New TW user perspective

[TiddlyNoob]

EDIT: To clarify on what I mean by having different contexts inside TW, what I'm imagining is, for example, having a single HTML file that has multiple logical TW's, which the ability to link to tiddlers/tags between the different logical TW's using some sort of namespacing convention like "Name of TW"/TiddlerTitle. It's sort of like having different bounded contexts in DDD software development.

Hey everyone,

I'm a software developer and just started using TiddlyWiki a few days ago, and I would just like to share my perspective on it so far.

TW is fantastic, and I didn't even know something like this existed. I've had this almost subconscious feeling for years now that I needed to have some kind of easy workflow for documentation, not only for work, but for my life in general. I have been looking for a mixture between wiki, blog, and journal solutions using markup syntax like markdown, but completely private, version controlled, and stored in text files.

Even after only a few days I'm fully convinced TW is the answer I've been looking for. Right now I'm running it on nodejs using TW folders, not single file, and using a git repo for syncing/backing up/version control.

With that said, here are some of my concerns or just some of my particular needs/assumptions:

• TW is extremely powerful and flexible, and the software dev side of me wants to over engineer it. However, my main objective is to document my life in a form that is as technology platform independent as possible, as close to just plain text files as possible, so that I don't rely on TW still being around 30 years from now, or rely on remembering how to use/maintain the infrastructure I created. So while macros, variables, plugins, etc. are all very interesting and powerful, I want to limit these as much as possible, and just use the built in markup language (WikiText) and the regular tagging/linking system.
• The tagging system is great, but the fact that titles of tiddlers are unique identifiers is taking a while for me to get used to. I'm anxious every time I create a new tiddler because I feel like I need to put a lot of thought in to the title, knowing that it has to be unique, but also easily referenced via a link or tag. 
• Part of my anxiety from above has to do with trying to fit everything in my life (wiki, journal, to-do lists, etc) in one TW, and thus the titles take on even more importance because as I add things for the next 20 years, it still needs to be organized, and every title needs to be unique. I could use multiple TW's, however then I lose the ability to link between concepts across multiple TW's, and trying to update TW and keeping a consistent set of plugins, macros, etc across multiple TW's would be a nightmare. Not to mention, I would need to spin up multiple TW's at once if I wanted a full picture of my life, which would be disconnected since it's spread across multiple TW's.
• So really my concerns have nothing to do with TW itself, but just how to best organize everything in my life into tags and titles, coming up with naming conventions and structure.

I guess what would be nice is if there was a way to have everything in one TW, but namespaced or some other ability to have multiple contexts, so that you could have simple titles like "TODO List" but it would be context aware such that it could be under a specific project and I wouldn't have to worry about conflicts with other tiddlers named "TODO List". This way, I would still only have to worry about maintaining and updating plugins, macros, etc for one TW, and I could link between contexts using some namespace convention. I realize I could create a namespacing convention of my own, but then I would end up with a lot of added complexity.

Anyway, that's my perspective on TW after a few days. I have a lot to learn, but I'm really excited I found this.

[Mark S.]

The tagging system is great, but the fact that titles of tiddlers are unique identifiers is taking a while for me to get used to. I'm anxious every time I create a new tiddler because I feel like I need to put a lot of thought in to the title, knowing that it has to be unique, but also easily referenced via a link or tag. 

 
Yes. I've mentioned this many times. One of the prime tenets of database theory is that you don't make double-use of a field, especially not a field that needs to be immutable. To do so invites trouble eventually.

The workaround is to give a unique (perhaps datestamped) name to each tiddler with a general idea of what it does, and then use the caption field as the view title. Some of the macros (toc, tabs) in TW already  make use of the caption field instead of the title field, so that gives you a head start.

Mark

[Mat]

Warm welcome TiddlyNoob!

TW is fantastic, and I didn't even know something like this existed.

Please tell your friends! (examples). And, yeah, it IS amazing!!!

