidden when using the object tag. The include tag is a feature of the .t format.

    hiding VRML

    The <vrml> and </vrml> tags are needed if you don't want your VRML code to be displayed in HTML.