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Ask HN: Software for producing terminal-based tutorials?

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Re: Ask HN: Software for producing terminal-based tutorials?

#21
I've created around 400+ video tutorials with Camtasia, it works well enough and IMO is one of the best all-in-1 screencast recording and editing tools you'll find if you're on Windows or MacOS.

Lately I've been using OBS for recording because I want to use native Linux and Camtasia does not run on Linux. Using a Windows / Mac VM won't work if you want to record your Linux environment.

Then I use DaVanci Resolve to do the video editing part. It hasn't been smooth sailing though. Lots of issues with exporting mp4s when it comes to having audio artifacts that never appeared with Camtasia. It means having to do extra work to render the audio separately as a wave file and stitch together the video with it as an mp4 with a different tool.

I'd pay almost anything within reason for Camtasia on Linux. I tried asking the developers a few times. Even offered to fund the development myself or crowd source the funding with Kickstarter. They don't seem to have any intentions on ever supporting Linux.

The next best thing for screencast video editing is Davinci Resolve IMO. It works on Windows, MacOS and most distros of Linux so I'm doing everything I can to migrate to that tool. In some ways it's a lot better than Camtasia too. It's just super finicky with hardware.

Re: Ask HN: Software for producing terminal-based tutorials?

#26
post #4

Never used it, but saw it on a couple of tutorials, https://asciinema.org

I also recommend asciinema.

A tutorial using asciinema in action.

https://asciinema.org/a/188659

You can't add voice into asciinema itself but a asciinema recording URL would be an excellent handout material (like powerpoint) to give to students. Your students can view Terminal action with very clear text, unlike videos where reading text can be difficult.

Even if you use other method for recording/delivering your voice/audio lecture, including Asciinema replay link would be a huge benefit to students.

Re: Ask HN: Software for producing terminal-based tutorials?

#27
post #21

I've created around 400+ video tutorials with Camtasia, it works well enough and IMO is one of the best all-in-1 screencast recording and editing tools you'll find if you're on Windows or MacOS. Lately I've been using OBS for recording because I want to use native Linux and Camtasia does not run on Linux. Using a Windows / Mac VM won't work if you want to record your Linux environment. Then I use DaVanci Resolve to d…

If OBS works fine and davinci DaVanci is having issues why move to it for screen casting?

Re: Ask HN: Software for producing terminal-based tutorials?

#28
post #21

I've created around 400+ video tutorials with Camtasia, it works well enough and IMO is one of the best all-in-1 screencast recording and editing tools you'll find if you're on Windows or MacOS. Lately I've been using OBS for recording because I want to use native Linux and Camtasia does not run on Linux. Using a Windows / Mac VM won't work if you want to record your Linux environment. Then I use DaVanci Resolve to d…

If OBS works fine and davinci DaVanci is having issues why move to it for screen casting?

OBS is for recording, DaVinci Resolve for editing.

Re: Ask HN: Software for producing terminal-based tutorials?

#29
post #4

Never used it, but saw it on a couple of tutorials, https://asciinema.org

I use it and it's awesome! It's not just a video, you can copy-paste from it if you want.

Here's another one I want to try for a long time but still haven't (to have a single, animated SVG file, still copy-pastable): https://github.com/nbedos/termtosvg .

Re: Ask HN: Software for producing terminal-based tutorials?

#30
I record with Screenflow. It is much simpler (read: slimmer feature set) than Camtasia as well as cheaper.

For as straightforward an application as recording a screen w/ voiceover, there aren't many bad options. Personally, what I like about Screenflow is that it is easy to record straight to a timeline. I.E. I do a take, it saves to the timeline in Screenflow, I cut out the pauses/mistakes/dead air, or split a clip to redo audio or video for a particular section. Once satisfied, I move onto recording the next chunk, it's quite streamlined compared to recording in one app and then editing in another.

Egghead.io has a few free resources for their instructors, I'd recommend checking them out for some practical tips.

https://egghead.io/courses/record-badass-screencasts-for-egg...

https://egghead.io/articles/recording-a-great-coding-screenc...

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