Tiddlywiki5: [BUG] The new markdown plugin doesn't support Wikitext links.

[Marxsal]

This was sort of in between "bug" and "idea".

The new markdown plugin allows the use of wikitext including transclusions, macros, etc. That's great! But strangely, it doesn't allow wikitext links e.g. [[*]] even though this syntax is distinctive from any syntax that is part of markdown. It's feels like markdown in TW ran a marathon, and quit at the 22 mile marker.
Most of the computing world is using markdown these days. People coming to TW for the first time may want to only "speak" it at first. The [[*]] syntax is (nearly) the last barrier to having the best of both worlds.

[pmario]

The markdown syntax for a link is [link text](#tiddler name). If you use [](#tiddler name) that's also fine.

[pmario]

If you open this tiddler: https://tiddlywiki.com/plugins/tiddlywiki/markdown/#%24%3A%2Fconfig%2Fmarkdown%2FrenderWikiTextPragma it defines the rules, that are handed over to the TW wikitext parser.

If you add prettylink to the end of the list
Save
Reload, it should do what you want. ...

BUT as I said: [[link]] is not markdown syntax and not compatible with other editors.

[Jermolene]

Thanks @pmario @Marxsal I guess the question is whether we should enable pretty links by default, especially given that they don't clash with existing Markdown syntax.

[pmario]

hmmm, I'm undecided. ..

On one hand it is an experience, that users seem to expect.

On the other hand it is a "markdown incompatibility". Creating WikiLinks the "markdown way" is explicitely explained at: https://tiddlywiki.com/plugins/tiddlywiki/markdown/#HelloThere

On the other other hand ;) The rest of the renderWikiTextPragma config is also not really compatible.

[saqimtiaz]

I recommend we create a configuration tiddler with checkboxes to let the user easily add/remove rules from renderWikiTextPragma. Regardless of the default setting, I think that would be a big step forwards in usability, especially since it seems that most users that look for a Markdown plugin are those not so familiar with tweaking TiddlyWiki.

[Marxsal]

Where are all the \rules defined?

[Jermolene]

Hi @Marxsal

Where are all the \rules defined?

They are listed in control panel, and implemented by the parsers in https://github.com/Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5/tree/master/core/modules/parsers/wikiparser/rules

[Jermolene]

I think the boat sailed on Markdown compatibility when we decided to add support for wikitext, and I think that was the right decision, people seem to like the idea. So I'd favour changing the default to include prettylinks, and adding a settings page as outlined by @saqimtiaz

[pmario]

@Marxsal ... I did have a closer look. The docs is missing. I'll try to create a PR if I have time this weekend. ... But if someone else is faster I don't have a problem.

[sukima]

I found the WikiText much better and more flexible to work with. I find I would rather work with WikiText the Markdown.

[mikepyne]

I would like the @@.<class> text@@ WikiText to work with Markdown; I think the @@ WikiText is handled by the "styleineline" rule. When I go to edit the 'renderWikiTextPragma' tiddler, it warns me that I'm editing a shadow tiddler which might make future upgrades difficult.

What's the best way to configure the renderWikiTextPragma for the Markdown plugin?

[linonetwo]

I'm going to make a new editor like https://laobubu.net/HyperMD/#README.md recently, I'm going to make it support both markdown and wikitext, so we can have mixed content of both syntax.

But some syntaxes are in conflict, for example, title # in MD is not compatible with list # in wikitext.

I hope I can let a user choose which set of syntax they want, but after save to the disk, the mix of wikitext and MD will result in a file that can only be opened by this new editor, and on this user's wiki... Other user with different syntax set won't be able to render it properly (for example, render title as list item instead)

---

I think markdown is more popular now, and is good for TiddlyWiki to acquire more user from the user group of Typora, if we can have a Typora style editor.

So I think I will make a "markdown-with-[[]]-link-syntax plus widget and macro" first...

[saqimtiaz]

@linonetwo I would recommend deciding in advance which formats the editor is going to allow and excluding those that clash. Otherwise, as you state, there will be issues where if the editor configuration changes the file can no longer be parsed properly.