On 22:18:30 Mar 18, Pau Amaro-Seoane wrote: > Hi, > > very often I have to give a talk about my work etc... The slides > contain a lot of math equations, plots and even sometimes some movies. > > I was used to latex-beamer to do all this because I want something I > can edit with vi(m) and it fulfilled all requisites ... and I was used > to it when I was using linux. > > I have switched to OpenBSD since some 1.5 years and I am very happy to > report here, by the way, that OpenBSD _does_ start X on the projector > where most linux peecees and macs fail :) BUT -and this is the main > reason to write now- the pdf slides created with latex-beamer "feel > heavy"... What I mean is that when using full screen (with xpdf or > kpdf etc) it takes some 3-4 seconds to change a slide. I don't know > why... I can provide you with a test talk, so that you udnerstand what > I mean. > > This is very bad when somebody in the public asks a question of plot > number 2 in slide #3 and you're in slide #55. Sure there are ways to > overcome the problem, with the progress bar of latex-beamer, for > instance, but still I don't like it. > > I just want to ask here in misc whether somebody has had the same > problem and what other alternatives there are. > > I have noticed that a lot of people are using magicpoint out there. I > had a look at it, but it seems not obvious to use when it comes to > latex. As far as i know, there are these two possibilities: > > http://www.sonycsl.co.jp/person/nishida/mgp-users/msg00241.html > > http://www.sonycsl.co.jp/person/nishida/mgp-users/msg00290.html > > I have made some tests and I could not use all latex commands... I run > into a snag in a number of occasions. > > Question: Do you have any recommendation / suggestion to prepare talks > to be shown in a projector including mathematical equations, plots > and, eventually, movies (I can live without this last point)?
Wow! This is very interesting. ;) I am in the same boat as you but guess what? You got a lot of responses for the "xpdf slowness" problem and can you guess how I solved it? Of course you know that Acroread is not slow at all...that is my solution, not something I like though. What about evince? Evince is not slow either. xpdf is blazing fast on my gentoo. So it looks like there is something wrong with xpdf on OpenBSD. I have never played with apm(8), so I am not so sure what is to be done. As to mgp and LaTeX beamer, well I think there is no question. ;) mgp is quite painful since many people cannot get that running properly under linux and it never works on Windows. I find this a problem when I want to distribute the slides. And they are completely lifeless when you view the html... OTOH LaTeX Beamer is superb. But bear in mind that nowadays you have www.slideshare.net and I uploaded my jQuery talk and they completely fucked my slides. I think it converts it into flash and they have no clue what to do with slide overlays. Anyway I got some new ideas from this thread, that of trying out the seminar class and other LaTeX packages. Let me try my luck. As to scalable fonts, I have never had a problem with fonts breaking under xpdf. My slides invariably have pictures in them. It is just that xpdf gets angry when you view your slides in fullscreen. I have never seen the source of xpdf but it is in the back of my mind. If I get around to it, I want to fix whey xpdf is slow on OpenBSD but fast on gentoo. Or it might be that I have never played with apm. Anyway, -Girish -- "unix soi qui mal y pense" UNIX to him who evil thinks +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | GnuPG key : 0xC7BBF207 | http://wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net | | Fingerprint: 2AFF C264 20CE C80C DDFF CC15 AD3E F190 C7BB F207 | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]
