RFC: Building a macro solution for top-to-botton

[TW Tones]

Folks,

I just wanted to share that as I happen to be under a "stay at home" order in Sydney because of a covid-19 D strain outbreak, I have being focusing on some tiddlywiki tools development. I have one large project, but while working on that it spawns a lot of little tools, born from the innovation and my experience using tiddlywiki a lot, that tiddlywiki always inspires in me.

I thought I would issue an RFC or "request for comment" on my little project called "top to bottom"

I am designing a set of tools so you can easily navigate from the top to bottom, also bottom to top, of the story with a single click, also to the top of the side bar if you have a long one. It also uses a little trick to ensure the last tiddler (especially if little) appears at the top of the page if you navigate to it (rather than appearing at the bottom with previous tiddler above it.

These seem trivial but they can improve your work flow and navigation speed if you have a number of tiddlers open.

However this is where the request for comment comes in, can you suggest any related features I could include so the macros are even more useful and fit into the title top-to-bottom.

Please let me know if you have a desire for other related features

Finally shall I include the ability to navigate to the last opened or edited tiddler no matter where is is in the story.

Post script, I would love some help generating a library in which to publish my tools, I have perhaps hundreds, I have not yet published.

Regards

Tones/Tony

[springer]

Tones,

For "top to bottom": The most useful navigational add-ins, for my use-cases, are keyboard-driven. When desired tiddlers are scrolled out of view *and* this feels like an especially distracting obstacle (say, because I'm teaching, and wish to resume the prior discussion after jumping to a tangent), having to coordinate with the cursor is half the battle. 

For various reasons, the "classic" story view (rather than pop or zoomin) is what I usually choose... but I wonder whether it would be possible to get the best of both worlds: allow multiple tiddlers in the story view, but "go back" to most recently active place in the story-river (other open tiddler in which most recent click happened if possible, or most recently opened from sidebar if not) when I close something? That's probably beyond what you're developing, but just one related hankering.

-Springer

[Eric Shulman]

On Monday, July 19, 2021 at 1:03:12 PM UTC-7 springer wrote:

I wonder whether it would be possible to get the best of both worlds: allow multiple tiddlers in the story view, but "go back" to most recently active place in the story-river (other open tiddler in which most recent click happened if possible, or most recently opened from sidebar if not) 

Give this a try:

http://tiddlytools.com/InsideTW/#TiddlyTools%2FHistory

which adds a "History" command button to the tiddler toolbar.

To install, just grab the tiddler's title, then drag-and drop it into your document.  Although the interaction doesn't exactly match your wish list (it uses a popup dialog and has no keyboard control... yet), it *does* make it much easier to jump around in the Story view without having to manually scroll back to where you were.  There's also these two extra toolbar buttons that bypass the the popup dialog and simply navigate to the corresponding tiddler with just one click.

http://tiddlytools.com/InsideTW/#TiddlyTools%2FHistory%2FPrevious

http://tiddlytools.com/InsideTW/#TiddlyTools%2FHistory%2FNext

enjoy,

-e

[TW Tones]

Springer,

Thanks for that insight. I built a separate tool called focus tiddler ie the tiddler with user focus, it included something like Erics History tab, but also as I mentioned in the original post allow us "navigate to the last opened or edited tiddler". In my (as yet unpublished) focus tiddler solution (not that I was proposing here) I had a viewToolbar button (could be in edit as well) to override the last opened or edited tiddler, that is make any tiddler in the story the focused tiddler. Your feed back makes me ask if perhaps allow selecting secondary tiddler as say the "focused work tiddler" and that what ever the navigation activity "the last opened or edited tiddler", that it would be easy to return to the "focused work tiddler". ie the one where one is taking notes or reading to manage your work flow (eg syllabus or class notes).

I too use the classic story view as a rule, finding the others frustrating, as a result I know little about their use. 

My learnings from your reply include

• Your desire to go back - I will look at incorporating that.
  • the history tab helps here.
  • I wonder the best way to select the tiddler to go back to (not just the last)
• Getting keyboard shortcuts for any navigational component )inc top and bottom story and sidebar)
  • I would like to add a keyboard short cut to wikitext buttons I define - not sure how yet.
• Would it be important to reopen a  "focused work tiddler" if closed?
  • Then you could close all, display something then return.
• Perhaps use a modifier to a shortcut to open/reopen a  "focused work tiddler" for edit, 

In closing, my focused tiddler method will go some way to meeting your requirement, using the history tab will help even further, but you need that tab displayed on the sidebar. The history tab is refreshed each Wiki session (reload), this is something to do before a "class or presentation" because you can easily return to a tiddler you opened during the session, the list is limited to those you have opened or edited which is helpful.

Regards

Tones

[TW Tones]

Eric,

Thanks for sharing that solution. 

Given the objective of this thread, are you suggesting the top-to-bottom" tools should include a history tab or navigation?

Regards

Tones

[springer]

Eric,

Wow, having the history in the toolbar (without needing sidebar open) is likely to do most of what I need, though it's still mouse-driven. I could even imagine making a variant that *closes* the current tiddler while returning to some prior tiddler. So I'm likely to include it in presentation-oriented solutions, where it's important to minimize those fumbling moments, however brief, of scrolling and muttering "So... as we were saying just a moment ago ..." To some extent, the "jump" menu (stashed up near sidebar-collapse button) was filling this gap for me, though it only includes open tiddlers, and sometimes I waver over whether or not I had actually closed some tidbit that we suddenly need to re-visit. 

-Springer

[springer]

Tones,

I look forward to checking out the focus tiddler tool. Does it already exist in some public form? (If so, sorry I missed it.)

I agree that there are lots of different workflows that might call for variations / different priorities.

-Springer