This points are important. It should be add it. But I find it a bit confusing it when I use a new pragma but I have to reuse the old tag $:/tags/Macro. I like this proposal by @twMat (here):
IMHO, $:/tags/Global is perfect. These are a kind of variables, then we will reuse them as global variables with this tag.
However, Procedure Definitions does explicitly mention the
$:/tags/Macrotag as a means of creating for creating global procedures.
I would like to have $:/tags/Global instead of $:/tags/Macro
$:/tags/global would need to co-exist with $:/tags/macro for compatibility reasons. I don’t see how the latter could ever be deprecated/removed.
AFAIU, “deprecated” can mean to simply leave it working but not to really use it from now on. So $:/tags/Global could achieve all that $:/tags/Macro does but also more, and the latter tag is replaced in all places but it still works the way it has always worked.
An additional tag makes sence in so far as $:/tags/Macro is the legacy, in many cases these can be moved to $:/tags/Macro/View OR the suggested $:/tags/Global. Dont know?, use $:/tags/Macro, However also document along side the use of the import pragma to make such macros available in specific places without global definition.
I’m OK with the proposal to have a $:/tags/Global too … As long as it does not influence the performance because of the additional filters needed.
If we face a performance hit, we should stay with $:/tags/Macro only
Just my opinion
Of course, staying with $:/tags/Macro only causes a “hit on comprehensibility” to people learning TW, so I guess it should be weighted against this.
Anyway, is there a way to test/measure for a potential performance hit?
The challenge with adding support for $:/tags/Global alongside $:/tags/Macro is that many of the TiddlyWiki core templates repeat this same code to import the global macros:
\import [[$:/core/ui/PageMacros]] [all[shadows+tiddlers]tag[$:/tags/Macro]!has[draft.of]]
That line will need updating in each case to add a reference to $:/tags/Global. However, many users will have copied these templates to make their own custom templates. While we can update the core templates, the clones won’t be automatically updated. So, if we go ahead and add support for $:/tags/Global then users will sometimes run into problems with macros not being available in certain situations.
Nonetheless, I think this is worth doing. We can mitigate the problems to some extent by ensuring that all core globals are tagged with both $:/tags/Macro and $:/tags/Global so that they are visible within templates using the old import filter.
I’ve now added support for $:/tags/Global here:
I think there might still be quite a few docs updates needed.
Thank you Jeremy! In TW 5.3.0 $:/tags/Global is really a semantic tag. It shouts its meaning! For newcomers it is much easier to understand than the old tag, specially when it is used for procedures and functions!
Thank you!