Re: 'Triptych' theme: almost there?

[wolfgang]

https://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki/browse_thread/thread/686b4840d96367d0/25b25450a802bd4e?hl=de&lnk=gst&q=triptych#25b25450a802bd4e


Hi again,

tried it again almost a half year later and finally was able to
identify most essential stuff for the dragable Sidebars to function.
Took much time and work, because this theme is really a mess with so
many cross-dependencies between css and js bits and pieces here and
there.

However, now that I got it going I'm more than ever convinced this
feature alone is really worthwhile.


Remember my TiddlyDesktop in 2007? (http://menuflex.tiddlyspot.com/)
- or Menuflex of 2009? (http://tiddlyhome.bidix.info/desk/)

All I really tried with these two adaptations was creating the most
versatile way for working with different texts by simply having more
than one display area (while for merely reading TW text one would more
than suffice).

Beside the many glitches of TiddlyDesktop - which never really grew up
after it was born - it's real limitation is the mess it creates, where
one has to cascade or close all tiddlers to regain the oversight again
- dragging the tiddlers and borders often multiple times in each and
every direction. The much more professional approach with movable
panels by Eric doesn't spare from this kind of busy drag-/dropping
while editing, Menuflex is the furthest I got to the same objective
with basic html and css alone. But already then limited to certain
browsers and never really fully satisfying.

Triptych solves all this much more simpler by automatically adjusting
the size of the existing display area after a sidebar has been dragged
to its desired size, with the sole purpose to use a sidebar as a
proberly sized second display area. It doesn't only gives most
flexibility while editing (having tiddlers side by side same size for
reference and/or other necessary task aside), but with its minimized
sidebars kind of automatic 'fullscreen' mode for smaller displays.


I'm still working on pulling and reducing all necessary css now spread
over many stylesheet into one systemTheme, and the 5 plugins in less
than that. However one of these little essential macros has been
married with an existing, and renamed to TiddlersBarPluginMPKos. Which
for me is unfortunate, because I usually prefer breadcrumbs for that
kind of navigation with many more options than TiddlersBar, while
sparing screen space to the extreme if stuffed into a popup. Since I
don't know js, I would be very glad if someone could help with
extracting this piece of code, now married and only working with
TiddlersBarPluginMPKos together, into a small independently working
plugin:


fitTiddlerDisplay: function() {
var tDFrac;
if (config.options["txtUserTiddlerWidth"] == undefined
|| config.options["txtUserTiddlerWidth"] > 100
|| config.options["txtUserTiddlerWidth"] < 0)
tDFrac = 0.98;
else tDFrac = config.options["txtUserTiddlerWidth"]/100;

var sideFrac = ( 1 - tDFrac ) / 2;
var wiDiv = document.getElementById("testWidthDiv");
var w_all = wiDiv.offsetWidth;
if (jQuery('#leftBarWrapper').hasClass('fixedSidebarWrapper'))
var w_left = jQuery('#leftBarWrapper').width();
else var w_left = 0;
if (jQuery('#rightBarWrapper').hasClass('fixedSidebarWrapper'))
var w_right = jQuery('#rightBarWrapper').width();
else var w_right = 0;
var w_free = w_all - w_left - w_right;
var leftBorder_dA = w_left + sideFrac*w_free;
jQuery('#displayArea').css('left',leftBorder_dA+'px');
jQuery('#displayArea').width(tDFrac*w_free);
//console.log("fitted");
},


Source: http://triptych-theme.tiddlyspace.com/#TiddlersBarPluginMPKos

[David Gifford]

Very nice theme! I like the lockable and unlockable menus and the way
you can hide the tidd-I mean the groov content.

Sorry I don't know how to help you with your question, though.

Dave

On Oct 17, 3:23 pm, wolfgang <pamo...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> https://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki/browse_thread/thread/686b4...

[wolfgang]

Thanks for the feedback, Dave. Kudos for Kosmaton again!


Off course, my setup for having a second display still would need a
ideal plugin, script or goto box, where after selecting a tiddler
(with all the sorting options: title, tag, date..) the tiddler also
shows in the expanded Sidebar (and not the regular Display area).

For this I'm testing a few imperfect options available at the moment:

1.) Personally would prefer a goto box which, after selecting a title,
displays the tiddler just below in the containing element. But
something like this doesn't seem to exist independently yet.

