Hello everyone! I am new to Tinderbox and have been watching @Tom_Webster video Processing Qualitative Data from 2010 and the 2022 updated video. I should start with some of the basic tutorials before getting into the more advanced processing data video, but I am already too invested and excited about this one.
I have a question regarding the two videos. In the Webster video, he uses the function Explode Notes to break down the raw source text. However, in the 2022 video, it seems they use a few lines of Latin text instead. I tried pasting my exploded notes in the DATA section and updating the agents, but it didnât update in the Sort Map section. My wild guess is that the text I exploded are notes, while the Latin text in the 2022 video are agents (they also have a different icon, so they donât seem to be the same type of object). Can anyone tell me what I am missing? Thanks
Iâm not quite clear about your question. But let me try, anyway!
Explode Note takes the text of a note and splits it into a bunch of smaller notes, dividing the text by paragraphs or at some delimiter you choose. Those notes are placed into a container in the same sequence in which they appeared in the original note. If you prefer a different sequence, you might later change the sort order of this container of Exploded Notes.
Or, perhaps Tom Webster had an agent that gathered notes inside the Exploded Notes container, and sorted them. Thatâs a very common Tinderbox idiom.
But itâs been a while since I watched these videos, and perhaps I donât understand. Someone else may see the difficulty at once. Or, stop by the weekend Meetup sometime â the next one is this Sunday, noon Eastern time; I bet weâll sort it out quickly.
Glad youâre sorted. A couple of points Iâd add here, if only for the long tail reader of this thread, that might help:
Tom Websterâs video used version 5 (some way back - 2010â11 period IIRC). Now a problem for v6, as Tinderboxâs code was ported to Xcode and completely re-written which included to a much-asked-for-at-the-time âsingle windowâ approach which was in vogue at the time. Although, since then, Tinderbox once again supports multiple document windows, it doesnât support dragging items between windows which was a core part of Tomâs method.
The newer TBX demo file made byâme, mea culpaâtries to recreate Tomâs method in the v6+ UI so some things unavoidably differ from his video.
Whatâs with the âlatin textâ? Actually, itâs not strictly (readable) Latin, but fake filler text using Latin words (see more on background to Lorem Ipsum). But still, why? Well, if you ever write a demo, youâll find making suitable test data can take significantly more time than writing the code/TBX (albeit less time than documenting the process). As a result, âLorem Ipsumâ testâfor which the web has many free generators, is a boon to generate a lot of valid text into which other test case text can be added if needed. A big time-saver. It also solves trying to âsanitiseâ real working text that might contain personal or commercially sensitive data, so itâs not just for laughs. Faux Latin too elitist? Try here for all sort of alternative filler text styles: but importantly, they are just filler text.
Donât overlook the README section of the TBXâ16 notes that describe how the document is customised to apply the spirit of tomâs original technique in the current Tinderbox app design.
Importantly, donât try an apply the technique exactly is in Tomâs original video to the later TBX. I wonât/canât work, owing to changing in the app design going from v5 â v6. But, as anyone getting into Tinderbox use knows there is more than one way to the same outcome. Thankfully so, and that is what my TBX tries to deliver.
Could this be done better? I wouldnât be surprised. Anyway, the Tinderbox community is not expert-led. Anyone can, and people often do, come up with better alternative (or just alternative some may prefer) to existing methods and this is good. Better ideas/solutions to old problems are always welcomed.
** If there are any actual errors typos in my TBX referred to above, do say, as I can fix that an upload a new copy. The joys of digital publishing: do-overs are easy.
Thanks, it is not rude at all. Unfortunately, I do not have time right now to update these. Perhaps I can find the time over the December holidays, Iâm not sure.
the videos do help this user a lotâŚgreat length formatâŚshort, single pointed and very straightforward in learning by doing. thanks Michael and everyone supporting you.
