[doc] now in wiki format: The BIG picture

[Mat]

So, thanks to the positive response in the other thread, and the invitation from Jeremy to include this on tiddlywiki.com, I made a wiki version of the "Big Picture on TiddlyWiki" document:

http://bigpic.tiddlyspot.com/

It's just a draft and it is unclear how this linear text is best transferred into split up tiddler format. The problem is that later text refers to, and assumes knowledge of, previous text. It is a different type of text than what we currently have on tiddlywiki.com

I also don't how to handle the images. It makes for a poorer experience if they are completely left out, especially the image pointing out the field templates that a tiddler consists of. One idea might be to, via an iframe, show a static tiddler that is styled to display the field templates - possible? 

The content is somewhat edited but if you already read the google doc draft then it's not much new. I did add a section at the very bottom with ideas for further writing that I think fit into the "big picture" category. (@TT and @Mohammad - I do see a need to explain more about how everything is a tiddler and in this context I think there's room to bring up the quine aspects)

Of course, since English is not my mother tongue I'm sure to have made linguistic errors that I'd be happy to have pointed out to me. Not to mention if I've misunderstood something.

...and overall feedback and ideas are welcome.

<:-)

[Thomas Elmiger]

Hi Mat,
great initiative, thank you!

I wish I would have grasped the structure of template lists when I started to tweak my wiki.

One point to improve: there is no subtitle field that could be styled via subtitle template, it displays the content of the modifier and modified (date) fields:

<div class="tc-subtitle">
<$link to={{!!modifier}} />
<$view field="modified" format="date" template={{$:/language/Tiddler/DateFormat}}/>
</div>

All the best,
Thomas

[Mat]

Thanks Thomas! I thought I was clever to use a simple field for the example but... well, I now changed it to the title field (which unfortunately is much more complex if the reader peaks at it)

<:-)

[Mat]

Writing this kind of explanatory prose text also raises needs for tools that we don't quite have on tiddlywiki.com.

Compound tiddler: I imply the most obvious problem in the OP; How do we create a linear document from tiddlers. Currently, on Jeremys recommendation, I'm using one encompassing tiddler (the main Big Pic tiddler) with hard coded transclusions inside.

Doc-ToC: As discussed many times, some kind of ToC for a compound tiddler is of course also needed.

Inline asides: In abandoning "paper" we should obviously take advantage of the TW features. As seen in the tiddler "Custom Fields", I've included two "popup pills" to show some lists. Accessing them helps understanding but they can't reasonably be shown mid-text. In the original text I settled for showing the code how to generate them ("If you type `{{{ [...] }}}` ") but this is also a cop-out. The current "tag pill" method is an OK solution but the styling is probably not suitable. I'd prefer it to not visually break the text, perhaps more looking like a link but it should be clear that clicking it would show a popup so one doesn't leave the current tiddler.

Apropos: Somewhat related to the previous, but in these types of texts there are sometimes "by the way" bits that are not part of the text at all but still relvant to what is discussed and of value for the reader. For example, in the section on Templates and how a tiddler lists these, I wanted to do a side note that "You can easily create your own templates by by tagging a tiddler ... and it will be listed along with the other templates in all the tiddlers" but this is a side step and would be better as a little floating "information frame" styled with a border and different background. 

So, my point is that when authoring documents, there's a need for these kinds of tools but they don't exist on tiddlywiki.com nor in TiddlyWiki.

<:-) 

[Birthe C]

Mat,

No doubt you are right.

But I liked your way of using your sideeditor. The sections and linkedit. Ideally that should be a demo on http://sideeditor.tiddlyspot.com/

Birthe

[tony]

Thank you Mat and Birthe!

Today I was monkeying around trying to relearn TiddlyWiki and kept using Open in new window or scrolling and folding up and down the story river to diff between tiddlers

The bigpic and http://sideeditor.tiddlyspot.com/ arrived just in time.

Great resources for understanding how things work!