2.) The best available out of the box option would be
RecentChangesPlugin (which is used on Eric's Welcome page). It can
give a listbox with all tiddlers sorted by modified date and buttons
to either preview the selected tiddler just below, further to open it
in the regular display area both in view or directly in edit mode,
which is very useful too. It's clear disadvantage is that though this
usually works very well with recently edited tiddlers shown at the top
of the list, with too many tiddlers and having to find an older one
it's far from very practical.

3.) For the later use-case, and for making this 'sidebar 2nd display
area' feature more practical to readers too, FAQViewerPlugin (by Eric
too) comes closest. By providing a listbox with all tiddler
alphabetically sorted (if all tiddlers have been tagged with a dummy
tag and this tag used with the faqviewer macro), and even more
advantageous, the further option to narrow down the list of tiddlers
by tag or search. However for this use-case the plugin code has to be
modified because by default it only displays a 'Description' slice in
its listbox, and only falls back to the tiddler titles if no such
slice exists (which is easy enough even for javascript illiterate like
me, by simply replacing every occurrence of 'Description' with a slice
name that most likely doesn't exist). Two minor disadvantages for the
use of this plugin is that it displays 'prev' and 'next' buttons at
the bottom of the displayed tiddler and - which is much worse - jumps
there at the bottom if the sidebars size is too small for the whole
tiddler - which will be most of the time.

4.) So ideally, a plugin would be needed which would have the main
feature of TableOfContentsPlugin (by Eric again) to display a listbox
of all tiddlers with all common sorting/narrowing options, a search
box (as with FAQViewer), additionally being able to view the tiddler
in the element contained just below, and the option to open the
tiddler in view or edit mode (as with RecentChanges), and - more for
aesthetic reasons - preferable in a popup instead of a listbox. And to
top it off: a goto box as next to it.

5.) Still the best, of course, would be a completely new plugin which
simply creates two re-sizable display areas, with the feature to drag
and drop tiddlers between the two...

Though using a modified version of FAQViewerPlugin, which also allows
to display any tiddler at start by default, is already practical
enough. Simply using an common MainMenu (with lists, sliders, tabs,
treeview..) as tiddler displayed by default for readers - additionally
the RecentChanges panel for picking up the work where it has been left
for editors.


But maybe it would be a sensible request to have FAQViewerPlugin and
RecentChangesPlugin,combined - because their features overlap anyway,
and as they are now, have very limited use-cases each. Then all the
differing features of each could simply be combined to options
available in the macro itself.

Eric, if you happen to read this, what do you think?

[PMario]

Hi Wolfgang,
Reading your posts, it seems that you have a lot of ideas. For me it's
a bit hard to follow. So I am probably "over simplifying";)

1.) It seems you want to have a side-by-side view of tiddlers.
1.1) one is "displayArea" one should be inside a sidebar

2.) Editing multiple tiddlers at the same time should be possible.
2.1 still using sidy-by-side view.

3.) Some tiddlers should open in a left column
4.) Some tiddlers should open in a right column

5.) TiddlersBar should be replaced with a BreadCrumbs plugin

May be I missed some stuff, where you discussed some of TiddlyTools
plugins, because I don't know them.
======

Is there a special reason, why you want to use a sidebar to display
tiddler content? Or is it just, the drag-and-drop/auto-resize
triptych feature, which is nice.
=======

I did create a 2 and 3 column view, just using the "displayArea" and
some jQuery stuff [2].

* You can have a look at my space [1].
* open 2 or 3 tiddlers
* click the button: "click for 2 columns" or "click for 3 columns" in
the left main menu.

The whole stuff is temporary, so if you reload the page, all settings
are gone.
If you did switch to 2 columns and open a new tiddler, the new one is
full size again.
========

* IMO editing a tiddler in a sidebar will be quite hard. I'm pretty
sure, the core has some hardcoded stuff, that needs to be inside
"displayArea" for editing.
* Also most of the tiddler CSS won't work inside a sidebar (but this
could be fixed, messing up the CSS a bit more, than it is allready :).

