[Feedback] First time user feedback

[theoephraim]

Finally used DemoTime for a presentation for Varlock, and the outcome was great - able to get through so much more and very smoothly! For dev tool demos, it really is an amazing tool :)

However I will say that the DX was quite challenging due to how buggy things are. I will continue to use it but hoping the bugs can be worked out.

Sorry for the deluge of bugs/info, but I wanted to get this out of my head while it is fresh.

BUGS

• overall super buggy and requiring closing and reopening my vscode window constantly -- adding a new "restart plugin" action could be very helpful
• the editor was often crashing and blank
• sometimes slides were crashing and blank
• insert (and other text) commands sometimes get into a weird state and inserting tons of garbage characters
• css transition on titles making each slide load and then titles fade to my color
• sometimes gets in a weird state and multiple steps are running, even after exiting presentation mode
• using startPlaceholder/endPlaceholder sometimes selecting wrong locations
• insert/replace/etc very often overwriting text in very unexpected/incorrect ways
• some trailing empty lines ignored in content within yaml files
• more support for "\n" within content
• some bugs around opening slides to a specific slide number

SUGGESTIONS

• let me select text/positions based purely on text content or regex, could also allow selecting Nth instance of found text.
• sometimes it would be yelling that things are invalid even though it was working, for example if I only defined startPlaceholder to highlight an entire line
• maybe make it easier to create/copy a file and open it in one step
• was unclear sometimes when I'd need to add a pause or not
• wasn't immediately obvious how I should break things up into multiple "demos" instead of using lots of steps with pauses
• easier "back" functionality would be really great - in some cases you may be able to infer the action, or even take a snapshot of file content before the step executes. you could also let the user define a back command
• was unclear to me at first that the default slide theme was already applied when customizing
• hard to figure out how to do custom styling without a way to inspect. Maybe allow opening the slides in a browser so that it's easier?
• unclear how selecting/highlighting text and writing text interacts, would be nice if I can say "select this text" now write "xxx" without having to find that position again
• tedious sometimes to write the path over and over on multiple operations, perhaps it could just default to the last path used if left blank, or just use the currently focused/open file?
• would be nice if presenter mode showed a preview of whats on screen
• presenter notes could be more compact
• would like to have option to define presenter notes inline within the yaml instead of separate file
• I strongly preferred editing in yaml directly (used it almost exclusively), so it would be nice if I could make that the default, or if it remembered that I was in that mode
• would be nice to be able to advance multi-step workflows even when not in presentation mode (maybe a keyboard shortcut)
• the title for the next step on buttons (in presenter mode and on the bottom left thingy) is often misleading, for example, when it will go to the next slide, it should say "show slide 2" instead of the name of the next step
• that bottom left button changing width due to the names changing led to many wrong clicks
• I added a "reset" demo at the end which would reset everything back to the initial state, this should maybe be more of a first class concept?

[coderabbitai]

📝 CodeRabbit Plan Mode

Generate an implementation plan and prompts that you can use with your favorite coding agent.

• Create Plan

Examples

• Example 1
• Example 2

---

🔗 Similar Issues

Possible Duplicates

• Discussion and Feedback #101

Related Issues

• [Feedback] Awesome job as always 👏👏👏👏👏 #179
• [Feedback] My first time using demo time #129
• [Feedback] Another round of feedback after using Demo Time for AzureFest #259

👤 Suggested Assignees

• eNeRGy164
• Adam-it
• blueboxes

---

🧪 Issue enrichment is currently in open beta.

You can configure auto-planning by selecting labels in the issue_enrichment configuration.

To disable automatic issue enrichment, add the following to your .coderabbit.yaml:

issue_enrichment:
  auto_enrich:
    enabled: false

💬 Have feedback or questions? Drop into our discord or schedule a call!

[estruyf]

Hi @theoephraim, thanks for your feedback.

Can you elaborate more on a couple of things?

Bugs

overall super buggy and requiring closing and reopening my vscode window constantly -- adding a new "restart plugin" action could be very helpful

I've never seen or heard from it that this is happening. Is there a way to "kind of" reproduce it? What actions are you doing at the moment it occurs?

the editor was often crashing and blank

Meaning when you have a code file open? Anything you can see in the logs?

sometimes slides were crashing and blank

Do you have a repo you can share to test it out?

insert (and other text) commands sometimes get into a weird state and inserting tons of garbage characters

Same as before, it would be great to know how to reproduce it, as you're the first that mentions it.

css transition on titles making each slide load and then titles fade to my color

That could be a bug, if you can give me a sample, I can try to reproduce it. Or a repo with the sample would be even better.

sometimes gets in a weird state and multiple steps are running, even after exiting presentation mode

Steps are running sequentially, so if you are going "too fast", it can indeed happen that it continues the previous execution. I don't prevent this at the moment, as in some cases, a "demo" needs to be completed for the next to work.

using startPlaceholder/endPlaceholder sometimes selecting wrong locations

Do you have a repo you can share to test it out?

insert/replace/etc very often overwriting text in very unexpected/incorrect ways

Please tell me more about it.

