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A dev.to write-up of a JetBrains Rider demo setup is really a list of options you can set days early. Calm hands are a by-product, not the method.
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A dev.to post titled "My JetBrains Rider Setup for Surviving Live-Coding Demos" sets out what its author, writing as lovelacecoding, changes in the IDE before speaking at a tech event [1]. The useful part is the ratio: the author frames the goal as getting through a live demo without fighting their own tools on top of their nerves [2], and almost everything on the list is configuration you set once, days in advance, not composure you summon on stage.
Start with the display. Presentation Mode sits under View > Appearance > Enter Presentation Mode, fills the screen with the editor, and increases the font size automatically, so font size is not something you fiddle with at the lectern [3]. The zoom level it uses can be fixed beforehand under File > Settings (Preferences on macOS) > Appearance & Behavior > Appearance, which the author recommends precisely so the size is already right the moment the mode goes on [4]. Then the theme: the author switches to light, on the grounds that dark themes often look washed out under conference lighting and projectors and that light backgrounds read better from the back of the room [5]. That last one is a preference claim, not a measurement, but it is cheap to test on the actual projector. Three toggles, all pre-settable [2].
The structural change is bigger. Rather than switching between PowerPoint and Rider mid-demo, the author writes slides in Markdown and previews them inside the IDE using MARP [6]. The setup is a package.json next to the presentation file carrying a marp script ("marp index.md -w --html --allow-local-files") and @marp-team/marp-cli at ^4.5.0 as a devDependency [7], plus an index.md whose slides are separated by --- [8]. After npm install, Rider shows a run button next to the script, and the -w flag rebuilds the HTML on every save [9]. Right-clicking the generated HTML and choosing Open In > Browser > Built-in Preview puts the slides in a tab beside the code, reachable with the IDE's normal tab shortcuts [10]. Pressing P in the preview opens a speaker-notes window you can park on a second screen [11], and the --html flag allows Mermaid diagrams in slides [12]. For JavaScript and Vue talks the author uses Slidev instead [13]. Net cost: two files in one folder and one dependency install [1].
Navigation is the same story. Search Everywhere on a double Shift jumps to a file, class, or action by a few letters [14]; Recent Files is Ctrl/Cmd+E [15]; Recent Locations is Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+E and shows actual code snippets from places you edited, which helps when you remember the code but not the filename [16]. The author's stated purpose for all three is moving between the two or three files a demo actually uses [17], and switching from a working project to a backup project when something goes wrong [18]. The source text breaks off mid-sentence at that point, so the backup-project procedure is not spelled out [19]. Nearly all of this transfers to WebStorm, IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm and the other JetBrains IDEs, which share the underlying platform [20].
Worth watching if you copy this: the author's claimed win is one less app to manage and one less thing to go wrong [21], but the MARP route trades a slide app for a Node toolchain, a pinned CLI version [7] and a watch process. That moves the pre-flight check rather than removing it, and the check now belongs on the machine you will actually present from, offline, the day before.
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Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
A dev.to post titled "My JetBrains Rider Setup for Surviving Live-Coding Demos", published under the author handle lovelacecoding, describes the author's JetBrains Rider IDE setup for live-coding demos at tech events.
The author states the setup was built to help get through a live demo without fighting their own tools on top of fighting their nerves.
Presentation Mode is found under View > Appearance > Enter Presentation Mode; it makes the editor fill the whole screen and increases the font size automatically, so the presenter does not have to change font sizes by hand before going on stage.
A fixed zoom level for Presentation Mode can be set ahead of time under File > Settings (Preferences on macOS) > Appearance & Behavior > Appearance, so the size is already correct when Presentation Mode is switched on.
The author switches to a light theme for talks, saying dark themes often look washed out under conference lighting and projectors and that light backgrounds are easier to read from the back of the room.
Instead of switching between PowerPoint and Rider during a demo, the author writes slides in Markdown and previews them inside the IDE using MARP (Markdown Presentation Ecosystem).
Evidence-backed comparisons of source perspectives and observed adoption signals. Read the methodology
Which Builder, Operator, and Investor concerns the observed source mix emphasized—not a truth score.
Evidence, demonstrated adoption, hype gap, incentives, and confidence are assessed independently, each on its own current evidence. How these are measured.
Specific and reproducible, but single-source and self-reported
The instructions are unusually checkable for an experience post: exact menu paths, a verbatim package.json, named keyboard shortcuts and a named CLI version. That raises evidence above pure anecdote. It is capped by there being exactly one publisher, no independent reproduction, no vendor documentation cited, an untested portability claim about other JetBrains IDEs, and a body that is truncated mid-sentence so part of the described setup is missing from the record.
Only one self-reported user
The supplied material discloses a single practitioner's personal workflow and one pinned dependency version. There are no download figures, deployment counts, organizational usage, benchmarks or third-party reports for MARP, Slidev or the Rider presentation features, so adoption cannot be scored without inventing facts.
Mildly overstated framing over modest, honest advice
The source itself is restrained: it claims the setup helps the author get through demos and removes one app, not that it prevents failure. The slight positive gap comes from generalization that the evidence does not carry - a single speaker's preferences (light theme reads better; cross-IDE parity) presented as broadly applicable, plus the causal framing that live-demo trouble is largely a settings matter, which no measurement in the material supports.
Self-promotional, no disclosed commercial tie
The author cross-references their own 'Public Speaking at Tech Events 101' series and writes to build personal authority on conference speaking, a mild reputational incentive typical of developer-platform posts. Offsetting factors: the recommended slide tools are free Markdown projects, no sponsorship, affiliate arrangement or vendor relationship is disclosed or implied, and the advice is not gated behind anything the author sells in the supplied text.
Confident on procedure, weak on generalization
Confidence is moderate because the procedural core is precise, internally consistent and easy for a reader to falsify, and the incentive picture is benign. It is held down by the single-publisher cluster, the absence of any adoption measurement, the unverified cross-IDE and readability generalizations, and the truncated source text.
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1 article · August 15, 2026