-m

[1] http://pmario.tiddlyspace.com
[2] http://pmario.tiddlyspace.com/#%5B%5BTemporary%20SideBySide%5D%5D

[wolfgang]

Thanks for trying to understand my maybe too confusing exploration of
possible implementations:

> 1.) It seems you want to have a side-by-side view of tiddlers.
> 1.1) one is "displayArea" one should be inside a sidebar

> 3.) Some tiddlers should open in a left column
> 4.) Some tiddlers should open in a right column

Exactly. just what you would get by using TiddlyDesktop and much
dragging/dropping of tiddlers later. Now made that much easier by
Triptych theme by automatically adjusting the size of the display area
to the resized sidebar/2nd display area.

> 2.) Editing multiple tiddlers at the same time should be possible.
> 2.1 still using sidy-by-side view.

That is already very easy possible now TidIDEditor Plugin now. Only
couldn't get the QuickEditPlugin formating buttons to display there,
which is only a minor issue.

> 5.) TiddlersBar should be replaced with a BreadCrumbs plugin

I rather would have all javascript functions necessary for resizing
sidebars, their fluid and locked state as well as adjustment of the
display area in one plugin. Independent from any other plugins
(TiddlerBars or Breadcumbs isn't needed for what this would plugin do,
and should be left optional) or themes. So that it could just be used
even in any vanilla TW out of the box.

> Is there a special reason, why you want to use a sidebar to display
> tiddler content? Or is it just, the drag-and-drop/auto-resize
> triptych feature, which is nice.

For example translations, making adjustments while being able to
compare with the original (text, css, js..), really anything which can
and sometimes has to be done while editing tiddlers. Good examples can
be found in TiddlyTools MainMenu opening in moveable panels. Which has
the disadvantage that with each opened panel other content gets
partially hidden, which requires moving panels around and resizing
them multiple time. Such unnecessary acrobatics aren't needed with
Triptych anymore. Also for using special menus as for example
RelatedTiddlers a variable sized MainMenu is needed. Finally being
able to switch between panels that easily is a real plus for small
hand held devices.

> I did create a 2 and 3 column view, just using the "displayArea" and
> some jQuery stuff [2].

Here I would miss the option to be in control of what is displayed
where, or to hide and resize as desired.

[wolfgang]

> * Also most of the tiddler CSS won't work inside a sidebar (but this
> could be fixed, messing up the CSS a bit more, than it is allready :).

PS: That was the easiest part. Just took the stylesheet definitions
for tiddlers in the shadow styles and gave it to the MainMenu. Only 6
additional lines of css.

[PMario]

> > 5.) TiddlersBar should be replaced with a BreadCrumbs plugin
>
> I rather would have all javascript functions necessary for resizing
> sidebars, their fluid and locked state as well as adjustment of the
> display area in one plugin. Independent from any other plugins
> (TiddlerBars or Breadcumbs isn't needed for what this would plugin do,
> and should be left optional) or themes.

good idea,

> ... So that it could just be used

> even in any vanilla TW out of the box.

Since triptych-theme is based on my neui-em [1] theme, there isn't
much left of the vanilla TW layout. I do have a TW theme, that looks
as close as possible, like a vanilla TW but is based on the concept of
neui-em.

You can see a bit of background info, about neui-em theme (if you are
interested) at freestyle-tutorial space [2]. See the first 5 pages
"The History Part I" to "More Detailed Concept". It may also contain
some information, where to hook new functions.

Just as an info.
neui-em theme has placeholders for breadCrumbs plugin allready built
in and triptych has it too :) May be because it wasn't documented, it
hasn't been removed.

[1] http://neui-em.tiddlyspace.com/
[2] http://freestyle-tutorial.tiddlyspace.com/

[wolfgang]

> Since triptych-theme is based on my neui-em [1] theme, there isn't
> much left of the vanilla TW layout. I do have a TW theme, that looks
> as close as possible, like a vanilla TW but is based on the concept of
> neui-em.
>
> You can see a bit of background info, about neui-em theme (if you are
> interested) at freestyle-tutorial space [2]. See the first 5 pages
> "The History Part I" to "More Detailed Concept". It may also contain
> some information, where to hook new functions.

So I'm wrong in my believe the functions of Triptych sidebars could be
completely divorced from Triptych theme, freestyle and emastic?

