Showmedo is a peer-produced video-tutorials and screencasts site for free and open-source software - with the exception of some club videos, the large majority are free to watch and download.

Follow our progress building the site with Python, Javascript, Jquery, CSS, HTML, Flash, etc.., plus open-source news, advocacy and just plain interesting stuff in the FOSS world: how to help »the club »about »faq »

Educating the Open-source Community With Showmedo

Although as important as the software it supports, education and documentation are relatively neglected in the Open-source world. Coders love to code, and explaining how best to use or improve the software tends to be deferred or even sidelined.

At Showmedo we believe the community can play a vital role here and also say thanks for the tools and software that make our lives easier. If you have a piece of software you love or a programming langugage you are enthusiastic about, why not make a screencast showing others how to use it? All the stuff you wish you'd been told, the tips, tricks, insights that would have saved you time and frustration.

Screencasting is easier than you think, and we're happy to help you. You can email us for advice or just use some of the how-to screencasts on the site. This screencasting learning-path is a good place to start.

Name: [709] Jeff Rush
Member: 35 months
Authored: 15 videos
Description: Greetings. I'm the (former) Python Advocacy Coordinator and a strong supporter of screencasts. I'm also the organizer of the Dallas-Ft. Worth Pythoneers and was con chair for PyCon 2006 and 2007 in Dallas. I'm also an independent consultant and work in the areas of Python/Zope, embedded Linux s ...

[300] A Demonstration of ReStructuredText (2/4)

in series: 5-Minutes With Python

video tutorial by Jeff Rush

Our authors tell us that feedback from you is a big motivator. Please take a few moments to let them know what you think of their work.

URL Embed

Back to series

Download

(Showmedo is undergoing major changes. To report any problems viewing the videos please email us and include browser and OS specifics. Cheers - Kyran.)

A quick look at a style of marking up plaintext called "ReStructuredText" with hotkeys from the Emacs text editor to view the result as HTML, PDF and slides.

ReStructuredText was developed in the Python community and is used for whitepapers, embedded markup for program source and wiki pages, and to rapidly create slide presentations.

wiki views view tools tool text talks talk source software smd_multiplecreators restructuredtext requirements python programs programming program presentations pdf pages look libraries knowledge keep ipython interactive html graphics frameworks framework features emacs editor demonstration create coverage buzzwords beginners beginner_programming IDE 5-minutes 5-minute

Got any questions?

Get answers in the ShowMeDo Learners Google Group.

Video statistics:

Video's rank shown in the most popular listing
Video plays: 2292 (since July 30th)
Plays in last week: 24
Published: 32 months ago

Thank-yous, questions and comments

If this video tutorial was helpful please take some time to say thank-you to the authors for their hard work. Feel free to ask questions. Let the author know why their video tutorial was useful - what are you learning about? Did the video tutorial save you time? Would you like to see more?

You may also want to see our ShowMeDo Google Group to speak to our active users and authors.

32. Sotolf Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:55

Thanks so much for this presentation it was what got me over to use reST to write my stuff, and abandon the bloated word processors for something lighter :)

31. Daragh N Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:08

Very handy and informative introduction. Thanks!

30. Vanessa Mon, 18 Jan 2010 02:56

Congratulations, very good explanation ... Thank you

29. cres Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:07

this looks very useful- I'm very excited

28. anonymous Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:07

Very useful and thanks for the information.

27. anonymous Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:17

yes, i liked it....I spend some time in the evenings

learning and I am thinking of joining showmedo..

26. anonymous Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:46

great video! thx

25. anonymous Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:00

Thanks, very instructive... as always.

24. anonymous Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:19

Hi Jeff!

Just a quick thanks for your vid on ReStructedText - I have an interview tomorrow and this was one of the clients "nice to have" hopefully now I'll be able to show I have at least the basics. Wish me luck!

thanks

23. anonymous Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:16

wow, i discovered restructured text lately and needed this video.

thanks

22. anonymous Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:38

Great! Very useful!!

21. anonymous Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:51

Great to view. Good to understand.

i've learned something. go on!

20. anonymous Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:37

Nice demo of ReStructuredText - ideal for me fishing around for a better way to write my technical documents and wondering if this is it - you've given me a good feel for what I can expect. Suitably inspired I'll now give it a go...

19. anonymous Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:22

This is quite informative, as I have been looking to write restructuredtext using emacs. Can you elaborate abit more about using emacs and the hot keys to render the text into HTML or PDF or slides?

Thanks you

18. anonymous Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:31

Very good -- Well thought out and presented -- Perfect amount of detail.

17. anonymous Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:16

Hi Jeff,

Great screencast on RST! Thanks for making it!

