Tinderbox 8.5 with Cross Tabs and other goodies

Q & A - getting started with Tinderbox
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Now available – Tinderbox 8.5 with Cross Tab views, drag notes out of Tinderbox, and other goodies:

http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/updates/Tinderbox85.html

@mdavidson, take note :slight_smile:

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For those wondering, a v8.5.0 aTbRef update is in the works. However, new views, especially arriving very close to release take a lot of testing/deduction to document adequately. I’ll get it out as soon as I can.

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It’s also worth noting that Storyspace also got a bump to v3.9.0. The changes are essentially bringing the underlying codebase up to Tinderbox v8.5.0 parity. There are no new Storyspace features and some new Tinderbox things (e.g. Crosstabs) don’t apply to Storyspace but there will be fixes aplenty to the underpinnings of the app, i.e. as per Tinderbox changes since the last Storyspace release. The latter would be v3.5.0 in Feb 2018, so this means changes/fixes since Tinderbox v8.0.3.

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Note taken. Let’s see how the community puts cross tabs to work in their use of TB !

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As you are the progenitor, I would enjoy hearing how your cases work in this new view – when you have time and inclination. I’m sure other users will be looking toward the “Tinderbox Tasks” category for more on using Tinderbox Cross Tabs View.

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One useful aspect of Crosstabs is doing something Attribute Browser can’t (yet) do, and that is to summarise counts of values for a single attribute (i.e. 1 column, ++ rows) and/or export those from the app. Not the real intent of the view but a useful side-effect. I wish I’d had this during my research in the last few years.

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The great news!

Could anybody provide an example tbx file to realize how the crosstab feature works.

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Here’s a very simple example.

We have a course with 100 students. Each student has a score on the midterm and final exams. We’d like to know a bit more about this:

  • Which students did poorly on the midterm and well on the final?
  • Which students did well on the midterm but performed worse on the final?
  • How well correlated are the results of the two exams?

xcross.tbx (115.1 KB)

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Love the geographic adornments! Great for annotating maps accurately.

This software is a real dichotomy - the features and constant enhancements are so rich that it would be very useful for probably many times its user base, but if it had a huge user base, that would possibly be a drag on its progress. There’s probably some term for that state of affairs, just not sure what it is.

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I can find no reference (apart from the announcement) to the geographic adornments, even in the release notes. Where are they, and how do they work?

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The header on the page (scroll down) on this link explains it:

http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/updates/Tinderbox85.html

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Also see this on aTbRef. I guess I need to update the opening paragraph about the feature being experimental, given the v8.5.0 announcement.

I suspect the feature is yet to be fully explored; my own testing/use has simply been to verify the known functionality. Deeper understanding of the feature will come from someone making use of it.

I can see it is useful for:

  • Planning travel
  • Recording travel
  • Plotting real-world writing

…but I’m sure there are other uses. The feature uses, IIRC, an internal app link through to Google maps or the like. If as seems inevitable with maps and timelines, someone wants to use their own fantasy map, that’s likely to be a few feature request.

HTH

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See also the link on the first page of Tinderbox Help.

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Thanks all. I could’ve sworn I saw nothing of this the first time around, especially on the help page. Selective blindness, probably.

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Helpful: Properties Inspector, Quickstamp: Look under the category of Places

Setting the Range gives the range of miles shown around the address. You may need to slightly resize the adornment to see the change.

Also suggest changing the Map > NameAlignment attribute for the adornment to ‘right’ so as not to obscure the scale bar.

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Noticed something only because a couple of my prototypes have a non-standard size, but from what I can tell after the 8.5.0 update, prototypes seem to be passing down their $Height and $Width, as opposed to keeping them intrinsic.

Can anyone else replicate this on their system?

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This is part of changes in v8.5.0 and as described here. I don’t know the background but can only assume this is a in response to a feature request.

Note the effect is a once-only on setting the prototype. If the prototype is subsequently re-sized it does not affect existing notes using the prototype.

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Got it! Working as intended then. Nothing to see here!

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