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 eekim Tank Is Alpha

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20140330170014 eekim  

Tank is obviously alpha software. Some of the issues I run across might simply be because @cdent hasn't gotten around to implementing it. Some of the issues should perhaps be higher on the priority list and aren't. No judgement for now — this is just a list that captures issues that I'm running across and things I'm thinking about. Right now, I'm mainly trying to understand the tool and its possibilities.

Cool Features

  • Transclusions are first-class. They have special rendering, they show up as backlinks, etc. Looking forward to playing with this. (See Use Cases below.)
  • Extraclusions seem like a useful editing hack.
  • Granularity of Tiddlers combined with access control means you have much more flexibility around sharing. I have generally found other attempts to implement role-based access to be extremely convoluted. At the same time, I've found myself wanting that capability not infrequently. This might be the right sweet spot.

Use Cases

Usable Data Store for Multiple Clients

Tank's legacy is as a data store for TiddlyWiki, the original, highly-dynamic wiki interface. It has a carefully thought-out API out of the box. Tank is functional without an alternative client-side interface, but I can imagine it becoming even more powerful with the creation of those tools.

I could imagine front-ends that resemble:

  • The Brain (with an additional link type to show transclusions)
  • Trello
  • Tinderbox

Discussion Tool

First-class transclusions make me excited about tank's potential as a discussion medium, but I need Tank Granular Addressability to really make this work. Imagine a world where the traditional email / blogging behavior of excerpting via copy-and-paste was done via transclusion instead.

I understand the technical challenges with this. More on Tank Granular Addressability.

Usability Issues

(I'll add future issues directly to tank's Github.)

  • I find it challenging to navigate to my tank from other tanks. I keep wanting to click on something on the upper-left corner, but there's nothing there that takes me there.
  • Definitely missing a preview button. Would be even better if there were live HTML rendering. It's less about the formatting, more about the tank-specific features, like transclusions.
  • What's the difference between the face and the bell in the notifications bar?
  • Better default header styles. I hate doing the usual hack of doing an h2 or h3 to make the formatting more usable.

Missing Features