After looking at the EmasticSystem stylesheet it seems that only a
tiny part of its definitions is actually used by Triptych theme. And
properties, like for example floatleft could be easily assigned to the
display area of a vanilla TW too.

[PMario]

> So I'm wrong in my believe the functions of Triptych sidebars could be
> completely divorced from Triptych theme, freestyle and emastic?

I'm sure it can be splitted. But I'd start then with a vanilla TW and
try to get it working there.

The actual theme evolution is like this:
TW layout -> TiddlySpace Theme -> neui-em theme -> triptiych theme

imo it will be easier to have
TW layout -> your theme

-m

[wolfgang]

> > So I'm wrong in my believe the functions of Triptych sidebars could be
> > completely divorced from Triptych theme, freestyle and emastic?
>
> I'm sure it can be splitted.

Thanks for the confirmation.

> But I'd start then with a vanilla TW and try to get it working there.
>

That's what I tried half year ago and that's probably why given up
then.

Now, by eliminating piece by piece from the sheets - without having
even changed the look of the theme yet - already about 80% of
TiddlySpace, EmasticSystem, Neui-em sheets have been deleted and the
whole becomes much more compact and workable.

However, theme and style wasn't really the main concern of this
thread. Anyhow, since we went off already:

Trying to adapt this free-style dependent theme gave me a real bad
aftertaste about the whole free-style and emastic concept, which
seemed a real invention when I first heard of it too. And it might
really be an aid to someone wanting to create an extraordinary theme
without having much knowledge about TW specific style definitions. But
now I can't see any reason beyond for using it.

It's 90% pure bloat and thereby loses any efficiency. For one like my,
who never formally learned anything about CSS but still was able to
learn (by doing) to adapt any TW style (see http://change.tiddlyspot.com/)
this turned out the most difficult to work with because it's departure
from usual simple TW styles. Obviously, for me efficiency and easy
adaptability has much more value.

Since you created the 'free'-style system, Mario, and because I'm less
able grasp its advantages to the usual ways of TW themes, what are for
you the reasons for using it at all, beyond ease of creating
extraordinary themes on the fly?

[PMario]

> Now, by eliminating piece by piece from the sheets - without having
> even changed the look of the theme yet - already about 80% of
> TiddlySpace, EmasticSystem, Neui-em sheets have been deleted and the
> whole becomes much more compact and workable.

You are right, that neui-em mainly uses EmasticPercent definitions and
a bit from the grid. I did remove the rest, but it turns out, I need
it from time to time for experimenting with absolute and em
positioning. Since I am the one, which uses this theme the most and
nobody else did complain, it's still in there. But it would be worth a
second look :)

As I created the neui-em theme, I wanted to be able to switch back to
the TiddlySpace default theme. The simpliest way to remove "default"
TiddlySpace stuff is: exclude the "system-theme" space.

> Trying to adapt this free-style dependent theme gave me a real bad
> aftertaste about the whole free-style and emastic concept, which
> seemed a real invention when I first heard of it too. And it might
> really be an aid to someone wanting to create an extraordinary theme
> without having much knowledge about TW specific style definitions. But
> now I can't see any reason beyond for using it.

As you said. Deleting stuff from my themes is much easier, than
creating stuff, starting from vanilla TW, because it is designed to be
that way.

> It's 90% pure bloat and thereby loses any efficiency. ...
It will be interesting, to see your result.

> ... For one like my,

> who never formally learned anything about CSS but still was able to

> learn (by doing) to adapt any TW style (seehttp://change.tiddlyspot.com/)

> this turned out the most difficult to work with because it's departure
> from usual simple TW styles.

I did think for a long time, if I should go my own way. Which also
means, that plugins, that manipulate the layout won't work with my
themes. But for me it turns out to be the right decision :)

> Obviously, for me efficiency and easy
> adaptability has much more value.

Adaptability is important for me too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDieJXnc8ds
I'm pretty sure, that moving the navigation stuff from the right to
the left with the new-eee theme [x] will take more than 7 minutes.
(The video is 10 minutes long because of some intro overhead. Editing
starts at about 3 min ;)

[x] http://new-eee.tiddlyspace.com/

> Since you created the 'free'-style system, Mario, and because I'm less
> able grasp its advantages to the usual ways of TW themes, what are for
> you the reasons for using it at all, beyond ease of creating
> extraordinary themes on the fly?