Mike

16. John Graves Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:18

Jeff - Thanks for your screencast on reStructuredText. - John Graves / Auckland, New Zealand

15. anonymous Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:45

Never new about this form of document compilation. Very nice and simple to learn.

14. anonymous Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00

Very good summary of restructured text which is what I was looking for. Very good presentation of the material etc.

13. anonymous Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:32

Thanks a lot again. Really well done video. Are you a teacher? I mean in the "usual way" (because you're teaching a lot here already!).

Cheers,

Offray

12. Arhuman Fri, 15 May 2009 17:09

Thank you !

Slide show made easy...

Just have to install the emacs mode.

11. harbynotts Sat, 11 Apr 2009 03:19

Very effective video, thank you

9. DrSkip Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:27

Excellent video - this is going to be very useful!

8. anonymous Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:40

Anonymous, I'll try to get to a long series of screencasts related to reStructuredText. I've done a lot more and would be glad to walk through the various constructs.

7. anonymous Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:40

Anonymous, I'll try to get to a long series of screencasts related to reStructuredText. I've done a lot more and would be glad to walk through the various constructs.

6. anonymous Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:06

It would be nicer if the restructured text video was slower, longer and went over over all the constructs of reST, enabling the listener to retain more.

The are great as it is. Just my 2 cents. Thank you for your efforts

Thank you

5. anonymous Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:33

Thanks!

Very nice Jeff.

Sincerely,

Joe

4. caripiteño Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:17

Thanks Jeff. I like your presentations, They are very well done. Congratulations. Excuse me but I am not english speaker.

3. Jeff Rush Tue, 17 Jul 2007 04:56

Thanks for the kind words. I've made the source available in the wiki section as requested, at:

http://wiki.showmedo.com/index.php/JeffRush_ReStructuredTextDemo

You can also find more substantial examples of reStructuredText in the Python Slideshow Repository at:

http://www.python.org/doc/slideshows/

2. anonymous Sun, 15 Jul 2007 17:39

I have used various wiki type formatting and this appears to work just as well if not better. Well presented as well! Thanks

Jerol Harrington Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:17

Thanks Jeff for a very interesting video! It encouraged me to try it out for myself. I downloaded the plugin for vim (since I use that instead of emacs), and it worked, but did not pass the validation test for the HTML. So then I updated docutils in Python, used the standalone converter (buildhtml.py) which converted all of the *.txt documentation files to *.html, including subdirectories. These did pass the validation test.

I particularly liked your presentation. Some of the REST examples that I have seen are rather bland: but you have shown what can really be done with this format.

I do hope that you will provide the source in the wiki section.

Thanks again,

Jerol

Kudos and Thanks for Jeff

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

Great overview!

Nick 5 days ago

Python and the Image Manipulation Library

Wow, this guy is really professional sounding. No stu-tu-tutering or ums or pauses. Very excellent presenter with solid content. And although the bullet points do harmonize the audience's visual coherence requirements to some degree, graphics make it killer. My personal opinion is that all presentations can use charts, examples and other visual aides to bypass the conscious info filter and download the actual meaning right to the sub-counscous. Keep up the good work!

stav 10 days ago

Python and the Interactive Shell 'IPython'

that for that, very useful for someone like myself starting out with ipython

scott 11 days ago

Walkthru of a Twisted Webserver

Nice work.

Mike 12 days ago

Walkthru of a Simple Text Line Matcher (grep)

I've been trying to read python programs every now and then, but often the sheer complexity and the calls to libraries I didn't know made me give up before I reached the end. As a consequence, I appreciate the help a video like this one provides.

Emmanuel Ruellan 15 days ago

Walkthru of a Twisted Webserver

good very good

chyb 24 days ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

Hi! Just watched the first of your IPython series. Looking forward to watching the rest. Screencasts rule!

Sean Murphy 25 days ago

Giving Your Screencast

Dear Jeff,

Thanks for the very informative cast - I plan to use recordMyDesktop to produce screencasts for my classes.

Sunil Shende 26 days ago

Walkthru of a Simple Text Line Matcher (grep)

Thanks! very helpful

christian 26 days ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

Amazing introduction to IPython. Just loved it!

Mailson Lira 30 days ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

Thanks for sharing your expertise. I learned and enjoyed your video.

Jaime Velez 30 days ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 2

GREAT VIDEO, SLOW DOWN YOUR SPEECH. AS THE VIDEO GOES ON, YA TEND TO SPEAK FASTER. YOUR VIDEO PEAKS MY INTEREST TO LEARN IPYTHON MORE.

