June 26, 2002
MarkBernstein.org
 

Wiki links in Tinderbox

I've been working this week on building bridges between Tinderbox and tools like Moveable Type and Wiki.

For example, Wiki automatically builds generic links; whenever a Wiki sees a mixed-case (CamelCase words with InternalCapsLikeThis), it creates a hypertext link to a page with the same name. Generic links are a staple of open hypertext research tools. Generic can be both convenient and interesting, though they also introduce problems (like distinguishing when a link to "Washington" means "George", "Booker T.", "state of", or something else).

Just for an experiment, I added Wiki's primitive generic link facility to Tinderbox, creating an experimental version of Tinderbox that understands WikiLinks. This has two implications.

Personal Wikis used by individuals as a notebook or commonplace book are a hot topic in the Wiki world. When you come right down to it, though, Tinderbox is simply better at this task than Wiki. Adding support for Wiki links might make the advantage even clearer.

A Tinderbox-Wiki connection could be very interesting, both in terms of exploring the boundary between Wikis and weblogs, and for better cultivation of Wikis. Tinderbox, for example, could be a power tool for helping a Wiki editor with a major refactoring.