Interesting discussion again. If we look at what tiddlers are at a minimum they have a title. To me missing tiddlers, are links to titles that don’t yet have a tiddler. That is they are not really missing tiddlers but missing titles.
- I think it would be safer if we call these missing titles
The idea that you can pack a virtual title with more information, is an interesting one but I am coming to realise there are other tricks up our sleaves.
- No matter how you create a virtual title it must be written in a field of an existing tiddler, typically within a text field.
- as soon as you do this the virtual title has additional information the one or more places it is mentioned, that is a virtual title has backlinks.
- For example you could have a tiddler called “provisional todo items” and place a number of titles as title links in there. They then become missing titles that exist in “provisional todo items” and thus they have the property of being “provisional todo items”.
- but do remember you can do something almost identical using a data tiddler, the titles if not a link to a title, will just not appear as missing titles.
I have recently been playing with custom namespaces. It allows a custom prefix to also become a system tiddler like those with $:/ and thus don’t appear in standard search and other places. See Expanding the is system namespace
- I mention this because you can use this method to generate missing titles that are hidden from view unless looked for.
- The names space could even be the prefix that defines what the virtual title is for.
- My current alternative name spaces are effectively just additional system tiddler prefixes, but as a result of this discussion I have the idea,
- that if I create another name space, add it to the system tiddlers but also override the link widget, to not display links with this prefix, then we have an easy way to introduce virtual titles that are backlinked but not rendered, and don’t come up in standard search.
- Now I just need to find a good prefix.
- Also a namespace that is the same as above but displays the prefix only but is a link to the virtual tiddler, with a tooltip, may also have a purpose, or trigger another behaviour, eg generate an external link.
- If we use my previous work of alt-titles and masquerade tiddlers the possibilities are endless.
- Relink also allows you to safely rename titles allowing them to move between names spaces without destroying links to them.
- that if I create another name space, add it to the system tiddlers but also override the link widget, to not display links with this prefix, then we have an easy way to introduce virtual titles that are backlinked but not rendered, and don’t come up in standard search.
This is a good idea and could be included in our recent discussion for “tag pills without tag tiddlers to be Italic”, and a related one, “underline the current tiddler in the dropdown list of tagged tiddlers in pills”, so you can quickly go to the current one and its position.
The more information, and options we can give to the user within the same interface all the better.