All, Thanks for your responses. I love to hear passionate technical arguments. Let me try and address them.
Don't read unless you are interested in algorithms, solutions and the discussion of technical merits there of. Towards the end I will explain my key use case - In someways simple serial numbers is similar to using created date (and forcing the milliseconds to be unique), I did that, I build a method to make unique (to this wiki ID's based on created date) but they were "big numbers", kind of blur when you look at them, and they are not uniquely guaranteed unique across wikis - but we will return to that. - Trash bin works fine. We tend to add members in human interaction time, so created is ok. - This is not simply a matter of solving problems with links, or renaming tiddlers, it is providing a simple mechanism for people to build data structures where this is possible. I believe it will be a path for designers and users to use as needed. - The size overhead is limited, when what tiddlers have serial numbers that can be optional and they start at 1, but we do not need to do this to all tiddlers just those we want to do this for. - Perhaps if could be used for performance, but this is in my mind for cognitive grasp of managing special cases where you want or expect a tiddler may be renamed, or as you will see compound tiddlers. - The idea of a serial number is easy to grasp and code extensions for, even to type manually. - I have a particular and powerful case where this proposal is more than sufficient. - A transclude would be <<tsn NNN transclude>> , easy to read and even type, a link <<tsn NNN>> you could even remember a number for long enough to type them. - How many tiddlers fit into this requirement in yourwiki? 1000 is a readable number. - Mario, you never know what is written within that you do not read. I have being there with you with most of the conversations on this subject. I have never being content with the answers, although I love the plugins and tools that have being generated as a result eg uni-link and more. I think there is room for another solution. - Like Mario I avoid the need to rename tiddlers very easily, and would not even concern myself with this except for one powerful use case - Tiddlers have titles that are designed to change, I propose a serial number that does not. That is not replacing title with serial number. - I have no desire to make tiddlers unique in the tiddly universe. Perhaps I need to filter out / reset the tsn field in imports so they do not interfere. - Actually I think serial numbers like 1, 2 and 3 are cool, and simple. So what is my use case? - I am building a tabs tool that helps you make compound tiddlers. - Compound tiddlers can contain a number of subtiddlers who's content is always accessible from the main tiddler - The "subTiddlers" can be defined by tags, list fields, delimiters "/" and any other useful method. - Some subtiddlers can actually be shared with other tiddlers and others unique to its "parent". - Almost all tiddlers will never need to be renamed, but if they do I want the rich set of subtiddlers to move with it. - Subtiddlers will often have the same name as a subtiddler in another tiddler eg "Overview" "Notes", a serial number lets me make them unique as needed. - With this compound tiddler method available the pressure goes off needing to come up with unique names because the subtiddlers are made unique by the serial number. - If I want to move compound tiddlers across wikis I have to make a mechanism anyway and I can just acquire a new serial number in the destination. I have written a sophisticated "Root cause analysis methodology" for information technology support, based on past experience it provides suggestions and useful links even guidelines . Tiddlywiki would is an ideal tool, except for this complexity of the rename. My proposed solution is ideal for this use case. I would only bother setting a Tiddler Serial Number for such master tiddlers (as soon as I create a subtiddler of any type), it can contain a reference to the serial number of the parent and never be lost. In my current use case I do not even need to use the macros I suggested, I just thought they would allow the entry of cross referencing as needed between master tiddlers and the subtiddlers. Regards Tony On Friday, August 30, 2019 at 5:38:00 PM UTC+10, TonyM wrote: > > Folks, > > I am working on a Tiddler Serial number (TSN) tool and would like some > community input. Like always I try and design to avoid impacting on any > other related solutions and with a view to sharing. > > Features > > - When you save a tiddler it will obtain the next available serial > number and assign it to the tiddlers tsn field. > - Tiddlers you do not create (or some other process creates eg import) > will provide you a button to add a serial number if desired, also for > existing system tiddlers > - Any tiddler with a serial number will display it like the subtitle, > in the right hand side under the tiddler buttons. > - An optionally displayed, copy to clipboard button next to the TSN > will allow you to copy a macro command to include > - A link to the tiddler eg `<<tsn n [link]>>` > - Plane text version of the current tiddler title `<<tsn n text>>` > - Transclude the content of the tiddler `<<tsn n transclude>>` > - Or the above for a named field in the tiddler with that serial > number. > - Or just copy the serial number > - When the title changes for any reason the serial number in the above > macros in your tiddlers will be used to lookup the correct tiddler > title/content > - You can use a full macrocall to the tiddlers with given serial > numbers for programmatic listing and actions to support the serial numbers. > - A new version of qualify will allow you to name state tiddlers based > on the serial number so these state tiddlers will follow the tiddler > whatever its name. > > Futures; > > I am thinking of taking this further to detect the occasions on which a > tiddler name changes as a result of edit and rename. Then provide a method > for you to trigger a rename process to update other content based on the > old and new name such as your own list fields, further supporting the > ability to rename tiddlers and list those containing the tiddler name or > serial number references like `<<tsn n`. > > - Keep a log of all names a given tiddler serial number has over its > lifetime > - Ability to restore the previous name > > I also would like to generalise this so you can store serial number > related tiddlers under another namespace eg; $:/mydata/n such that they > will follow the current tiddler no matter its title. > > Regards > Tony > -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tiddlywiki/769442b6-e332-4693-b73b-da540f9e1212%40googlegroups.com.