I do like the TiddlySpace include mechanism a lot. That's why I need
themes that are includeable and usable for my needs.

Eg: simplicity [1] uses my concept and is compatible but different to
it's backend [2], which I named "complexity". Both are derived from
"Nostalgia" theme. So without using the same mechanism for all of them
I'd loose the overview.

[1] http://simplicity.tiddlyspace.com
[2] http://simplicity.tiddlyspace.com/#txtTheme:complexity

Emastic's little brother Malo let's me quickly create a multi colum
[3] view inside a tiddler. (See the dp50 in the view template).
You can click the little blue sqares in the right column.

[3] http://geneology.tiddlyspot.com/#GeneologyViewTemplate%20StyleSheet%20Me%20%5B%5BBig%20Daddy%5D%5D%20MeTwo

And the whole stuff, let's me create TW meshups [4] quite fast and
just for fun. The meshup [4] was inspired by a TW group duscussion
[5].

[4] http://a-project.tiddlyspot.com/#Project
[5] http://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki/browse_thread/thread/d771f5d335540498

For me it's ultra fast prototyping and I don't need to care about the
layout.
It just works.
-m

[wolfgang]

Thanks for your detailed thoughts about.

>, I wanted to be able to switch back to
> the TiddlySpace default theme. The simpliest way to remove "default"
> TiddlySpace stuff is: exclude the "system-theme" space.

> I do like the TiddlySpace include mechanism a lot. That's why I need
> themes that are includeable and usable for my needs.

That's where we differ: I would always want to to be able to revert to
a stand-alone TW template, which also works in resource deprived
situations. As in Internet- shops of 3th world countries with the
download speed of a snail. TiddlySpace, where MBs of stylesheets
included doesn't seem to matter, thereby encourages just the opposite
way. (And the simplest way to revert a theme which also works in
standalone TWs is switching to a systemTheme tiddler with all
dependencies contained).

> ..: simplicity [1] uses my concept and is compatible but different to

> it's backend [2], which I named "complexity". Both are derived from
> "Nostalgia" theme. So without using the same mechanism for all of them
> I'd loose the overview.
>

> Emastic's little brother Malo let's me quickly create a multi colum
> [3] view inside a tiddler. (See the dp50 in the view template).
> You can click the little blue sqares in the right column.
>

> And the whole stuff, let's me create TW meshups [4] quite fast and
> just for fun. The meshup [4] was inspired by a TW group duscussion
> [5].

Understand. But here I didn't saw any theme or style which by
appearance didn't existed already before your invention (without the
downside of so many dependencies). Your fun is my pain now.

> I did think for a long time, if I should go my own way. Which also
> means, that plugins, that manipulate the layout won't work with my
> themes. But for me it turns out to be the right decision :)
>

> Adaptability is important for me too..

> I'm pretty sure, that moving the navigation stuff from the right to
> the left with the new-eee theme [x] will take more than 7 minutes.
>

> > ... what are for you the reasons for using it at all,

> > beyond ease of creating extraordinary themes on the fly?
>

> For me it's ultra fast prototyping and I don't need to care about the
> layout.
> It just works.

Fair enough. But you just confirmed that there isn't any advantage
beyond carefree creation of themes.

Excuse my maybe too critical attitude, whereby I really don't want to
diminish the value of what you created, and which still may lead to
direction where 'free'-style doesn't only mean carefree creation (of
themes which already exist anyway..) - but being 'free' from
dependencies and easily to adapt.

[wolfgang]

> Obviously, for me efficiency ...

For example from more than 6000 bytes of the EmasticSystem style
tiddler only 300 bytes are actually used by Triptych theme, that's a
mere 5%!

> ... which still may lead to

> direction where 'free'-style doesn't only mean carefree creation (of
> themes which already exist anyway..) - but being 'free' from
> dependencies and easily to adapt.

On a second thought, and for the benefit of creating slim downloads
from TiddlySpace, I think for a js developer it wouldn't be that a
marvel to write a script/plugin which searches all definitions needed
from systemTheme, Page-, View- and EditTemplate tiddlers and
automatically deletes definitions not needed on the fly.

