[Trac] Tags

[Christopher Lenz]

Am 04.01.2005 um 20:29 schrieb Muness Alrubaie:
> On Tue, 4 Jan 2005 19:06:38 +0100, Christopher Lenz <cmlenz at gmx.de> 
> wrote:
>> Hi Muness,
>>
>> first, I think your work on tags in the trac wiki is pretty
>> interesting. This is IMHO something that could go into Trac proper
>> after the concept is worked out.
>
> Can we put a list together of what we should work out?  Or you can
> feel free to post to the dev.muness.textdriven.com tags/Improvements
> wiki entry.

I think this thread is okay for working out the concept.

>> Am 04.01.2005 um 16:51 schrieb Muness Alrubaie:
>>> Alexey,
>>>
>>> 1) Some people prefer tag, others category, and others still label.  
>>> I
>>> don't have a preference.  (The terms I think of is "overlapping
>>> namespaces", but I don't think that'd ever be widely accepted.)  This
>>> can be configurable so that people can use whichever terminology they
>>> prefer.  Does that sound reasonable?
>>
>> Please no, let's just agree on one term. While it's tempting to create
>> options for every situation where different people have different
>> opinions, it's the road to chaos ;-)
>>
>> I personally prefer "tags", as used by Flickr and del.icio.us. 
>> "Labels"
>> is okay.
>
> I vote for tags as well.  Again, I don't care much.
>
>>> 2) I started with organizing things hierarchically, hence the "/" all
>>> over the place.  I think tagging/labelling/categorizing can do
>>> everything hierarchies can do, but have not been inclined to actually
>>> go ahead and make all hierarchical entries flat.  This may be the 
>>> best
>>> thing to do.  What would be nice if I had a whole bunch of content to
>>> tag and see how to best do things.  (Labels with hierarchies or 
>>> labels
>>> with no hierarchies.)
>>
>> I see the value of hierarchical wiki names in easier linking to
>> subpages. For example from "SomePage" I should be able to link to
>> "SomePage/SubPageOne" simply by writing "/SubPageOne". Note that that
>> improves both the readability and the writability of long page names,
>> also compared to a flat namespace where I'd have to write
>> "SomePageSubPageOne". (This sort of shortcut linking isn't currently
>> implemented in Trac, but I really think it should be.)
>
> Agreed.  However, I think Chris Beck is right.  "/" would be weird.
> "./" makes more sense to me.  I've started implementing this as a
> macro.

/SubPage is a convention I know from UseMod (see 
http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?UseModWiki). MoinMoin uses a 
similar convention described at 
http://moinmoin.wikiwikiweb.de/HelpOnEditing/SubPages. Using "./" 
actually implies linking to a page at the same level, not a sub-page. 
The basic problem here is that normal wiki names are absolute 
references, unlike file paths where absolute references always start 
with a slash (or drive letters on mediocre operation systems ;-) ).

> I am already using shortcuts in labels. "." refers to self and .0
> refers to top hierarchical element (SomePage in "SomePage/SubPageOne")
> for example.  Maybe we should create a list of shortcuts and make them
> work both in wiki references and labeling.

Not sure I understand... in what context are you using "." as shortcut?

> An added advantage of using shortcuts is easier refactoring.

Agreed.

>> Generally I think tags/labels are often used in addition to hierarchy
>> for organizing information.
>
> Using them together makes sense.  Hierarchies are for more obvious or
> primary classifications.  Labels do everything else.
>
>> One thing I wonder about is whether tags should really be limited to
>> wiki pages. Why not allow tagging of e.g. tickets and changesets?
>> Possibly replacing the already existing keywords for tickets?
>
> I've thought of that.  Since I was new to Trac I really haven't had
> much of a chance to explore the API it exposes to see if tickets and
> changesets could be similarly tagged.

There's not much of an actual "API" exposed, really. But if tags are to 
be built into Trac as a core concept, it *might* make sense to support 
the concept throughout, not just for wiki pages. It's a pretty blurry 
idea at this point, but it might make more sense when tags start being 
used in practice.

> Also does the reverse make sense: should we allow using a ticket as a 
> tag?

Interesting... so you could e.g. mark wiki pages as being related to a 
ticket by tagging them with the ticket ID?

I really need to check out how you're using tags more closely.

Cheers,
Chris
--
Christopher Lenz
/=/ cmlenz at gmx.de