Soren, Thank you for building Grok TiddlyWiki. I'm what I would call a long term novice in that I've used TiddlyWiki for a while but only in the past few months have I learned what it can truly do. That is in large part to this group and Grok TiddlyWiki. I don't have a programming background and only have limited html experience so many of the explanations have been hugely helpful. I have found I have had two reoccurring hurdles that make my learning slower.
1. No matter what I do and what I've searched for has been able to explain why some things render differently for me. This has often caused me to stop and spend large quantities of time trying to figure out what is wrong. For example. In no version of TiddlyWiki (or browser or operating system) that I've downloaded does Heading 2 render with an underline. Doesn't happen. Ever. But it does in Grok TiddlyWiki. Another example that took me a ton of time to figure out was I had hidden carriage returns mucking things up. This happened because I was copy and pasting back and forth between programs. No where in any of my reading have I come across an article called "Top 10 dumb things you don't know to look for that will screw up what you're trying to do". BTW, an article on where spaces are ignored and where they break things and why would be AMAZING. 2. As a person new to this stuff, while I'm eternally grateful for what you and this community continues to do to help others understand, what might be another way to reach the non-programmers is a guide or introduction on how to read the documentation, a short and simple "idiots guide" so to speak. To use another expression it would be another way to "teach us to fish". I completely get that's exactly what you are trying to do with Grok TiddlyWiki and it has helped me immensely. BUT every time I go into the documentation my eyes cross. I know the answers are there but I don't know all the right words to look for to figure things out or how to read what's there. Again, Grok TiddlyWiki has helped me a lot, and everyone here is great about answering questions, but I know I can't be alone in that I hate the idea of asking a question when there is the documentation and Grok TiddlyWiki and I still can't figure something out. I'm in the stuff for a couple hours with a feeling similar to a word being on the tip your tongue but you can't figure it out. Hours of reading thinking I must be missing something simple it's got to be in here somewhere. I am 100% confident you and some of the others here could do a how-to for reading the documentation in a page or two, but it's that bridging the language gap that I'm certain is slowing many of us down. v/r, Paul On Thursday, July 22, 2021 at 12:18:51 PM UTC-4 springer wrote: > Soren, > > I think I'm part of the target audience for Grok TiddlyWiki, despite being > a long-time user. I have never given myself a systematic approach, and have > instead always learned whatever bits I need to solve this or that > problem-at-hand. I'm grateful for your learning tool, and am slowly working > through it (systematically including nearly all exercises through Chapter > Four, with skimming and selective reading past that, as I've had less time > to devote recently). > > The organization seems helpful to me, though like many dabblers I have > depth in some areas you call "advanced" and deficits in some basics. A few > early portions feel too elementary for me, but I've worked through them > anyway, partly to make sure I absorb technical terminology better (where I > know how to do X but not what the ingredients are called), and partly > because I am frequently surprised, even in early chapters, by what Tones > calls the occasional "easter egg" of discovering a new thing. > > I did have one frustrating rabbit-hole experience with the RubberDucking > exercise, but it was anomalous (I was working on a clone of your book, > which contained an error you have since fixed. On my version, you hadn't > yet compensated for how you tucked various components into shadows. I > "fixed" the exercise filter's punctuation correctly, but it still showed > nothing. My Rubber Duck was not at all helpful until it suggested that I > dial up the book at your url, where "Eureka!" the actual exercise prompt > was different. I could email you the details, but it's not of general > interest.) > > I'm pretty sure my skills are improving, especially if I think half of a > skill is having the right *concepts* for one's skills, and a cogent > understanding of their scope and limits. > > One thing I specifically appreciate is that a search for "boolean" on your > book brought me to a helpful discussion. I had tried in vain to find > "boolean" on tiddlywiki.com (where it appears only incidentally around > "then" and else") and on https://tobibeer.github.io/tw/filters/ ... (Not > getting any helpful hits at these two spots did make me feel pretty crazy!) > Finding a direct discussion of how boolean operations need to be > approached, for filters, is the kind of thing many users might appreciate. > (Note: I'd add words like "conjunction" and "disjunction" to your > discussion, to aid searchability. The word "or" is of course unhelpfully > too short -- with too many false positives -- for those who bring logical > concepts to TiddlyWiki but aren't yet oriented to its operators.) > > -Springer > On Wednesday, July 21, 2021 at 9:56:56 AM UTC-4 Soren Bjornstad wrote: > >> Hi everyone, >> >> I know quite a few people on here have been reading at least some of my >> book Grok TiddlyWiki <https://groktiddlywiki.com/read/>. While I've >> gotten quite a bit of specific feedback submitted through the built-in >> feedback mechanism, I've been coming up short on overall impressions and >> significance beyond "thanks so much for this book." If you've looked at the >> book and you have a few moments, I'd love to know what you think. For >> instance: >> >> - Is the book organized effectively? >> - What parts have you read/worked through? >> - How have you been using the book? Have you done some of the >> exercises and flashcards? Do they work? (I'm particularly interested in >> this question because I'd love to iterate and build more resources like >> this one in the future.) >> - How have your TiddlyWiki skills improved, if they have? >> - Any other thoughts? >> >> If there's anything you don't want to share publicly, feel free to email >> it directly to me at contact (at) sorenbjornstad.com. >> >> Much appreciated, >> Soren >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWiki" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. 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