Dreaming of "TidEdit", an in-browser TiddlyWiki WikiText editor

[Charlie Veniot]

Something like StackEdit, but to create and edit TID files using TiddlyWiki WikiText.

Essentially just a web page (a seriously stripped-down TiddlyWiki?) that looks like a single tiddler in edit mode.  With nothing else except:

• a save button to download the content as a TID file
• an open button, to find and open an existing TID file
  
• a new button to start editing a new TID
• minus some of the edit buttons that normally exist in a TiddlyWiki
  • excise button
  • wikitext link button
  • wrap in square brackets button
  • wrap in curly brackets button
  • insert picture button
  • insert pre-configured snippet of text button
  • choose the height of the text editor button
• minus the "tiddler type" and "add a new field" bits

Why?  I like the concept of simple markdown editors for quick note-taking.  

I could use a simple text editor to create and save TID files, but having something like StackEdit as a single HTML file meant for editing TID's, with the preview pane right there like these markdown editors ... that would be pretty frigging cool.

Of course, I do not have the coding chops to build something like this.  I imagine for somebody who knows what he/she is doing, it would be a matter of grabbing the useful pre-existing bits right out of TiddlyWiki.

I'm hoping somebody might find this dream of mine interesting enough, the kind of editor useful enough, to slap it together?

A simple "TidEdit" editor for quick note-taking.  Running in the browser on any device.  That would be pretty cool.

[Saq Imtiaz]

I suspect you would find this prototype by JD of interest:

http://j.d.fullscreen.tiddlyspot.com/

Click the "fullscreen" button in the tiddler toolbar, and then turn on the preview in the editor.

TiddlyWiki has a mechanism to allow you to switch between page layouts. So one could imagine an alternative page layout which only shows a single tiddler using such a fullscreen presentation in edit mode. In other words, I don't think you need to grab existing bits out of TiddlyWiki, an alternative layout would do the trick. Defining an alternative page layout is all about wikitext, HTML and some CSS.

Based on what I have seen of your tiddly tweaking, I am pretty sure this would be well within your means if you decided to give it a go.

Regards,

Saq

[CJ Veniot]

Well, something like that, but not the TiddlyWiki full monty.

i.e. just what is needed to create/edit/save WikiText (à la TiddlyWiki) to a TID file.  Nothing else.

No refresh mechanism going on, no loading up a whole TiddlyWiki (with all the tiddlers and plugins), blazingly fast open of a small HTML file to quickly enter some info/knowledge/content on the fly with whatever device, with ability to save that tiddler, parking its the TID file somewhere for later processing in the full TiddlyWiki.

Sure I can tweak a TiddlyWiki by adding custom Tiddlers, but I'm talking about a major strip down to have a simple editor for simple note-taking.

I could use a simple text file editor, but it is some nice to have a TidEditor with that preview pane of the WikiText being put in there.

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[PMario]

On Saturday, August 7, 2021 at 4:19:52 PM UTC+2 cj.v...@gmail.com wrote:

i.e. just what is needed to create/edit/save WikiText (à la TiddlyWiki) to a TID file.  Nothing else.

TLDR;

You are right, we may be able to strip about half of the UI size, but this would mean we will go backwards. ...

--------------

As you probably know, browsers will only let you save to the Downloads directory and subdirectories with default browser plugins.

With Timimi you can choose the directory, but you will need 2 components. A browser AddOn and an executable.

There is a new file-API for chromium based browsers, but they will also need a server somewhere in the background to use the functionality in a "secure" way. ...

 

No refresh mechanism going on, no loading up a whole TiddlyWiki (with all the tiddlers and plugins), blazingly fast open of a small HTML file to quickly enter some info/knowledge/content on the fly with whatever device, with ability to save that tiddler, parking its the TID file somewhere for later processing in the full TiddlyWiki.

In your first post you mentioned, that you don't need all toolbar buttons but some of them. ... So if you only want 1 of them, the software needed is the same as showing all of them. ... The mechanism to show 1 button is the same as to show many of them. It's only a different filter and a list.

The same is true for the TW UI. It will be possible to create new ...Templates, that are different to the existing ones, but the functionality to handle Page-, Edit- and View templates is the same as with a default TW. So I'm sure you don't safe anything in the core.

 

Sure I can tweak a TiddlyWiki by adding custom Tiddlers, but I'm talking about a major strip down to have a simple editor for simple note-taking.

As I wrote. There will be no major strip down in wiki size. The startup may be faster, because less DOM elements are created. ... Especially no sidebar.

At the moment there are 8 tiddlers tagged: $:/tags/PageTemplate ... 11 tiddlers tagged: $:/tags/ViewTemplate ... 9 tiddlers tagged: $:/tags/EditTemplate ... 7 tiddlers tagged: $:/tags/SideBar ... and about 33 toolbar buttons.

So you may safe some of them but that's basically it. TW consists of about 2100 shadow tiddlers in empty.html.  Nobody knows, how they are exactly interconnected. It would be possible to find it out, but that would be a lot of work I wouldn't want to do.

TiddlyWiki 5.1.0 had 991 shadow tiddlers and about 1.1MByte in size. About 460 shadows are $:/language tiddlers ...

In 6 years users requested new UI functionality, which resulted in about 1000 shadow tiddlers more and about 1MByte more size of the file. The system did grow organically, with a lot of interconnections here and there.

You are right, we may be able to strip about half of the UI size, but IMO this would mean we will go backwards. ...

just some thoughts

mario

[CJ Veniot]

Define backward.