• [...]as close to just plain text files as possible, so that I don't rely on TW still being around 30 years from now, or rely on remembering how to use/maintain the infrastructure I created. So while macros, variables, plugins, etc. are all very interesting and powerful, I want to limit these as much as possible, and just use the built in markup language (WikiText) and the regular tagging/linking system.

Interesting point. It makes sense that you're using the nodejs version. You, as a developer, could possibly build a radically simplified alternative engine for the tiddlers that hold your personal content. So that only bare bone text is presented. Very interesting idea.

 

• The tagging system is great, but the fact that titles of tiddlers are unique identifiers is taking a while for me to get used to. I'm anxious every time I create a new tiddler because I feel like I need to put a lot of thought in to the title, knowing that it has to be unique, but also easily referenced via a link or tag. 

Currently, yes. If we get tags and hard links to update on title changes, under some certain forms, then this should be solved IMO.

 

• Part of my anxiety from above has to do with trying to fit everything in my life (wiki, journal, to-do lists, etc) in one TW, and thus the titles take on even more importance because as I add things for the next 20 years, it still needs to be organized, and every title needs to be unique. I could use multiple TW's, however then I lose the ability to link between concepts across multiple TW's, and trying to update TW and keeping a consistent set of plugins, macros, etc across multiple TW's would be a nightmare. Not to mention, I would need to spin up multiple TW's at once if I wanted a full picture of my life, which would be disconnected since it's spread across multiple TW's.

I thought the nodejs version allows a tiddler to be part of any TW? I only use vanilla TW so I don't know, but I thought that was one of the main selling points.

  

I guess what would be nice is if there was a way to have everything in one TW, but namespaced

You may wish to check out this bit by TWizard Tobias Beer. His stuff is truly top notch and he has been an incredible force majeure in the community. (Unfortunately have not seen him lately.) The link is to his main site so much more stuff there than namespace bit.

 

Again, please do tell your friends or colleagues about TW. Everyone is valuable for the TW project.

<:-)

[PMario]

On Thursday, September 21, 2017 at 7:47:37 PM UTC+2, TiddlyNoob wrote:

I'm a software developer and just started using TiddlyWiki a few days ago, and I would just like to share my perspective on it so far.

Welcome to the club!

 

TW is fantastic, and I didn't even know something like this existed. I've had this almost subconscious feeling for years now that I needed to have some kind of easy workflow for documentation, not only for work, but for my life in general. I have been looking for a mixture between wiki, blog, and journal solutions using markup syntax like markdown, but completely private, version controlled, and stored in text files.

OK

 

Even after only a few days I'm fully convinced TW is the answer I've been looking for. Right now I'm running it on nodejs using TW folders, not single file, and using a git repo for syncing/backing up/version control.

cool

With that said, here are some of my concerns or just some of my particular needs/assumptions:

• TW is extremely powerful and flexible, and the software dev side of me wants to over engineer it.

:)

• However, my main objective is to document my life in a form that is as technology platform independent as possible, as close to just plain text files as possible, so that I don't rely on TW still being around 30 years from now, or rely on remembering how to use/maintain the infrastructure I created. So while macros, variables, plugins, etc. are all very interesting and powerful, I want to limit these as much as possible, and just use the built in markup language (WikiText) and the regular tagging/linking system.

If you use plugins wisely, there is no need to avoid them. .. If you import 3rd party stuff, it will be included into your system. So as long as _you_ don't break it, .. it will work as long as browser can handle HTML, CSS and JavaScript. .. Which should be quite some time.

.html is a text based format. So worst case you still can open the file with a text editor and extract your content. .. It's wikitext. So it's human readable. You will always be able to extract your content, with a little bit of manual work ;)

 

• The tagging system is great, but the fact that titles of tiddlers are unique identifiers is taking a while for me to get used to. I'm anxious every time I create a new tiddler because I feel like I need to put a lot of thought in to the title, knowing that it has to be unique, but also easily referenced via a link or tag. 

