zim-wiki team mailing list archive

[Jaap Karssenberg <jaap.karssenberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

Pablo Angulo wrote:
>   Hello:
>   In my process of learning python + gtk, I've created a zim mock up to
> try out a concept. The idea is to make creation of notes a bit faster,
> to achieve mind-map speed, but keeping the current treeview used in zim.
> This is how it works:
>
>   * Use arrows to move in the treeview, enter to select a note and
> control+space to switch to the editor and back, as usual
>   * Use alt+arrows to create notes within the TreeView, using the
> editable property of this widget. (alt+left for children, alt+down for
> sibling)
>   * When there are children of the Template folder, if a new note is
> created, you might type the template name and hit enter. Then the text
> from the template is copied to the new note, and the cell will become
> editable one more time so that you can introduce the real name of this note.
>   

Hmm, interesting idea. Indeed it speeds up creation of new nodes and 
makes zim feel more like an outliner - as it should feel. And bonus 
points for attaching a running demo !

The enhanced key bindings could be implemented in zim relatively easily. 
You might want to have a go hacking this in the pyzim port.

The template part need a little bit more work as we need  a proper place 
to store templates. But just using a namespace is ok for a prototype. 
(OK, the custom treemodel looks scary, but just adding a new page to the 
index should make it show up in the tree.)

Two questions though:
1) Can we use different key-bindings ?

Reason for asking is that the Alt + arrow combos are in use for 
navigation already. How about Ctrl + arrow ?

2) Can we keep the templates but not have the double editing step.

Reason is that I feel this will be real confusing behavior if you do not 
expect it. Also you might accidentally have a page of the same name as a 
template and have a conflict.

My suggestion would be to use some syntax like "tempalte: pagename" to 
create a page from a template. E.g. typing "book: Snowcrash" would 
create a page "Snowcrash" using the template "book".

Any comments ?

Regards,

Jaap