Here’s one small detail that Tinderbox happens to get right!
As you know, Tinderbox lets you type [[ziplinks]] in square brackets as a fast way to make links. Today, I was working on a new chunk of writing, in which I’m (for now) storing references in old ACM format, for example [Bernstein 98]. This is a nice format for early drafts because it maximizes my chance of recognizing what I’ve cited without having to look it up!
So, I found myself needed to ascribe a quotation to an early paper by Doug Engelbart. I said to myself, “wouldn’t it be nice if I could type [[[Engelbart 63]]] and get [Engelbart 63]?
This is very cool. I tried this myself, but with a twist. I went through and changed $Name to the Citation of the referenced Theory, added $ArtitlceTitle to the $Prototype, and then Created a $DisplayExpression so that in all the views (Map, Outline, etc.) I could see the full name of the theory with its $PublicationYear and $ThAbbrev (Theory Abbreviation, user-generated attribute).
I then tried your neat trick. It worked great. Note how you can use ⌘+7 to open the link view, mouse over the Outbound Link, and see the summary of the note.
Now that is what a toolbox is for – good example of why a valid learning path for Tinderbox is to open the box, take out a tool, learn what it does, then put it away. Later when a problem comes up one can recall – “aha! there’s a couple of tools here that can do that”. Takes longer to learn this way, but provides more depth than just perusing examples.
Really cool idea, with I’ll definitely ‘steal’. But, a note of caution on using parentheses in note $Name (and by implication $Path), for reason fleshed out in this note. If those seem odd issues, think: string parsing and regex. The problem characters have regex meaning (or are internal Tinderbox delimiters).
A part easily missed here is having a $Name that isn’t the ‘screen’ title and using Display Expressions to make it appear so. I’ve used this generalised method a lot in my research where the ‘title’ of the referenced work is just problematic for Tinderbox action-based linking/querying. But, it also means I as the user have to remember for to search for the ‘title’ I see but the actual $Name. It might seem a chore but that flips when what you gain by linking exceeds having to check the $Name of something you otherwise remember by its screen $DisplayName.
Yup, there are always tradeoffs…just have to look for the balance the works for you. Also, different approaches and be used for different applications. There is more than one way to wield a hammer effectively.
Another approach would be to use the | feature that was just introduced with Ziplinks.
Start typing your Ziplinke [[, from the list on the left hold the Opt key (⌥ ) when you click on the link. This lets you edit the ziplink. Enter a pipe “|” type your reference and then close ou the Ziplink with ]]
Apposite choice of test reference!
