I will tell you what the worst feature of Tiddlywiki is. It is spending days or even weeks re-creating the hacks learned from a lifetime working with less elegant technologies, and then suddenly realizing that three lines of code and a shift in perspective makes all of that unnecessary.
This is also Tiddlywiki’s best feature. 
a syntax colored editor would also help a lot in finding many typos. A real time saver!!!
I would love to work on converting my VSCode TW5-Syntax plugin to something that TW itself could use in an editor-plugin. Still dealing with the fallout of losing the job unexpectedly, but it’s on my list! (Lol)
I don’t really understand what it adds to the editing experience. Why do you want to save and re-open a tiddler? Is it just in case you accidentally type
<escape>?
Another good feature is that you can save, see the results and easily undo with ctrl-z.
@joshuafontany you could use the VS code editor as an external editor for text area fields as a stop gap.
Can you provide a link to your VSCode TW5-Syntax plugin. I was thinking of adopting the VS studio IDE etc… for other reasons.
Here is a not recently tested by me, edit in external editor for firefox Browser’s external editor
At the same time I discovered the External Application Button (WebExtension) which I would like to see ported into tiddlywiki so we could open local programs to edit images etc…
Both of these add-ons require installing another helper application that is platform specific. I currently use GitHub - fooqri/uri-handler: A uri protocol router for macOS that allows protocols to be handled by simple scripts. , defining a custom uri handler that enables me to open file using a link such as this in Sublime Text.
subl://open/?file=~/Desktop/docs/Dropbox/file.txt
Although I have not really looked too much into this beyond macOS, the advantage of using a uri is there is no need to install a separate extension, just need to write a link.
@markkerrigan appropriately you have inspired another response in me to this threads OT The Worst Feature of Tiddlywiki.
The Worst Feature of Tiddlywiki is; Something that never lasts for long, at least until I discover another. Because I am always able to fix it, or at least find a work around, or someone else fixes it.
Amongst the many bright ideas tiddlywiki has inspired in response to a perceived problem is one I call “protocol handler” unlike the “helper application” that @markkerrigan mentioned, it checks field content on current tiddlers for a set of predefined prefixes such as http https mailto file etc and handles each as I choose. In this case I expose a link with the name of the field it was found in, at the bottom of the tiddler.
I have not published it yet, but I should get used to publishing “viable products” before perfection.
My latest realisation, and rabbit hole, was links are never “space delimited” so we could follow any link value with one or more space delimited keyword=value pairs. I thought I could get tricky and add to my protocol handler, the ability to pass any parameter into the link using these eg target="tiddlywiki.com" or tooltip="Link about xyz".
Why have I not built it myself yet?, because I expect the code to already exists somewhere in tiddlywiki, I just want to find it (waiting for me). This code needs to handle spaces inside the value part of the keyword value pairs.
Of course when ever I see the opportunity to leverage tiddlywiki and develop new features, I try hard to find generic solution others can make use of as well.
Just FYI I thought your VSCode thing excellent!
In a way it is an interesting issue whether it is better to do a native TW version or not?
Practically: I don’t care 
. Meaning there is a compounding issue in that browsers are quite locked-down now so invocation of the VSCode tool directly from TW is (unless you are Bob, Timimi [old version] or TiddlyDesktop) is off-limits.
What is my point? – Simply here is an issue where the browser get’s in the way.
As far as I grasp it, there is, finally, a new API for browsers in development that looks like it might give us back what we lost (basically invocation of programs) a few years ago??
Whilst a TW syntax highlighter would be neat, I think, for folk hot on that, are likely to be using external tools anyway???
Eek! I hope you come back to your former good!
Just comments, TT
Not really. VSCode is a web-app, that can run entirely in the browser.
github did enable it in a very simple way to work with code. So it’s intended for developers and you have to have a good online connection. To start it, it transfers about 40+MByte of code.
My TW5 repo is at github(dot)com … The VSCode editor can be started with github(dot)dev
If we would like to add about 40MB to a single file wiki, this could be done too 
… Just joking. …
I do prefer the codemirror editor which can be used already and has nice code highlighting. Also for TW syntax. IMO we should use the possibilities we have.
I don’t think so. That’s a security problem. There is a new API, that allows chrome-based browsers to write files directly to the harddisk, with a “user opt-in” mechanism. It’s named “The File System Access API”. There is a TW plugin already.
Starting other programs is possible with some special links eg: mailto and so on. Those special URLs and mime-types have to be registered in the windows registry to tell the browser what to do.
