On Tuesday, September 11, 2018 at 5:32:32 PM UTC-7, h0p3 wrote: > > @Mark S. > > Tags provide the equivalent of folders, and allow semantic context to be >> affixed to tiddlers without despoiling the title. While it's true that much >> of what you do with Tags could possibly be done with fields, tags have been >> bestowed with special visibility and powers right out of the box. They're >> automatically part of searches. If you change a title that is used as a tag >> TW will offer to change it in tag and list fields. If you click on a tag, >> it will show you all tiddlers tagged with that tag, and allow you to change >> the list order. >> > I've yet to find a good way to use the Update "in the tags and list fields > of other tiddlers" mechanic so far. When I modify a tiddler title, I may > need to modify all the links to it as well, which is usually trivial. Are > tags meant to bypass that kind of problem? > > I might be weird, but I've enjoyed using titles packed with a lot of > metadata (that may just be in virtue of failing to use tags appropriately). > Do you think I need to start offloading some of my title work into tags? > Should I duplicate some of it tags instead (I'm not sure how that helps me)? > > The first rule of data normalization is to atomize all data. That is, each field should contain only one type of data. TW out of the box violates this principle with the title already serving 4 different functions.
Why does this matter? Maybe it doesn't. But if you have aspirations of creating detailed reports or lists, then it will matter. The first thing you will want to do is to prise the information out of that single title field. This is difficult and messy under the best circumstances. But TW doesn't have the tools for breaking apart text strings, so it's even harder. So, if all you're doing is Ad Hoc searches, then your way is fine. But if you ever want more, it will be easier and less error-prone to structure your data. You can do this fields, but it's quicker out of the box to just use tags until you nail down exactly what data is important for what purposes. Good luck! -- Mark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWiki" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tiddlywiki/3c780fdb-f47d-4bf4-8c35-0fa120205579%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