Z. JOHN KOPER 31 days ago

Preparing for Screencasting

Excellent. It would be usefull some information about where to find videos on audio and video compression formats and other especific technical topics. Thanks.

Max 36 days ago

Python and the Image Manipulation Library

Hi Jeff,

I was looking for video-handling inside python, so i googled python+video, and i bumped into the screencasts of python. I am certainly going to watch more screencasts, because they kind of summarize the huge amount of available documents. In our company we maintain a wiki about python-stuff, and i am going to add several links to video-screencasts for inside-educational purpose to guide new python-collegues into the python-world.

Thanx,

John Hendriks,

Eindhoven,

The Netherlands

John Hendriks 41 days ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

Awesome Job!

Jacob Silva 42 days ago

Preparing for Screencasting

Doing screencasts is a totally new topic for me, I explore it in the course of a technical writer training. So I research the internet a lot .

My native language is German.

The flow of words was a bit too fast for me as a non-native speaker. However, I got a lot of input which i appreciate very much. Thank you!

Kind regards from Austria

Amelia Kornberger 49 days ago

Walkthru of a Simple Text Line Matcher (grep)

Well Done.

FrankSpaniak 49 days ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

enjoyed it ; well done. IF you ever in Singapore i buy u a beer !

thiamwah 50 days ago

Walkthru of a Simple Text Line Matcher (grep)

Beautifully presented

Miguel Ribeiro 52 days ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

Enjoyed the first one very much. Thanks a lot. One very tiny comment: You mentioned that you used emacs as your editor, how did you change it from vi?

John Battle 53 days ago

Searching the Python World

Great little video. I don't know about others but I didn't know that and I'm sure it's gonna help me in the near future!

kh 53 days ago

A Demonstration of ReStructuredText

Very handy and informative introduction. Thanks!

Daragh N 53 days ago

Giving Your Screencast

Thank you for this realy good introduction in casting.

Andrey Beshkov 54 days ago

A Demonstration of ReStructuredText

Congratulations, very good explanation ... Thank you

Vanessa 56 days ago

Python and the Interactive Shell 'IPython'

Thanks for the startup info. Very helpful - I'm a Matlab user trying to add Python to my repertoire.

Mark Campanelli 56 days ago

Preparing for Screencasting

Excellent content. Will definitely get into screencasts now.

Gary 59 days ago

Walkthru of a Simple Text Line Matcher (grep)

Nice Video. Good example on real life list comprehension.

Mike Weerasinghe 2 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 3

Thanks! I've really been enjoying these presentations!

anonymous 2 months ago

Giving Your Screencast

Great Video Jeff!

Very useful, informative, and professional.

Good Job!

anonymous 2 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

Jeff, I'm looking for an IDE that can help my son learn to program. This looks interesting; I'll give it a shot! Thanks.

anonymous 2 months ago

Python and the Interactive Shell 'IPython'

great for a first survey - thx a lot

anonymous 2 months ago

A Demonstration of ReStructuredText

Very useful and thanks for the information.

anonymous 2 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 5

Thanks for your efforts. Looks like it has many of the same but also advantages over python-mode.el within emacs -- espec. if like me you are too lazy and slow to learn and forget more general emacs utility.

Nice clear presentation. Didn't quite grasp how starting with -pylab would be different than importing pylab, but it all looks great -- especially integration with pdb and profiler.

Now to figure out how to replace the regular emacs python mode with the ipython one!

anonymous 2 months ago

Python and the Interactive Shell 'IPython'

thank you ver much from maldive islands

anonymous 2 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 2

I've been a python user since 1999, but for some reason have never got to grips with the ipython shell. The book Python for unix an dlinux system administration got me interested. I can't tell you the number of scripts I have written just to open a simple file from the command line and do some per line manipution. Being able to freely mix python and the command line is pretty exciting, I'm really enjoying your tutorial videos on this, thanks!

anonymous 2 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 2

Great presentations! I can't wait to see the rest!

anonymous 2 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 3

Thanks for your effords!

anonymous 3 months ago

A Demonstration of ReStructuredText

great video! thx

anonymous 3 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 4

Brilliant. Thanks again! Keep up the great work.

anonymous 3 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 2

Fantastically helpful! Thank you for these videos. I'm a physicist and therefore am faking it in coding, but have found python fantastic, and can't believe I'm only discovering ipython now! Your videos are making the transition that much easier.

anonymous 3 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

a good demonstration - would have taken me at least a couple of extra hours to work out on my own. Thankyou.

anonymous 3 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 5

Wow! I never realized iPython was so sophisticated! I watched all of your great screencasts and although I have to start digging through it myself now, I really enjoyed getting a very efficient introduction to ipython's capabilities. Thank you very much!

