Subject: categories: Presentation Facilities at Conferences

From: Ronnie Brown <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 14:20:40 +0100

The following is suggested by Max Kelly's comments and some discussions at
Como.

We have to be prepared for the worst scenario, that blackboard facilities
will get worse, and it may even get to a stage where conference
administrators wonder why mathematicians are not using powerpoint and
computer presentations like everyone else!

People should be aware that Latex facilities for slides are good: just use
\documentclass{slides} \begin{document} \raggedright \begin{slide}
......\end{slide} etc. A  colleague here also got splendid results using
the colour package (I need to investigate this!).

I also like to use in the preamble
\parindent=0pt
\parskip=1ex

and to use almost pidgin English, so that  the impact is visual, with as
few words as possible.

What is not so clear is how to use say animated  gif files in such a
presentation. For this I have used a browser presentation using html files,
and converting tex into html using tth

http://hutchinson.belmont.ma.us/tth/

I hope this helps people. We could then ask conference centres to provide
projection facilities, if these are a requirement of users.

Ronnie Brown

--
Prof R. Brown,
School of Informatics, Mathematics Division,
University of Wales, Bangor
Dean St., Bangor,
Gwynedd LL57 1UT, United Kingdom
Tel. direct:+44 1248 382474|office:     382475
fax: +44 1248 361429
World Wide Web:
home page: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/~mas010/
(Links to survey articles:
Higher dimensional group theory
Groupoids and crossed objects in algebraic topology)

Symbolic Sculpture and Mathematics:
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/SculMath/
Centre for the Popularisation of Mathematics
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/cpm/

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From: Michael Barr <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 14:02:20 -0400 (EDT)

I disagree.  I think we should continue to protest the lack of
blackboards.  I have used transparencies and I have even used tex to
prepare them.  But I don't like it and I don't think it makes good talks
and I don't see why we should acquiesce.

Michael

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From: Colin McLarty <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 16:26:40 -0500

I agree with Mike Barr. I think there is a specific reason for using
blackboards in math talks: Where most disciplines use graphics and texts to
present data and conclusions, mathematicians often write to convey a line
of reasoning as it develops. When I talk about math I often put formulas or
diagrams on the board, and change them as I go. 

Slides and powerpoint can handle those changes in various ways, but none
are as flexible or as graceful as writing on a board.

Colin

At 02:02 PM 7/26/00 -0400, Micheal Barr wrote:
>I think we should continue to protest the lack of