Hi Jeremy

On Thursday, July 10, 2014 1:42:25 PM UTC+2, Jeremy Ruston wrote:

In my case, the system tags I used unnecessarily cluttered the UI with 
>> meaningless tagpills. This is not usually a problem for layout tiddlers, as 
>> the tagpill swarm is not visible in the UI (other than when the layout 
>> tiddler is shown in the main story river.)
>>
>
> Can you explain the context a little more?
>
> System tiddlers are supposed to be generally hidden from view until one 
> delves into the sidebar lists.
>

I had a number of display panel tiddlers, each panel displayed abstracts of 
all tiddlers matching a filter expression (in this case, tagged with the 
title of the display panel.) The display panels, however, needed to be 
categorised in order that several different tagpill swarms could be 
assembled for the UI (one swarm for each type.)

Using tags, this necessitated the use of a tag or system tag for each type. 
These tags had little semantic meaning to the user, but showed in the tag 
swarm at the top of the display panels; thus presenting an unnecessary 
distraction.

I replaced the use of tags with a single system field, with a value 
representing the type. The panels could easily be filtered on the value of 
this field, but ordering of the pills in the tag swarms proved troublesome. 
I resorted to sorting by 'modified', and creating the panel tiddlers in the 
sequence I wished them to be displayed. This is not ideal, as to change the 
order, they must all be re-created in the desired sequence (or the 
'modified' fields of every panel must be updated by another mechanism.)

I have a workaround, but ideally, I would like to filter the panels by 
field value, then sort them according to an ordered list. Ordering of the 
titles would then require manipulation of this ordered list only, without 
having to re-set the 'modified' field in the desired sequence.

Using fields, my requirement is to sort a list of titles generated by a 
filter expression (other than by tag) by the order in which the titles 
appear in another list.

<$list filter="[field:category[type1]sortbylist{!!my-ordered-list}]" ...>

-- but there might be a cleverer way of doing this.


> I think you are indeed asking for a separate tags field that you can use 
> instead of using system tags in the main tags field.
>

That, I believe, sums up the requirement -- an alternative 'hidden' system 
tags field, which does not display its tags in the tag swarm in the main 
story river and doesn't clutter the user tag editor. This would be more 
convenient than the use of a field, as all of the tools provided for the 
'tags' field would become available for this field.

The problem is, that system tags still show in the tag swarms at the top of 
tiddlers displayed in the main story river, and they have no semantic 
meaning to the user as they are used only to arrange the UI.

Either system tags should be filtered from the tag swarm and user tag 
editor, or system tags should be placed in another field entirely. I kind 
of like the second option -- I think the idea of a system tags field makes 
some sense. Separate system tags field, separate system tags display 
(hidden from default display), separate system tags editor.
-- this might provide a more intuitive scheme for users (separates the 
'clutter' of system tags from the usual UI, rendering both more 
understandable)
-- enables the use of 'cleaner' tags for system purposes (no longer 
restricted to $:/blah-blah)
-- reduces the number of tags in both lists (users will likely migrate a 
number of tags into the system tags field)

I don't know -- what do others think?

regards

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