spirali/elsie

Python framework for making slides

About me 🧚‍♀️

• I am a developer and research engineer at ACS Research Group and IT4Innovations.
• I am interested in AI Safety, HPC, and formal verification.
• I have PhD in Computer Science.
• I work mostly in Rust and Python; sometimes in TypeScript. In past C, C++, Haskell.
• I love digital painting and playing the cello.

Selected projects where I am main author/co-author

• HyperQueue - user-friendly and scalable job scheduler for supercomputers
• Nelsie - slide making software
• Rain - framework for large distributed pipelines
• Interlab - toolkit for multi-agent interactions
• RSDS - Dask server reimplemented in Rust
• Nedoc - non-evaluating documentation generator for Python
• Haydi - Python framework for generating discrete structures)
• Aislinn - dynamic verifier for MPI programs
• Estee - simulator for task-based workflow schedulers
• ORCO - Python package for defining, executing, and persisting computations
• Replay-cache - replay cache for LangChain
• RMahjong - Riichi Mahjong
• LabLab - A simple image anotation tool

elsie's Issues

.text_box() & related stuff

• implement .text_box("style_name") and .text_box_all("style_name") to get box/boxes around part(s) of text
• implement ~#xxx{...} where #xxx is a fake style that does not modify text properties (and no style name lookup is performed) and it exists solely for .text_box feature
• Implement ~{...} into .code()

Create Dockerfile with Inkscape and Python libraries

Allow embedding images/charts directly into slides

• Images (fd48de1)
• Charts

Allow setting image dir(s)

As in Latex, to avoid repeating the image directory in a path for all images.

Add support for clickable links

Currently, <a> has to wrap <text> and cannot wrap <tspan>?

Leading newlines are stripped from code segments

From my testing, code behaves differently from text in that it strips leading newlines. Is there a way to opt out of that behavior?

Also, it seems that trailing newlines are also stripped from both.

Unicode support for languages like Vietnamese

I wonder how I can use Unicode characters like Vietnamese in box().text().

Fix box size allocation when .image() is used

Add support for text-decoration

Things like underline or strikethrough. Currently blocked by Inkscape (it does not render it into PDF correctly).

TODO

• values "next", "next+" for step argument. ("next" is replaced by smallest non-used step in the slide)
• recompute missing height/width for image
• render(drop_redundant_slides=True) (if two completely identical consecutive slides are generated, then only one is left)
• bitmap pictures directly usable in .image() method
• "return self" in box method where it makes sense (.text, .code, .image)

Wrong box layout with images using relative size

@elsie.slide()
def slide(slide):
    slide.box(width="60%").image("image.png")
    slide.box().text("Hello world")

~style{} support in .code()

Better relative positioning

• evaluate lazy values in LazyPoint
• enable scaling independent of slide size

Add support for tables

List-like table API + integration into Markdown.

Another keywords in show

• bikeshed "current" / "last" keyword
• implemented it:)

Strongly typed styles

Style object:

class Style:
    def __init__(attrs):
          self.attrs = attrs # can be replaced by self.bold, self.color to be fully typed

   def update(self, **kwargs):
        attrs = dict(self.attrs)
        attrs.update(kwargs)
        return Style(attrs)

Creation of style:
style = Style(bold=True)

Change style:
new_style = style.update(size=32)

Default styles + update:

code = slide.style.code()
slide.style.update(code, code.update(bold=True))

Using style:

style = slide.style.default().update(bold=True)
box.text("hello", style=style)

Usage in text:

box.text("hello ~emph{world} ~mystyle{!}", style=style1,
inline_styles=dict(emph=slide.styles.emph(), mystyle=mystyle))

Think about using Cairo as an alternate backend

Lining numerals

https://medium.com/newsbrewer-app/what-s-wrong-with-one-of-the-most-elegant-typefaces-raleway-662e1e7bc7f7

Add support for emojis

Blocked by Inkscape support.

Bug in .code() when comment is placed at the end (Pygments problem?)

TODO: Create regression test for this.

Allow setting fragments for styles

It would be nice to have the ability to "scope" styles to specific fragments, or change their properties for a given set of fragments.

Transform

Allow using arbitrary transform for images (maybe even for text and boxes).

Error message for box("text")