To me, it is like the difference between a small text editor and a word processor.  Using a text editor for certain things, instead of a full Word Processor isn't going backwards.  It is just using the simplest tool that makes sense for an immediate need.

Same thing for "TidEdit".  It is just about reaching for the simplest and quickest tool for an immediate need (just jot down a note) , yet having that WikiText available (and preview) for quick visual organization of that one note, however short/long, for later serious processing.

In a way, it boils down to that difference (in my mind, anyway) between note-taking and note-making.

I imagine TidEdit as something complimentary to TiddlyWiki, a really nice addition to a TiddlyWiki ecosystem of tools/components/workflow-enablers.

A simple HTML page with a text area on the left, preview pane on the right, and buttons for WikiText markup, and buttons for "new", "open", and "save", always working with TID files for each drag and drop into a TiddlyWiki.

Why would any "save" plugins be required?  "Save" would be like "download", and open would be like "upload".  Aren't those just basic javascript functions?

I suppose it isn't really about stripping down TiddlyWiki.  It is about creating a single HTML file that provides something that is StackEdit-ish (no "notebook" and no multiple notes handling), with buttons that work like the tiddler edit buttons for WikiText formatting, and those "new" (clear text area and preview), "open" (pick a file and put the content of that file in the text area), "save" (i.e. just download a file that has the content from the textarea) buttons.

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[Charlie Veniot]

In regards to open and save (just for reference:  https://www.outpan.com/app/e7d5b37405/mytextarea) ...

I'm thinking an open button like the one in that editor, and an export/save button that works exactly like the tiddler export button in TiddlyWiki, with just the TID option or with more/all options.

So no save mechanisms.  Just enter WikiText-à-la-TiddlyWiki, preview, and click export as TID.

Whenever I just want to take down a quick note, TiddlyWiki is rarely my first choice.  Using my Chromebook, I typically go to Gmail or Google Keep, or even Google Calendar, first.

Having a small HTML page, i.e. TidEdit app, available to me, I could see myself going there first when I want to take down a note that is slightly more substantial organization-wise, but not so substantial that I want to open a TiddlyWiki (which I keep on Google Drive, using the TiddlyDrive add-on app.)  So a bit like a simple text editor, but a little bit StackEdit-like, with a way to get the content into a TID.

With something like that, I might actually use my small+old smartphone for more than just phone and text-messaging...

[Charlie Veniot]

I just found a better reference (i.e. in-browser simple text editor):  https://browserpad.org/

That one knows filename when opening a file, and remembers that filename on "save" ("save/export", in my mind.)

If that thing had TW formatting buttons and a preview pane, it would be exactly what I'm looking for. (Well, I wouldn't want the spell-checking check box, nor that github button in the bottom-right.) 

[maki aea]

hi i'm guessing you're on android? i'm on an old iphone and i basically have tiddlywiki open all day using quine2. been using saq's streams lately with a tweaked shortcut to save tiddler+stream, shift+z. works really well for quick notetaking on ios. have customised the layout quite a bit ( http://makiaea.org ) for mobile but the heavy lifting is from streams and shift+z. hope you can find something that works for you

[CJ Veniot]

Nah, Chromebook.  Half-a-dozen TiddlyWikis.  All on Google Drive and accessed with TiddlyDrive.  I don't really want to have all of them open all day for whenever I might have a thought.

I much prefer throw notes in quickly loaded small/distraction-free apps, so it is just a quick trip to the computer while I put chores/whatever on hold for just a second.  Later when I can sit down, I can do the TiddlyWiki work.

Skrifa seems like the right tool for the job for quick-note taking, when I want a little formatting to quickly organize more complicated notes.  Otherwise Google Keep or Gmail or Google Calendar for short/simple text notes.

The Skrifa notes, the HTML for them can be copied into TiddlyWiki as-is.  Not as convenient as having a "TidEdit" app, but it is quick and TW handles the HTML natively (i.e. don't need a plugin like I would if I was pasting markdown text into my tiddlers.)

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[Joshua Fontany]

If you want to skip loading a TW into memory, and just work on TID files, I would actually suggest VSCode and my TW5 Syntax plugin:

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=joshua-fontany.tw5-syntax

This has hot-key shortcuts that allow you to create the block of metadata (created/creator, etc), or update a modified timestamp with a hotkey.

The workflow is literally: New file -> .tid, hotkey for meta-data -> tab between titlke, creator, etc, tab to go to Text field.

Best,
Joshua Fontany

[Charlie Veniot]

Although that does look pretty sweet ...

I have a Chromebook, which I rather like because of the lightness / minimalism of living in a web browser.

Although I could install the Linux version of VSCode, it would be quicker for me to load a TiddlyWiki from Google Drive whenever I want to just write down a quick note.  I only bring up the Linux container when I really must do something with a heavy app, i.e. something I just can't do with online apps or apps in the Chrome web store.

Nah, seems like Skrifa is my best bet when I want to write a quick note that needs a little text formatting to organize whatever related thoughts about something.

Although I figure Google Keep/Mail/Calendar will be my go to places for quick plain text notes, I can see me using the Text editor too.

[Charlie Veniot]

I put together, for the giggles, a quick and dirty picture of what I'm thinking.

A nice little HTML file that, when opened in the browser, shows a tiddler editor.

So just a small text editor that allows entering TW wikitext markup, with a preview window.  Well, a preview window that only renders wikitext (so not the other goodies normally done by TiddlyWiki, like procesing transclusions, widgets, macros, etc.)