anonymous 3 months ago

A Demonstration of ReStructuredText

Thanks, very instructive... as always.

anonymous 3 months ago

Python and the Interactive Shell 'IPython'

I'm just getting into iPython, and I know I'm only scratching the surface. Thanks for letting me know what to look forward to.

anonymous 3 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 5

This is awesome ! I did get a great overview on IPython by following your session.

anonymous 4 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

good intro... on to #2!

anonymous 4 months ago

Python and the Image Manipulation Library

I really enjoyed your presentation of what is available in the PIL package. I am a frequent user of ImageMagick and Perl and have just recently begun using Python in place of Perl. I am exploring removing ImageMagick all together and your brief informational helped. Thanks

anonymous 4 months ago

Python and the Image Manipulation Library

Great job! You were very easy to understand and went at a nice pace. You could try to make it a little more interesting somehow (its programming, i know :P), but thats really the only thing I could pluck out.

anonymous 4 months ago

A Demonstration of ReStructuredText

Great! Very useful!!

anonymous 4 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 5

Thank you, I am starting with python and after seeing these videos I think I'll explore the language with ipython.

anonymous 4 months ago

Walkthru of a Simple Text Line Matcher (grep)

I did find the video educational and did like the detail. One thing I would have liked to see was an example of the last modification to the program (where the class was added). thanks.

anonymous 4 months ago

A Demonstration of ReStructuredText

anonymous 5 months ago

Walkthru of a Twisted Webserver

Good, informative and easy to follow. Thanks.

anonymous 5 months ago

Preparing for Screencasting

good talk. thanks

anonymous 5 months ago

Walkthru of a Simple Text Line Matcher (grep)

Thanks for the high quality tutorials on this site.

anonymous 5 months ago

A Demonstration of ReStructuredText

This is quite informative, as I have been looking to write restructuredtext using emacs. Can you elaborate abit more about using emacs and the hot keys to render the text into HTML or PDF or slides?

Thanks you

anonymous 5 months ago

Walkthru of a Twisted Webserver

A quick and effective intro into Twisted. Good work.

anonymous 5 months ago

Python and the Image Manipulation Library

Jeff is a teacher at heart.

anonymous 5 months ago

A Demonstration of ReStructuredText

Very good -- Well thought out and presented -- Perfect amount of detail.

anonymous 5 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

I'm sold. Thanks!

anonymous 5 months ago

Giving Your Screencast

Thanks for these screencasts on screencasting techniques. Have you run across any new tools recently?

anonymous 5 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

Thanks

John Graves 5 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

You inspired me to try ipython :)

anonymous 5 months ago

Python and the Image Manipulation Library

This was interesting enough that I am encouraged to investigate the PIL. I need to 'thin out' large images, ie to produce an image that looks more or less the same as the original, but much smaller in byte-volume terms. (Reducing color palettes and pixel depth, removing every other pixel, or whatnot.) Looks like the PIL might have all I need. Thanks for the video.

anonymous 6 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

Really enjoyed ipython video 1/5...eye opening stuff. e.g. the ability to open the source of a function in a text editor like "edit -x re.match" is awesome...

anonymous 6 months ago

Python and the Interactive Shell 'IPython'

Very informative, I hope the ipyhton learning curve is not to steep.

anonymous 6 months ago

A Demonstration of ReStructuredText

Never new about this form of document compilation. Very nice and simple to learn.

anonymous 6 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 2

Great tutorial, thanks!

anonymous 6 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

Excellent intro to IPython!

anonymous 6 months ago

Walkthru of a Simple Text Line Matcher (grep)

very nice video

anonymous 6 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

Very useful. Thanks!

anonymous 6 months ago

Python and the Image Manipulation Library

This is exactly what I was looking for. Now... how to use it.

anonymous 6 months ago

A Demonstration of ReStructuredText

Very good summary of restructured text which is what I was looking for. Very good presentation of the material etc.

anonymous 7 months ago

Walkthru of a Simple Text Line Matcher (grep)

great work!

anonymous 7 months ago

The 'IPython' Interactive Shell - Part 1

Thank you for make your tutorial available and congratulations, it is very good!

anonymous 7 months ago

more...

Learn Python the easy way!
If you want to learn the Python programming language from a very gentle start or are looking to increase your ability to do cool things with Python, check out our club

View this series as a one-page learning-path
This feature is for club members. Click here to find out more.

Learning Paths

This series lies on the following learning-paths. Learning-paths are a new initiative at Showmedo, to start structuring our content better. You can find out more here.