[pmwiki-users] pagelist template brainstorming

[christian.ridderstrom at gmail.com]

On Sun, 18 Feb 2007, Patrick R. Michaud wrote:

>> I think additional directives will make pagelists easer to use. But I'd 
>> prefer to not use (:first:), (:last:)  etc, and instead go with 
>> something like (:pagelist-first:), (:pagelist-last:). It's a bit longer 
>> to type, but you won't be doing it that often so I don't see it as a 
>> big problem.
>
> I think it may be too long to type.

I don't agree with that argument at all. In my experience you only spend a 
small fraction of your time creating new templates. And for a particular 
template, I don't think you will write e.g. (:first:) very many times.

(As an aside, maybe we should have one or more annotated templates for the 
pagelist templates? I.e. something that you can copy as a starting point, 
and then remove various comments and sections while creating your 
template.).

>> What you gain is clarity - you won't start wondering what (:first:)
>> would do when not related to a pagelist.
>
> It displays as "(:first:)", of course.  Just as "(:pagelist-first:)" 
> will display as "(:pagelist-first:)" when not related to a pagelist. 
> :-)

If I'd like to use (:first:) etc for something else, would that work? I 
guess one of my (not mentioned) objections is that we use a bit of the 
namespace for directives.

> I did think of the possibility of qualifying the directives somehow
> to make it clear they were for pagelists...  but I didn't come up
> with anything I liked better than the simple (:first:), (:each:),
> and (:last:) choices.

How about

 	(:pl-first:), (:pl-each:) and (:pl-last:)

I really think it makes sense to show that these directives are related.

>> (I'm ignoring that the templates can also be used with searchresults)

> There's also a bit more to it than this... I'm running into 
> possibilities for using pagelist-like templates on things other than 
> pagelists, such as attachlist (but there are others).

You might not remember, but I was the one who suggested using 
pagelist-like templates for attachlist a while back ;-) Although, you 
weren't to keen on it then as I recall. (Which reminds me that I need to 
document a recipe I've created which replaces attachlist)

> So, part of me thinks we may be better of sticking with the simple 
> (:first:)/(:each:)/(:last:) approach instead of trying to explain 
> (:pagelist-first:) vs. (:attachlist-first:) vs. (:whatever-first:), etc. 
> In other words, the directives may make sense in contexts other than 
> pagelists, even if we don't know what those contexts are yet.

If you wish to use the directives for generic lists (btw, I've got a 
feeling you might be arguing against one of your princples now), how about
 	(:list-first:), (:list-each:) etc

Best regards
/Christian

-- 
Christian Ridderström, +46-8-768 39 44               http://www.md.kth.se/~chr