Today is a big day for TiddlyWiki with the release of v5.4.0. There are some big improvements, and many smaller ones, that significantly enhance the experience of building with it.
You can upgrade your existing single file wikis here:
https://tiddlywiki.com/upgrade.html
For Node.js users, the new version is available on npm at https://www.npmjs.com/package/tiddlywiki
As usual, please exercise caution when upgrading, and take care to keep backup copies of everything important.
Two of the headline features are improvements to the expressiveness and efficiency of wikitext.
The first is extending the familiar `<<..>>` shortcut syntax to support the same dynamic parameter syntax as widgets. The second is expanding variables to enable them to hold a list of values instead of a single value (“multi-valued variables”), avoiding clumsy title lists.
The new background actions feature introduces a completely new capability: triggering actions whenever the value of a filter changes. It is also the foundation for media query tracking, which triggers actions whenever the result of a CSS media query changes.
There are several improvements that will serve as the foundation for other new features in the future. For example, the new wikitext serializer plugin will underpin a new generation of wikitext WYSIWYG editors.
Many of the new features and improvements have been in development for years. This is because of their impact on backwards compatibility. We have been queuing these changes up, and now we think that there are enough of them to warrant this release.
I know you will join me in offering our congratulations and sincere thanks to the developers who have contributed to this release. We are very lucky to have so much talent and experience.
I would also like to thank the many people who helped test the new release, and offered their encouragement and feedback.
It has been a long journey, but now we can enjoy the fruits of everyone’s labours by actually using these new features. Please give it a try, and we would welcome your thoughts and feedback.
Best wishes
Jeremy
It’s been a long road to 5.4.0. It feels good to see it out in the wild. Huge thanks to everyone who tested and gave feedback.