[wolfgang]

> 3.) For the later use-case, and for making this 'sidebar 2nd display
> area' feature more practical to readers too, FAQViewerPlugin (by Eric

> too) comes closest. ...Two minor disadvantages for the

> use of this plugin is that it displays 'prev' and 'next' buttons at
> the bottom of the displayed tiddler and - which is much worse - jumps
> there at the bottom if the sidebars size is too small for the whole
> tiddler - which will be most of the time.
>

Could solve this major annoyance of jumping to the 'prev' and 'next'
buttons at the bottom of long tiddlers by changing 'input type' from
'button' to 'hidden' in the plugin code. :-)

> ... However one of these little essential macros has been

> married with an existing, and renamed to TiddlersBarPluginMPKos.

> ..., I would be very glad if someone could help with

> extracting this piece of code, now married and only working with
> TiddlersBarPluginMPKos together, into a small independently working
> plugin:
>
> fitTiddlerDisplay: function() {

Got it as far as quietening the plugin manager's error message by
wrapping it by error and trial like this:

//{{{
config.macros.tiddlerFit = {
refresh: function(place,params){
removeChildren(place);
config.macros.tiddlerFit.fitTiddlerDisplay();
},

fitTiddlerDisplay: function() {
var tDFrac;
if (config.options["txtUserTiddlerWidth"] == undefined
|| config.options["txtUserTiddlerWidth"] > 100
|| config.options["txtUserTiddlerWidth"] < 0)
tDFrac = 0.98;
else tDFrac = config.options["txtUserTiddlerWidth"]/100;

var sideFrac = ( 1 - tDFrac ) / 2;
var wiDiv = document.getElementById("testWidthDiv");
var w_all = wiDiv.offsetWidth;
if (jQuery('#leftBarWrapper').hasClass('fixedSidebarWrapper'))
var w_left = jQuery('#leftBarWrapper').width();
else var w_left = 0;
if (jQuery('#rightBarWrapper').hasClass('fixedSidebarWrapper'))
var w_right = jQuery('#rightBarWrapper').width();
else var w_right = 0;
var w_free = w_all - w_left - w_right;
var leftBorder_dA = w_left + sideFrac*w_free;
jQuery('#displayArea').css('left',leftBorder_dA+'px');
jQuery('#displayArea').width(tDFrac*w_free);
//console.log("fitted");
},
}

//}}}

Though doesn't really works yet, since the tiddlers aren't fitted
correctly upon loading, but too wide and thereby overlapping/disabling
the sidebars supposed to open upon hover. But after a 'close all' they
are fitted correctly and it's working. That's now anyway seems only a
minor bug to me.

However, what seems really needed - also because an image map menu as
in the center of the display would be rather easy accessible in one of
the sidebars (while where it is now it is hidden by tiddlers, and
making it visible as well as turning the tiddlers display on again
each needs an additional click. 2 additional clicks which wouldn't be
needed in the sidebar, while remaining simultaneously in sight!) - is
a way to enable one of the sidebar in their fixed and resizable states
upon loading the TW. Tried to modify the concerned PageTemplate
definition:

<div id='leftBarWrapper' class='fluidSidebarWrapper' style='left: 0px;
top: 1.9em;' data-side='left' data-savedWidth='0px' data-
savedHeight='0px'>
<div id='leftBar' class='sidebar' style='width: 0px; display: none;'>
<div id='TLSbox' macro='sidebarLock' style='width: 1em; margin-left:
0px; margin-right: auto;'>
</div>

for example to this:

<div id='leftBarWrapper' class='fixedSidebarWrapper resizable'
style='left: 0px; top: 1.9em;' data-side='left' width='auto'
height='0px'>
<div id='leftBar' class='sidebar' style='width: auto;'>
<div id='TLSbox' macro='sidebarLock' style='width: 1em; margin-left:
0px; margin-right: auto;'>
</div>

Though that opens the TW with an open left sidebar, it isn't resizable
unless the sidebar lock button twice clicked. Only then the tiddlers
fit well before they extend behind the left sidebar accross the whole
screen width.

Any other ideas?

[wolfgang]

> Though that opens the TW with an open left sidebar, it isn't resizable
> unless the sidebar lock button twice clicked. Only then the tiddlers
> fit well before they extend behind the left sidebar accross the whole
> screen width.
>
> Any other ideas?

