I had this idea, and … I realize this may be better accomplished through some part of the app I’m not yet familiar with, and that this might be very specific to how I think about approaching complexity, but still:
How about having an interactive console for Tinderbox?
The idea is similar to the “developer” console you can get in a browser: basically a way of querying the current state, looking at certain paths through a node, or asking how many nodes are at a certain level, or which nodes match a certain kind of query.
(it’s different from external automation, very much within the app)
It’s not completely far-fetched, OmniOutliner has a similar automation console that’s accessible within the app.
Let me know if any of this makes sense (am I just describing Agents, except … badly?)
[for clarity, I’m assuming ‘nodes’ to mean Tinderbox ‘notes’ (noting that agents, adornments, etc. are essentially just specialised forms of a ‘note’)]
These of things are possibly using agents, existing attributes and dialogs:
See Roadmap. also check out the (still new and evolving) Hyperbolic view.
Query for the notes at Outline level 3:
$OutlineDepth==3
This is exactly the function of an agent. It is an option for an agent to also act upon matching notes. All nodes/notes with the $Color attribute ‘red’:
$Color=="red"
I think this covers most cases you describe. I can see that since the old Paths view died after v5, it might be nice to have a link type filter on the Roadmap dialog (though I’ve no idea how complex that is to achieve - IOW it might not be the best UI for a filtered display).