Featureset (4) (Request) to Fix the Broken Editor Mode

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#1

All 4 of these are kind of the same feature in a way: Save a tiddler while editing, without jarring interruptions. When they are apart, the issue is not resolved.

Honestly, I believe this is the single biggest issue with TiddlyWiki usability right now.

As I describe at the end of this post, the scrolling issue is the key deeper problem. The rest of these features can be done with relative ease. But the scrolling issue holds all these things back.

Larger Feature Set

  1. Save While Editing

When a tiddler is in edit mode, press a save button. The editor stays open, and the scroll position is not lost (or it is recorded, and returned to when quick-saving the tiddler)

  1. Maintain/Restore Scroll Position After Saving

Approach 1: suspend all scrolling until after the tiddler re-opens
Approach 2: save the editor cursor position to restore the scroll position
Approach 3: save the original tiddler without effecting the “Draft of” Tiddler

  1. Sticky Editor Toolbar Option

Examples of this feature look and work seemlessly with the right styling

(Also: this includes the edit mode save/close buttons)

  1. 2 Toolbar Buttons: Take and Restore a Tiddler Snapshot

Even a single snapshot (per tiddler) would make the more frequent saving, safer.

A snapshot (clone) gets saved to a system path that can be cleaned out.

Keeping it at 1 snapshot reduces bloat, but is still effective at facilitating more frequent regular tiddler saves.

Because there is no dropdown, it’s just one click to take a snapshot, and 1 click to restore it. Taking another snapshot replaces the last one.

There would need to be a method for deleting snapshots from the same system location en-masse in the Control Panel.

Scroll-Freeze Justification

The scrolling issue all by itself is the big one. It’s a JS issue. Perhaps it could be a module. But it seems a good candidate for a primary functionality. (I’m getting better at TiddlyWiki, but I am a long way from being a JS dev.)

After fixing the scrolling, something like the EditButtons plugin makes a lot more sense, as do these other features.

Scroll-Freeze Feasibility

I would assume the scrolling is a theme-specific issue (because some themes have multiple rivers etc.), but that it would require making the river’s JS/CSS cursor position available to the theme more generically.

Freezing all scrolling is an acceptable “loss” until TW is done saving and/or re-opening the tiddler if that be the case. This only occurs when that type of save button is pressed - the one that keeps you in the editor.

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#2

Feel free to also use any part of this EditTemplate controls thingy I created a few years ago. It gives you the freedom to hide/reveal pretty much any part of the edit template, hide/reveal the sidebar, and adjust the height of the text field. You can adapt it all you want and rename it.

Also, I don’t see a link to your set of 4 features.

#3

This post is a feature request.

I am very excited about your thing. It makes so much sense. I already want to see what I can do with it.

I only just made my first template yesterday.

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#4

I’d get a lot of mileage from Save While Editing and Maintain/Restore Scroll Position After Saving. I often find myself wanting to save while taking notes on a book or talk but where I’m not done listening or reading.

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#5

For fast notetaking while listening or watching a video I use: Streams — on TiddlyWiki 5.2.2
-m

#6

https://tid.li/tw5/plugins.html

Just in case: This EditPlugins plugin is great.

(I edited my post to mention it.)

#7

Except for saving the cursor and scroll sync with previews, those may be added to code mirror see the current codemirror 6 work. All those others are are possible and have been done.

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#8

I will try and share some.

  1. Save While Editing

Does not save cursor Edit Buttons

  1. Sticky Editor Toolbar Option

Various found here work sticky editor toolbar css.json (387 Bytes) from Sticky editor with preview on? - #2 by john.edw_gmail.com

  • There is also a sticky tiddler titles option
  1. 2 Toolbar Buttons: Take and Restore a Tiddler Snapshot

I have built something similar in the past as have others.

  • But it may be time to write a new one, there are so many new possibilities.
  • I have one to shapshot tiddlers as HTML so they don’t change with the undelying data
#9

I addressed literally everything you just said in my post.

The forest-for-the-trees issue is the group of issues about it NOT being standard that you can just simply have a workflow that doesn’t jarr the edit-save thing.

When you are editing, you get taken out of the editing experience when you save. It should be seemless such that you can simply save, and keep on editing like nothing just happened. All those 4 features should be standard.

#10

I hadn’t seen EditPlugins, so I’m adding that to my wiki. Thanks!

#11

Streams looks interesting, I’ll give it a try.