After the extensions are registered, the behaviour can be configured by the user in the browser settings. In FF it’s under “Applications”
Thankyou for that! You are always so good on this kind of thing! I stand corrected for my over-optimism! .
My issue is I want to use TW (single-file) interactively with the O/S since I often need to use programs to prepare tiddlers. It is a PITA to have to navigate away from TW to launch them. 
Just FYI, I am still using the previous version of Timimi that was just for FireFox (no longer supported) that allows O/S launch of programs via scripting directly from single file TW.
The price of doing that (for security reasons, I guess?) is you need to install a platform specific “back-end” that handles the O/S integration.
Best, TT
Exactly. … The FF AddOn can only send “data” to “that” particular program. The mechanism is called Native Messaging … It’s “kind of” secure, since the user or an admin has to install the program and usually OSes also have a “signing process” to assure, that installed programs are authentic and not modified.
Both elements have to be installed, to allow the browser to communicate with the native app.
With that mechanism in place you have a nice separation of concerns …
So the browser can only send “do this” and “do that” requests to the native app. The app takes care, that those actions are not “hostile” …
BUT
If you allow the browser to create scripts that are then executed in the OS you basically “nullify” the only security mechanism in place.
I think that was the main reason, why this feature has been removed. …
Got it. The issue interests me more than the tech side too (though I take all your points) there is a largely unexplicated nuance that users are likely idiots.
I often wonder about the need for “Protection” …
… is it fiat regulation? (thoughts from the paranoid side).
Best, TT
More documentation and better examples would be nice. I’ve seen so many examples and would have no idea how to implement them because I only get to see a small chunk of the code.
very nice flexibility, which is why i use it. and im very glad it exists.
the people on these forums i’ve noticed are actually competent to some level in programming. but its far from perfect solution for me (and people like me). to start - its supre geeky. its the linux of note taking things. i spend more time fighting with it than doing work. things so simple in other programs need an undeciphrable code here. not good for students imo - have to learn 2 things together. airtables / notion just work. documentation is super complicated - it presumes alot of information. at this point - its programming. i find scratch (the kids programming thing) easier.
same!
plugins make it actually usable - but then that bloats the size. which slows it down. then it cant be used much for actually large data. it needs a high powered / ram machine to run well at that point - else it slowness only adds to frustration.
i like that the program and file are able to merge in one. but i also love seperate files like common programs. each time a plugin is updated i have to update XXX number of wiki’s. its so high maintenance.
also becuase each new ‘dataset’ needs its own program/file, and becuase i must install a huge set of plugins for every wiki just to make it usable, thats SO MUCH disk space for so little actual data. not even counting all the required backups which are absolutely mandatory with TW.
importing media is a pain too. so are the filter/searches + the current tiddler reference - both of which are important to make it flexible. i just learned ive been using view templates all wrong (and i still dont know the correct way) - which explains why alot of my things are so half functioning.
some tw examples are really nice. thats what i had WANTED to be able to do to my data when i started. but now i think that that flexibiltiy is somewhat illusionary. to me its like a person who shows someone a computer for the first time, and then a computer game. and the naive person thinks that they can -so very easily - make a game. this naive person doesn’t know the most he’ll be able to create with reasonable effort is a notepad document and a ms-paint image.
after all the effort, most of what i learned to do, i could already do with regular database programs for much much much less effort and stress.
still, it offers flexibility when i need it. so generally i resort to other tools, and if data really needs this, i turn here.
@GRF its great to get your feedback, it is after all about our own “lived experience” but with respect few if any of your issues reman issues for me because there are solutions and methods., some much simpler than you can imagine.
It is always easier to do the way we already know initially, but I can assure you once you learn more tiddlywiki has a substantial payback.
i agree. and i hope that day comes for me too. its bcz ive seen good examples with the tool of whats poss, that i keep coming back - hoping its easier. but then, can it be poss for me with my limited time/ability?
most of the people on the forum have skills that they can even make their own plugin to distribute. in some way or the other, ive managed to mangle most of the tw i created. except those with which i do very little.
so im also grateful for the easier tools - because i actually produce something in the end. which is the whole point. though, with all the recent plugins, tw became a bit easier. discorse too vs gg.
Hi GRF, check out the documentation at Grok TiddlyWiki Grok TiddlyWiki — Build a deep, lasting understanding of TiddlyWiki
I have a file where I have added examples and explanations of how to do things: Documenting TW — a non-linear personal web notebook
Hope these help!
i hope they do too! thx @DaveGifford for the links. will try to go through it. slowly… its a lot of content!