[tw5] ANN: ftlist plugin - capture and organize quick notes

[Brian Theado]

The `ftlist` plugin provides a way to quickly create `f`ragments of
`t`ext and manage them as items in a `list`. The emphasis is on
providing a low-friction way to capture thoughts and ideas.

The list items are stored as tiddler titles and can be used just like
any other TiddlyWiki tiddlers.

In addition to some minimal list operations, ftlist provides a
`tagbar` for easily applying tags to the list items via drag and drop.
New tags can be added to the `tagbar` via drag and drop and then list
items (any tiddly links) can be dropped onto these tags in order to
apply them.

If you want a way to quickly create new tiddlers and optionally
organize them later, then you might find this plugin useful.

https://btheado.github.io/tw-ftlist/ - demo
https://github.com/btheado/tw-ftlist - source code

Brian

[@TiddlyTweeter]

Dear Bilbo Theado

That looks very interesting TW leverage for gaming! :-)

Best wishes

Josiah

[TonyM]

Brian,

Thanks very much for sharing this with the community. I can see you have put effort into the documentation and explaining it.

It has taken me a little effort to grasp the value of this and I think it is great. Perhaps you could describe one or more ways we would use it in your documentation, not the mechanical steps but the general approach.

I see great value in using it to rapidly create items, it would interest me if I could provide a template tiddler from which to create the new tiddlers in addition to the tagging ftlist does for us.

Great work

Tony

[Brian Theado]

Tony,

On Tue, Nov 20, 2018 at 5:03 PM TonyM <anthony...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I can see you have put effort into the documentation and explaining it.

Thanks. I did and was still worried it wasn't clear enough.

> It has taken me a little effort to grasp the value of this and I think it is great.

I'm glad you were able to figure it out. I'll probably continue
working on it in the coming weeks. Hopefully I can find ways to reduce
the effort on the part of the reader. Thanks for making the effort

> Perhaps you could describe one or more ways we would use it in your documentation, not the mechanical steps but the general approach.

I'll keep that in mind as I work on it.

> I see great value in using it to rapidly create items, it would interest me if I could provide a template tiddler from which to create the new tiddlers in addition to the tagging ftlist does for us.

Do you mean the user provides a tiddler name and each time a new list
item is created, instead of only setting the title and adding the tag,
it would also copy all the fields from that template tiddler? IOW: 1)
"clone" the template tidder; 2) Apply the tag; and 3) set the title to
what the user entered in the edit box. That's an interesting idea.

Thanks for the feedback.

Brian

[Brian Theado]

Josiah,

On Tue, Nov 20, 2018 at 1:21 PM @TiddlyTweeter <Tiddly...@assays.tv> wrote:
> Dear Bilbo Theado
> That looks very interesting TW leverage for gaming! :-)

Ha! I'm pretty sure you are kidding :-). No gaming here. I use it as a
todo list and was having trouble of thinking of examples. I recall
seeing todo examples in TiddlyMap which looked like they were from
Lord of the Rings and I thought I'd go that route also :-).

[SteveH]

Dear Brian,

Thanks for the plugin; - giving it a test run.  Is there a way to rearrange the list of tiddlers (apart from sending one to the top)?

Regards

Steve H

[@TiddlyTweeter]

Ciao Brian

Yeah, I was pulling your leg :-) I actually find the approach very interesting. I think it could be applied beyond "todo" lists. And the "Bilbo" examples work well & are fun.

Best wishes

Josiah

[Brian Theado]

Steve,

On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 12:08 AM SteveH <hste...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the plugin; - giving it a test run. Is there a way to rearrange the list of tiddlers (apart from sending one to the top)?

Originally, I used the list-tagged-draggable core macro to make the
list drag and drop. However, after I added the tagbar functionality, I
found it distracting to see the DnD visual feedback (the dashed green
box appearing and disappearing) when I drag the tiddler link up to the
tagbar. For my uses I don't need an exact order and I find it is
enough to be able to bump an item to the top when is sinking too low
in the list due to too many new items. So I removed it.

The items in the list are determined by a particular tag (i.e.
whichever tiddler you transcluded the ftlist tiddler into is the tag).
So you can create a tag pill somewhere for that tag. When you click on
the tag pill, all the tiddlers are listed. Drag and drop is supported
in that list, so you could re-order them there.

FWIW, here is the code change where I removed the drag and drop:
https://github.com/btheado/tw-ftlist/commit/a5268e10312d754b7a904352128d19cf91207191#diff-de478613f63e0b90dd45737237459006

Brian

[Brian Theado]

I have updated the plugin. Now instead of opening sublists in a new,
temporarily tiddler, the sublist is expanded inline. This gives more
of a "nested list" feel to it.

I also refactored the templates. Now the list can be used without the
tagbar and vice versa. Details at the following links:

[SteveH]

Hi Brian,

This will sound a little couter-intuitive ,but would you consider an option to send new items to the bottom of the list as they're added?   This approach is in line with Mark Forster's approach.

ie " The system consists of one long list of everything that you have to do, written in a ruled notebook (25-35 lines to a page ideal). As you think of new items, add them to the end of the list. You work through the list one page at a time in the following manner:

1. Read quickly through all the items on the page without taking action on any of them.
2. Go through the page more slowly looking at the items in order until one stands out for you.
3. Work on that item for as long as you feel like doing so
4. Cross the item off the list, and re-enter it at the end of the list if you haven’t finished it
5. Continue going round the same page in the same way. Don’t move onto the next page until you complete a pass of the page without any item standing out"

http://markforster.squarespace.com/autofocus-system/

Regards

Steve

[Brian Theado]

Steve,

On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 6:28 PM SteveH <hste...@gmail.com> wrote:
> This will sound a little couter-intuitive ,but would you consider an option to send new items to the bottom of the list as they're added? This approach is in line with Mark Forster's approach.

The code already adds items to the end of the list (in order to stay
consistent with how TW tagging works. However, I display them in
reverse order so the new items come at the top as per my preference.
I refactored some of the code and then wrote a smallish version which
does not reverse the list. See the demo at
https://btheado.github.io/tw-ftlist/#reverse%20ftlist%20demo. To use
it in your own wiki, drag both the plugin and the
https://btheado.github.io/tw-ftlist/#reverse%20ftlist tiddler over.

This isn't as good as a configurable option, but at least it will let
you play with it. I'm not sure that will be enough to use it for
autofocus since grouping by pages is an important feature you would be
missing. Marking ftlist items done removes the tag, so I'm not sure
how you would track the item count for each page.

[...]
> http://markforster.squarespace.com/autofocus-system/

Mark Forster's website is a goldmine of algorithms for processing todo
lists. I'm quite familiar with it. I have made use of many of them in
various outliner and other note-taking software (including TW for
several of them) over the years.

Brian

[David Gifford]

Very interesting plugin, Brian!

I added this to the TiddlyWiki toolmap, under the tagging section, the task management to do list section, and the writing and editing tiddler creation section.

https://dynalist.io/d/zUP-nIWu2FFoXH-oM7L7d9DM

Blessings

Dave

[SteveH]

Dear Brian,

Thanks Heaps!

I think this will be really handy for me, and I really appreciate your time.

Kind regards

Steve H