Tags are useful to show relationships (parent-child) between tiddlers, and attributes that could apply to entire groups of tiddlers, but they really shouldn't IMHO be used to hold chunks of information or tiddler- specific information. So you might tag a tiddler with something to indicate that it holds a type of information (e.g. "Biblio") you shouldn't use it to hold that information (e.g. "Mark Twain") And although you can add tags with spaces, it doesn't seem like a natural fit.
Fields are obscure in the current TW set up, so I've tended to avoid them. I'm guessing that the <data> plugin was introduced before sections & slices were added to the TW world. I would fault the lack of TW documentation for not introducing any of these features to the new user. Slices and sections are a convenient, natural way to enter tiddler- specific data. You don't need to modify your tiddler template (though you can) or get extra plugins for manipulating them (though you can). Slices are single lines of information. Sections can be whole paragraphs or documents. They can be accessed using the <<tiddler>> transclusion if you get Eric Shulman's WikifyPlugin. (I've added a patch to the plugin I use to access sections as well) Sections and fields can be hidden by /%...%/ if you don't want information cluttering up the tiddler display. Mark On Mar 2, 8:16 pm, Saverio <saverio.mavig...@gmail.com> wrote: > From reading a number of posts over the last few weeks, I have learned > that there are multiple ways to embed structured information within a > tiddler. These include tags, custom (or extended) fields, data > fields, slices, and form fields. Have I missed any? When is it > better to use one over another? > > For example, I am constructing my own simple TW task manager. I > started with tiddlers that are tasks, tagged with "action". Other > tiddlers are projects, which are sets of related and sometimes ordered > tasks, tagged with "project". A task tiddler can also be tagged with > the name of a project to which it belongs, and/or also with the names > of any other tasks on which it depends. > > The problem is that for a given task, there could be multiple tags, > one of which is the project to which it belongs, and the others are > other tasks on which it depends. To distinguish whether a given tag > of a task tiddler refers to a project or another task requires looking > up that tag's parent tiddler to determine whether it itself is tagged > with either "task" or "project". > > I am wondering whether there is a simpler way, or whether it would > just be more efficient to use custom fields, such as > "belongsToProject", and "dependsOnTasks". Another option is to record > this information in slices. > > This question generalizes to how best to annotate tiddlers with > semantic tags which encode relationships, such as "isParentOf", > "isChildOf", "hasIngredient", "isMemberOf", etc., etc., etc. I like > the simplicity and transparency of using just plain vanilla tags, but > I think they are not powerful enough. > > I am interested in others' opinions and experiences. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWiki" group. To post to this group, send email to tiddlyw...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki?hl=en.
