Tinderbox Meetup Saturday 21th, January 2023

Looking forward to this weekend’s meetup.

Time: Jan 21, 2023 12:00 noon Eastern Time (US and Canada)

9 AM Pacific Time
Noon Eastern time
1300 São Paulo
1600 UTC
1700 London
1800 Paris
2130 Dehli

Zoom link for the meetup: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8850659900?pwd=ZE9ROUs1czNiK2FTTStjTUJuVkIydz09

1 Like

Chat log (thanks @archurhh): meeting_saved_chat.txt.zip (4.2 KB)

During the meet-up there was discussion about maps/graphs and layouts of the same. Mentioned was e(free) tool ‘yEd’, yEd - Graph Editor, which has all sorts of algorithmic layouts, such as might be useful for some users but not worth building into Tinderbox. Investigating, yEd uses GraphML (a form of XML).

It’s beyond my limited coding smarts but I can see that some XLST might allow interchange of Tinderbox and yEd data. My hunch would be to export GraphML (via templates/action code) and ingest from GraphML via AppleScript. The latter to parse and do XLST transform to get data that can then be written into the TBX. No simple, but I think do able for those with the need.

Just a placeholder note: I have an idea for making this easier to do. It might not pan out, but if it does, it’ll be easier than mucking with XSLT.

On GraphML: why not export using normal XML templates? I don’t see a need for AppleScript here.

Forgive my poor description:

  • Oubound. Use templates/action code to make GraphML that yEd can use.

  • Inbound. yEd only has GraphML—AFAICT—so we need to do some XLST for get info we can either use (e.g. OPML) or if as—I suspect—people might want 2 way, then use AppleScript or command line+whatever to make info that can then be used to update existing notes. Tinderbox doesn’t have—and I’m not suggesting it should—a merge method. Thus AppleScript as a bridge. It can interest with the GraphML via [whatever] and can then apply data to existing notes. Stealth merge FTW!

The frustrating part of having few practical coding smarts is what I can see as being possible exceeds what personally can effect. Thus I’ve laid this here so the coding folk might chose to take up the implicit challenge. :slight_smile:

Apologies if I stated this poorly at outset. I truly think the ROI of Tinderbox implementing some import/export isn’t there; I’d not like to see Eastgate eat that cost as there are better things upon whicg to expend dev resource. But for a few folk with the need, I think I’ve mapped a route. As was noted in the meet-up this is more a (consulting to) enterprise issue than an individual one and … enterprises have $$$$$ to spend on this sort of consulting (money, yay!). Plus, in one of the few instances of ‘trickle down’ I’ve encountered, once someone’s covered the initial cost, code can run free and bring it to reach of the individual. [Any resemblance to sharing code, dead or alive, is refuted].

Video for yesterdays meet: Tinderbox Meetup 21 JAN 2023 - YouTube

Also see @satikusala’s post/thread. A big thank-you from us all for hosting/recording.