tuitorial: Terminal-based Interactive Code Tutorials 📚

While trying to demonstrate my pipefunc package (a tool for automating computational pipelines), I hit a common presentation problem: how do you effectively walk through code without endless repetition?

Traditional presentation tools like PowerPoint force you to copy-paste the same code snippets multiple times just to highlight different parts. Jupyter notebooks are great for self-paced learning but clunky for live presentations (too much text that the viewer will try to read). I needed something that would let me define code once and create multiple views highlighting different aspects.

So, during the holiday season, I did what any reasonable developer would do: procrastinated on my actual work and built a new tool instead!

What is tuitorial?

tuitorial is a Python package that lets you create interactive, terminal-based code tutorials where you define the code ONCE, then create steps that highlight different parts based on rules (like regex patterns or line numbers). No more copy-paste presentations!

Key Features

• Write code once: Define your code once, then create multiple views highlighting different aspects
• Rich highlighting options: From simple literal matches to complex regex patterns
• Interactive navigation: Intuitive keyboard controls for stepping through tutorials
• Beautiful terminal UI: Powered by Textual for a polished look
• Flexible configuration: Choose between Python API or YAML format
• Development mode: Live reloading for quick iterations

See It in Action

Here’s a demo of tuitorial explaining pipefunc - a package that lets you create computational pipelines with automatic parallelization, caching, and dependency management:

Who Should Use This?

While tuitorial isn’t for everyone, it’s perfect for:

• Developers giving technical presentations
• Teachers explaining code concepts
• Teams creating interactive documentation
• Anyone who loves terminal-based tools

Getting Started

pip install tuitorial

Check out the documentation for examples and detailed usage instructions.

Final Thoughts

Building tuitorial was a lot of fun! While it may not replace PowerPoint for your next business presentation, it offers a unique approach to code demonstrations that I hope others will find useful.

Try it out and let me know what you think!