System Overview

Taleem is built as a small number of independent layers.

Each layer has a single responsibility. No layer overlaps with another.

The Four Layers

The system is structured as:

Format → Renderer → Engine → UI

1. Format (Schema v1)

The format defines what a deck is.

It is pure structured data.

The format:

• defines slide types
• defines allowed data
• contains no rendering logic
• contains no timing or UI concepts

2. Renderer (taleem-slides)

The renderer converts validated data into HTML.

It owns:

• slide templates
• markup structure

It does not know how slides are used.

3. Engines

Engines decide when and where rendered slides appear.

Taleem currently has two engines:

• index-based navigation (browser)
• time-based playback (player)

Engines treat slides as opaque HTML units.

4. UI / Controls

The UI layer handles user interaction.

It provides:

• buttons
• keyboard input
• sliders

UI never touches schema or slides directly.

Why This Structure Exists

Most systems fail because everything knows everything.

Taleem survives by ensuring that:

• layers are simple
• responsibilities do not overlap
• changes are isolated

If a feature does not clearly belong to one layer, it does not belong in the system.