You'll see, that that's not the worst thing to do. ... Good tiddler titles will always help you in the future. So that's actually a feature ;)

There are 2 things that will help you:

1) the caption field ... It's part of the core. It's used by eg: tabs macro and the TOC (Table of Content). It contains a short version of your tiddler title. So it uses less space in eg: tabs. ... This is just a convention the core UI uses and you can use it for your own stuff too.

2) plugins .... You'll probably not need them. ... It's just here to let you know. I did create a plugin "uni-link" that substitues the following tiddler fields: subtitle, caption and title. From left to right. ... So you will be able to use the "subtitle" field for longer names, the "caption" for short names and if there are no fields, it will automatically use the title. ... It's fully backwards compatible. .. So even if you move your tiddlers to TWs, that don't use the plugin, your wikitext will still work. ... As I wrote. .. Just to let you know!

• Part of my anxiety from above has to do with trying to fit everything in my life (wiki, journal, to-do lists, etc) in one TW, and thus the titles take on even more importance because as I add things for the next 20 years, it still needs to be organized, and every title needs to be unique.

TW supports "namespaces" ... They are just a convention ... We use it for system tiddlers. eg: $:/state/xxxxx  for state tiddlers. or $:/temp/xxxx for temporary tiddlers. ... $:/state/ tiddlers will be saved. $:/temp/ tiddlers won't!  System tiddlers are invisible in most lists ...

You can use this mechanism to your advantage. ... In the future.

 

• I could use multiple TW's, however then I lose the ability to link between concepts across multiple TW's, and trying to update TW and keeping a consistent set of plugins, macros, etc across multiple TW's would be a nightmare. Not to mention, I would need to spin up multiple TW's at once if I wanted a full picture of my life, which would be disconnected since it's spread across multiple TW's.

It's ok to start with one TW. ... Many of us have several "file-based" ones. ... The future will tell you!

 

• So really my concerns have nothing to do with TW itself, but just how to best organize everything in my life into tags and titles, coming up with naming conventions and structure.

I'm pretty sure you'll need to do some refactorings, untill you find your own style. ... We can just tell you what we use and what works for us. .. And you take those things that you like :)

 

I guess what would be nice is if there was a way to have everything in one TW, but namespaced or some other ability to have multiple contexts, so that you could have simple titles like "TODO List" but it would be context aware such that it could be under a specific project and I wouldn't have to worry about conflicts with other tiddlers named "TODO List".

Here tiddler fields are your friends. Eg: every todo tiddler can be tagged: todo but the field: project can be used to sort for project names ... and so on. There are several examples, where you can have a look at eg: TodoNow and see how the stuff works there. (Just search the group for TodoNow)

 

This way, I would still only have to worry about maintaining and updating plugins, macros, etc for one TW, and I could link between contexts using some namespace convention. I realize I could create a namespacing convention of my own, but then I would end up with a lot of added complexity.

Right. You don't need it at the beginning. Without practice you'll probably make the wrong decisioins anyway. ... But you may want to use it in the future. I think you'll see it, when you need it. ... It's just good, that you know!

 

Anyway, that's my perspective on TW after a few days. I have a lot to learn, but I'm really excited I found this.

\o/

have fun!

mario

[Mark Kerrigan]

• However, my main objective is to document my life in a form that is as technology platform independent as possible, as close to just plain text files as possible, so that I don't rely on TW still being around 30 years from now, or rely on remembering how to use/maintain the infrastructure I created. So while macros, variables, plugins, etc. are all very interesting and powerful, I want to limit these as much as possible, and just use the built in markup language (WikiText) and the regular tagging/linking system.

As PMario has already mentioned, a TiddlyWiki is just a HTML file. The main challenge in "future-proofing" TiddlyWiki is how / if you choose to go about embedding external content. 

You also mention concern about figuring out an organization system. The main benefit to TiddlyWiki is you don't need to always know how the information really needs to be organized from the beginning, you can just start writing tiddlers without necessarily linking to them. So eventually you will come up with a system that works for you.