[pmwiki-users] Complicated: Cross-Reference / Joins for Page Text Variables

[Mike Shanley]

Hey,

One of my (inherited) hobbies is Tarot Card reading and structure. And 
as some of you may know, Tarot Cards have their roots in many different 
occult traditions. As such, there are numerous shapes (MANDALAS) that 
are built into its cyclical structure. In addition, the order of certain 
cards is in dispute. Even the number of cards in the 'true' tarot is 
debatable (depending on which set of arcane traditions one assigns to 
the tarot).

That said, I'm looking to build a wiki system for my research where I 
can use a page text variable to code each card's number, and then use 
Page Lists with tables to display different mandalas correctly (even 
after I reorder certain cards). The difficulty is in the fact most 
mandalas are circular, and so don't translate very well to the 
line-by-line computer world.

The best I could come up with is a Page List Template which is a table 
with 80++ boxes that contain something like this:

(:if equal {=$FullName}$:Card} 42:)
{=$Titlespaced}
(:ifend:)

Now that is NASTY programming if I ever saw it!

What would be better is if I could create a matrix for each mandala and 
spread that looked like:
:Card:42 :: :WheelOfLifeCoordinate:b12

The only thing is, I can't fathom how to do this INSIDE pmwiki.

Perhaps even better would be if I could simply make one page per mandala 
that had the table with some code that summoned the right 
[[TheTarot.CardName]] into it, based on page text variables.

Any ideas?

Thanks so much!

-- 
        ~Mike Shanley~

    ~you are almost there~