How to do a presentation for your co-workers containing lots of code?

Question

I'm supposed to do a presentation for my co-workers on a web framework I evaluated. These people are developers and hate long and boring PowerPoint stuff, so I got lots of little code snippets. I also put together a small sample application. My question is, how do I present the code so people can follow?

Some things I thought of:

• Put the code on PowerPoint slides, looks pretty bad and unless it's an image I can't get syntax highlighting to work. Having my code in images is a pain and doesn't scale well to different resolutions.
• I played around with the S5 XHTML presentation format and integrated a JavaScript syntax highlighter. It's a bit clunky but workable (I'll get some grief for ignoring the company's CI for presentations since I wouldn't use their templates. Don't even ask...)
• I could put together a script (notes) and "live-code" in front of my audience. I don't like this so much because it keeps me so busy that it's hard for me to give a good explanation while I write. And there's also a high chance of me causing errors and make them wait.
• A screencast? But then I wouldn't have to be there... Maybe narrate it?

So what would you do?

Answer 1

Does your IDE allow opening/closing regions or code segments? In Visual Studio you can create code regions that you can expand or collapse. If your IDE has the ability to do this you could create your code samples as regions and then open/close them as you go through your presentation. You could switch back and forth between your presentation and code samples in the IDE, but wouldn't have to code on the fly. Using open/close allows you to hide the code you're not referencing to keep things less cluttered.

I actually saw this done at Agile 2008 and it seemed to work pretty well.

Answer 2

I could put together a script and "live-code" in front of my audience. I don't like this so much because it keeps me so busy that it's hard for me to give a good explanation while I write. And there's also a high chance of me causing errors and make them wait.

I like this option, if you can get your demo streamlined to the point of not holding up the audience. You can do what TV cooks do when the recipe takes more time than they have; start the coding, then jump ahead to one that's 90% or 100% done.

If you have a colleague you can get up to speed, you can have them do the coding while you talk and point out what they're doing.

You can use your IDE, which will give the syntax highlighting and show your audience how to compile, deploy, test, etc. I would recommend using an oversized font though, just for the session, so that everyone can see.

Answer 3

You can only fit so much information on a PowerPoint slide but that's actually a good thing: people can only look at a certain amount of information and get something meaningful from it.

So if you can't fit it on a PowerPoint slide, you need to rethink your approach.

Code snippets are good. They don't need to be highlighted. Just put them in Courier New (or some other fixed width font) and it'll come across as code. Code snippets don't have to be complete either. Just boil them down to the essential concepts (using comments or ellipses to indicate missing code).

Programmers being programmers, they'll probably ask questions when it gets to the technical, which is good.

Also, if the programmers are familiar with something similar try and relate all the concepts back to what they know. It makes it easier to grasp. Like if you're explaining Spring MVC and they know Struts, explain the Struts equivalents. It can be useful to put that sort of thing in table form (even as a handout).

That's what I did for exactly that (a Spring MVC primer for Struts programmers).

Answer 4

There was also a cool academic tool that I've seen for Eclipse: paper on tool

Not sure if it's publicly available though.

Answer 5

If they don't like Powerpoint, don't use use it. We use Camtasia screen recording to record 'live' demos for presentation to customers (live in quotes since it doesn't have the disadvantage of crashing halfway through your presentation :-). They always prefer to see it in action rather than what they think is fudged functionality.

It's pause-able like your Powerpoint slides and has the advantage of syntax coloring since you just record bringing your up in your favorite editor. It's also dynamic which is much better than Powerpoint (although I've seen some people do crude animation with multiple Powerpoint slides, always funny to watch in action).

This basically maps to your screencast idea but, if you want a reason to be there, do a large number of small screencasts to show interspersed between your real presentation, narrating (in person, not on the screencast) if necessary.

Personally, I'd prefer to send a fully narrated Camtasia off to the target audience but that's because I'm not totally over my early-career phobia of public speaking :-).

In a pinch, you could do a real live demo since your audience (is videance the equivalent for video presentations?) are programmers and will understand any problems you have.

Answer 6

I had this done to me, and thought that it was the best possible solution:

Get another person to help you out. While you are talking about the code, let the helper type the code. This way everyone in the room will be looking at the code, while listening to you explain it.

This of course involves finding someone who can help out, and understand the code just as well as you do. But the results can be great.

Answer 7

If you want your audience to see a lot of code snippets, especially lengthy ones, you could print them out as handouts or provide them as notes in PDF or text files (people can follow along on their laptops).

Actual presentation slides should contain the smallest amount of text (including code) necessary to convey your ideas. If there's a lot to read from a distance, your audience will get tired after awhile and might have trouble following along. Let people read the full code sections on their own laptops or handouts, while calling attention to just the critical parts in your presentation slides or script.

Answer 8

If you could do it all in a screencast and you wouldn't have to be there, then do a screencast and don't be there. Nobody complains when a meeting gets canceled. Just distribute the video, maybe with an accompanying report with notes or links so people can read more about the tools you're demonstrating.

And you'll get more credit later as your co-workers and managers talk to other people: "Hey, did you see the presentation Bibac did? No? You should; I'll send you the address after lunch."

If you're demonstrating code in the presentation, then also consider having the finished project available so people can try it for themselves.

Answer 9

When I give presentations involving Visual Studio I put code snippets on the general tab of the toolbox. During the presentation I drop/drag these code snippets into a code file, markup page, etc.