Hi Eric, > Since then, others have written their own alternative theme switchers > mostly, I suspect, because they were not aware of my existing > TiddlyTools plugin (which is, unfortunately, often the case, as I have > written so many plugins)
Um, that's then nature of plugins. Just because someone has written something that does something similar in the past shouldn't preclude others from adding their own spin. In fact it's something to be encouraged as that's how innovation often arises: let a 1000 flowers bloom, etc. Once several people prove a pattern, or a plugin is very successful, then it could become a part of TiddlyWiki itself, though I prefer the core to be as small as possible, with everything as plugins. In my case I always take the time to look at TiddlyTools, and other prior art before embarking on writing a plugin. Usually I end up writing a plugin for several reasons, no of which should be taken as a criticism of TiddlyTools, or seen as my misunderstanding what the TiddlyTools plugin is capable of: 1) TiddlyTools plugins tend to be very comprehensive and highly configurable. I prefer something to use plugins which do one thing. That's a mater of style. 2) I use cook, so prefer to build from plugins in subversion. Not all of TiddlyTools is maintained there. This maybe less of an issue as we move to github or even TiddlySpace for building verticals. 3) I endevour to write test first, so am starting to publish plugins with qunit tests, such as the ThemeSwitcherButton, which come in very handy when combined in my vertical, adding plugins without tests introduces risk in my eyes. Then there is the learning experience: writing plugins is a great way to get into TiddlyWiki, so by all means reuse other people's work, but OTOH: have fun! -- Paul (psd) http://blog.whatfettle.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWikiDev" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywikidev?hl=en.