Oops. Made it more difficult than it is by placing the sidebar lock
button, replaced with arrows, into the fluid sidebar wrapper before.
So it would be more obvious something is hidden there in the sidebar
for a fist time reader (and in lack of being able to make a sidebar
visible first).

Without and the original template code, though still not resizable
upon first loading, it at least does display the MainMenu upon
loading, and fits the display area width properly too now. Still needs
2 clicks to make it resizable: the first changes the sidebar to fluid,
and with the 2nd finally fixed and resizable. That's already half way
there :-)

Again the now corrected page template piece:

<!-- div id='leftBarWrapper' class='fluidSidebarWrapper'

style='left: 0px; top: 1.9em;' data-side='left' data-savedWidth='0px'

data-savedHeight='0px'>

<div id='leftBar' class='sidebar' style='width: 0px; display: none;'

-->

Changed for example to:

<div id='leftBarWrapper' class='fixedSidebarWrapper
resizable'style='left: 0px; top: 1.9em;' data-side='left'

width='250px' height='500px'>
<div id='leftBar' class='sidebar' style='width: auto; display:
block';'>

Tried to change all the style definition with different alternative
values. But my main failure is my inability to assign the 'resizable'
class.

[wolfgang]

> 5.) Still the best, of course, would be a completely new plugin which
> simply creates two re-sizable display areas, with the feature to drag
> and drop tiddlers between the two...
>

After some more trimming I realized that the resizeable sidebars in
Triptych theme will alway depend on its very unusual templates and
styles, unless the necessary plugins would be completely rewritten.

An other promising option, I thought, would be placing the sidebar in
moveable sliders. However, couldn't get this working because as soon
as the sidebar slider is resized it also changes to an 'undocked'
state, thereby the display area instantly expands behind the slider
(http://www.tiddlytools.com/#MoveablePanelPluginInfo). Too bad,
because with this it could to the furthest extent be divorced from
other dependencies.

> 4.) So ideally, a plugin would be needed which would have the main

> feature .. to display a listbox of all tiddlers with all common sorting/
> narrowing options, additionally being able to view the tiddler

> in the element contained just below, and the option to open the

> tiddler in view or edit mode, and - more for aesthetic reasons -

> preferable in a popup instead of a listbox. And to top it off:

> a goto box next to it.

Found a very simple alternative solution invented by skye to send
tiddlers with any tiddlylink simultaneously to the second display area
in an older thread here:

https://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki/browse_thread/thread/56fc6d24cda7e699/464be9b1198c4b62?hl=de&lnk=gst&q=%22Displaying+selected+tiddler+in+Sidebar%22#464be9b1198c4b62

However, couldn't get that to work in TW v2.6.5 and FF 7.1., which
just crashed. Suspect the reason for this error has to do with, that
neither CookieManagerPlugin (TiddlyTools) nor NukeCookies bookmarklet
recognize any cookies anymore, though they still seem to be there
unrecognized somehow, because specific tabs do open on reload. So I
suspect skye's skript became dysfunctional because it works by
creating a cookie of the opened tiddler, which identifies the same for
preview in the sidebar.

Tested above cookie recognizing add-ons with different TW versions.
Interestingly v2.6.3 still recognizes the first cookie only
(alphabetically), while with v.2.6.1 these cookie tools are still
fully functional.

Anyone else mentioned such cookie identifying difficulties with the
latest TW versions?

[wolfgang]

> An other promising option, I thought, would be placing the sidebar in

> moveable sliders. ...

> because with this it could to the furthest extent be divorced from

> other dependencies...
>

Triptych is just so rigid and too difficult to adjust, unless one is
able to rewrite all required plugins. Beside, it only works with TW
2.6.2 upward.

Its lockable fluid sidebars would be a real invention. Though, for
example, as soon one of the sidebar is scrolled down it becomes more
complicated to hide than with the usual available sidebar toggles.
Found it impossible to place the sidebar lock buttons somewhere else,
as for example into the Topmenu.

However, TextAreaPlugin has been updated to add resize handlers also
to iframes, listboxes and other elements, and not only editor fields
as before.

If a 'vertical' resize handler would be possible with TextAreaPlugin,
that would be an other simple 'single plugin' solution instead of the
many plugins triptych theme needs.