PS: Do you have a repo you can share to test it out?

some trailing empty lines ignored in content within yaml files

Do you have an example what you want and how the outcome needs to be?

more support for "\n" within content

Can you clarify it a bit? Is it when you use the content property on the insert action? Best option is to use the contentPath property with a file that contains the content.

some bugs around opening slides to a specific slide number

Please tell me more about it.

SUGGESTIONS

let me select text/positions based purely on text content or regex, could also allow selecting Nth instance of found text.

It would be great to create a new issue for it with a clear explaination to understand your use-case.

sometimes it would be yelling that things are invalid even though it was working, for example if I only defined startPlaceholder to highlight an entire line

Where is it yelling? What was the configuration?

maybe make it easier to create/copy a file and open it in one step

Not sure I understand the use-case. What do you mean with one step?

was unclear sometimes when I'd need to add a pause or not

The pause action was requested by a user that wanted to pause in between the steps, but you don't have to use it. Each "demo" consists of multiple steps that execute sequentially.

I always go for a demo per demo way. As each demo needs to get triggered individually.

In the next version. I'll be working on the terminology to make it easier to understand.

You can find more information about it here: #327

wasn't immediately obvious how I should break things up into multiple "demos" instead of using lots of steps with pauses

Correct, I heard this feedback too, that is why the new terminology will be introduced.

easier "back" functionality would be really great - in some cases you may be able to infer the action, or even take a snapshot of file content before the step executes. you could also let the user define a back command

The "back" or previous action is by default disabled, but you can enable it with the demoTime.previousEnabled setting.

The reasoning behind it is that for code demos where you insert text, you cannot "simply" go back, as it would insert the code again.

More info here: https://demotime.show/presentation-mode/#enable-go-back-navigation

was unclear to me at first that the default slide theme was already applied when customizing

In the documentation it mentions this: If you don’t specify a theme, the default theme will be used.

Anything you can think off to make it clearer?

hard to figure out how to do custom styling without a way to inspect. Maybe allow opening the slides in a browser so that it's easier?

I've been working on a side project to create a theme manager for Demo Time, but I'm also thinking about a service for Demo Time to purchase themes as I need to start thinking about funds for the project.

For now, you can open the developers tools from VS Code.

unclear how selecting/highlighting text and writing text interacts, would be nice if I can say "select this text" now write "xxx" without having to find that position again

Can you explain your use case a bit? In my case, I make use of the snapshots and patches for inserting text (https://demotime.show/actions/patch/). It makes it a bit easier.

When I want to highlight the text. I select it, and open the command palette and execute the Demo Time: Add demo step. That way, you don't have to manually configure it.

tedious sometimes to write the path over and over on multiple operations, perhaps it could just default to the last path used if left blank, or just use the currently focused/open file?

Good feedback. In the editor, there is a recent file selector on the path input (when editing in code, you will have to manually add it).

would be nice if presenter mode showed a preview of whats on screen

This has just been introduced: https://demotime.show/features/presenter-view/#next-slide-preview

presenter notes could be more compact

How would you like to see this?

would like to have option to define presenter notes inline within the yaml instead of separate file

✅

I strongly preferred editing in yaml directly (used it almost exclusively), so it would be nice if I could make that the default, or if it remembered that I was in that mode

You can set demoTime.openInConfigEditor to false in your .vscode/settings.json file. That way, it will not open the config editor.

would be nice to be able to advance multi-step workflows even when not in presentation mode (maybe a keyboard shortcut)

Interested to know more about this use-case.

the title for the next step on buttons (in presenter mode and on the bottom left thingy) is often misleading, for example, when it will go to the next slide, it should say "show slide 2" instead of the name of the next step

Agree ✅

that bottom left button changing width due to the names changing led to many wrong clicks

The button in the status bar? What if you have a setting that you can define its behavior? Like demoTime.statusBarActionTitle, which can be fixed or title. When it is set to title, it is using the current behaviour, when using fixed, it will just show next and will not change its width.

I added a "reset" demo at the end which would reset everything back to the initial state, this should maybe be more of a first class concept?

I do the same thing. I always create a start and end, but I believe this is different for everyone.

For example, this is what mine from yesterdays talk looks like:

Start

End

---

Thanks again for your feedback. It would be great if we can create sub-tasks for all of them, so that we can keep track about the status of each one.

[estruyf]

@theoephraim, in the latest pre-release, the issue with garbage characters should have been fixed. Somebody else noticed it to,o and it seemed to be related to other extensions doing updates after saving the file.

I've changed the logic, and it doesn't occur anymore. Check #362

[theoephraim]

Next time I do a talk, I'll do another deep dive, check all these issues, and try to open issues along the way :)

[estruyf]

Thanks @theoephraim that would be amazing.