TiddlyWiki as note system
I don't remember exactly why I looked at TiddlyWiki again about a week ago. I just noticed that Don Park mentioned it, so I thought I would post before I forgot.
TiddlyWiki is a wiki (sort of) that also happens to be completely self-contained in one HTML file...including being able to edit and save the contents back to disk. It does this through some JavaScript magic, but basically it allows me to have a local copy on my hard drive which I can "run" in my browser. Since it's one file, it could also be copied to a (for example) USB keychain and carried around and run anywhere, on any OS that gives you access to a supported browser, which today means anything that can run Firefox or IE.
Both Kris and I are using it to keep our own personal, private notes -- it's our new default home page.
What I love about this use is the lack of context switching. I've been thinking about this a lot lately in the context of computer interaction and interruptions which flow through that space. Switching apps is disruptive, and the app I spend most of my time in is my web browser. With all my notes being only one tab a way, there is no transition into note taking mode or "to do list" mode.
And yes, of course I've been thinking of crazy ideas. TiddlyWiki is an interesting little secret right now. What if we glued it into Drupal? Create a page, and that page is a TiddlyWiki. Every page is an entire wiki, with TiddlyWiki's unique editing/reading style. I'm not quite sure what it would do, but I'm sure it would be interesting.
Oh, and in the best tradition of Steve Jobs, just one more thing: TiddlyWiki on your iPod...with wiki links to songs, playlists, artists, etc., of course.
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thx
yeah, tiddlywiki is awesome. thanks so much for turning me onto it the boris. i've got several of my peeps using it too. :P
Cool.... Is there an easy way to clear what exists already?
Hey Boris... this is pretty freakin' cool. Do you know of a way to erase what content is already there so that I can start from a near blank version? I could do it in the 'source' itself, but it seems kind of painful.
Delete selectively.
There is lots of stuff you want to keep in there, like docs for how to link and such. I've done some pruning of the content, and it's pretty painless, and helps you figure out the system.
Tip: the right hand sidebar lists all the "tiddlers". MainMenu, SiteTitle , SiteSubtitle, and DefaultTiddlers are pages you're going to want to look at.
Permaview gives you a link to all open tiddlers -- it's like saving state, so you could actually bookmark different sets of open tiddlers, presumably even in different browser tabs.
I don't know why exactly, but this is the first really usable wiki for me. The way you can collapse and expand, perhaps.
Here is the code to add that functionality
I just wrote some code to do that. It deletes all tiddlers except StyleSheet. I was going to post the code here but the comment system doesn't let me. So just download this wiki which includes the code: http://www.blogginghelp.com/tiddlywiki.html
I'm going to give this a try,
I'm going to give this a try, thanks for the tip.
And if you don't know about it yet, check out the Portable Firefox project. Now you can take the browser and your notes with you.
This is awesome for sure.
This is awesome for sure. Sounds experimental, but is not...
There was an article about freaky programming languages in an IT Magazine (one language only consisted of white spaces and similar letters and still could do some logic...) reminds me a bit of that, but appears to be meant for use, not play!
Since I really use drupal for my notebook and it is accessible everywhere I have Internet access, there is no real need for it.
But still... very appealing. And very! fast.
Looking forward to use it on my killer Nokia that has yet to be constructed but will sure be ready by the end of 2008... ;)
By the way: debug this site a bit. Whith every comment I get different fancy errors in pretty red....