thoughts, responses

3 files changed, 60 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/doc/todo/conditional_text_based_on_ikiwiki_features.mdwn b/doc/todo/conditional_text_based_on_ikiwiki_features.mdwn
index 3cefc97a2..444f1c2d5 100644
--- a/doc/todo/conditional_text_based_on_ikiwiki_features.mdwn
+++ b/doc/todo/conditional_text_based_on_ikiwiki_features.mdwn
@@ -1,4 +1,10 @@
-I'd like to see some way to conditionally include wiki text based on whether the wiki enables or disables certain features.  For example, [[helponformatting]], could use `\[[if (enabled smiley) """Also, because this wiki has the smiley plugin enabled, you can insert \[[smileys]] and some other useful symbols."""]]`, and a standard template for [[plugins]] pages could check for the given plugin name to print "enabled" or "disabled".
+I'd like to see some way to conditionally include wiki text based on
+whether the wiki enables or disables certain features.  For example,
+[[helponformatting]], could use `\[[if (enabled smiley) """Also, because
+this wiki has the smiley plugin enabled, you can insert \[[smileys]] and
+some other useful symbols."""]]`, and a standard template for [[plugins]]
+pages could check for the given plugin name to print "enabled" or
+"disabled".
 
 Some potentially useful conditionals:
 
@@ -11,6 +17,41 @@ Some potentially useful conditionals:
 * `sourcepage pagespec`: true if pagespec includes the page corresponding to the file actually containing this content, rather than a page including it.
 * `included`: true if included on another page, via [[plugins/inline]], [[plugins/sidebar]], [[plugins/contrib/navbar]], etc.
 
-You may or may not want to include boolean operations (`and`, `or`, and `not`); if you do, you could replace `disabled` with `not enabled`, and `no pagespec` or `none pagespec` with `not any pagespec` (but you may want to keep the aliases for simplicity anyway).  You also may or may not want to include an `else` clause; if so, you could label the text used if true as `then`.
+You may or may not want to include boolean operations (`and`, `or`, and
+`not`); if you do, you could replace `disabled` with `not enabled`, and `no
+pagespec` or `none pagespec` with `not any pagespec` (but you may want to
+keep the aliases for simplicity anyway).  You also may or may not want to
+include an `else` clause; if so, you could label the text used if true as
+`then`.
 
-Syntax could vary greatly here, both for the [[PreprocessorDirective]] and for the condition itself.
+Syntax could vary greatly here, both for the [[PreprocessorDirective]] and
+for the condition itself.
+
+> I think this is a good thing to consider, although conditionals tend to
+> make everything a lot more complicated, so I also want to KISS, and not
+> use too many of them.
+> 
+> I'd probably implement this using the same method as pagespecs, so 'and',
+> 'or', '!', and paren groupings work.
+> 
+> It could be thought of as simply testing to see if a pagespec matches
+> anything, using a slightly expanded syntax for the pagespec, which would
+> also allow testing for things like link(somepage),
+> created_before(somepage), etc.
+> 
+> That also gives us your "any pagespec" for free: "page or page or page".
+> And for "all pagespec", you can do "page and page and page". 
+> 
+> For plugins testing, maybe just use "enabled(name)"?
+> 
+> I'm not sure what the use cases are for thispage, sourcepage, and
+> included. I don't know if the included test is even doable. I'd be
+> inclined to not bother with these three unless there are use cases I'm
+> not seeing.
+> 
+> As to the syntax, to fit it into standard preprocessor syntax, it would
+> need to look something like this:
+>
+>	\[[if test="enabled(smiley)" """foo"""]]
+> 
+> --[[Joey]]
diff --git a/doc/todo/conditional_underlay_files.mdwn b/doc/todo/conditional_underlay_files.mdwn
index e5dfdf420..03381943f 100644
--- a/doc/todo/conditional_underlay_files.mdwn
+++ b/doc/todo/conditional_underlay_files.mdwn
@@ -8,4 +8,17 @@ I'd like to see some way to include certain files from the underlay only when th
 * Include wikiicons/diff.png (and the wikiicons directory) only if you enable the CGI.
 * Include a hypothetical restructuredtexthelp.rst or similar for other formats only with those formats enabled.
 
-I can see two good ways to implement this.  Ideally, with [[conditional_text_based_on_ikiwiki_features]] available, ikiwiki could parse a page like conditionalpages.mdwn, which could contain a set of conditional-wrapped page names; that seems like the most elegant and ikiwiki-like approach.  Alternatively, [[/ikiwiki.setup]] could contain a Perl-generated exclude option by default; that would work, but it seems hackish.
\ No newline at end of file
+I can see two good ways to implement this.  Ideally, with
+[[conditional_text_based_on_ikiwiki_features]] available, ikiwiki could
+parse a page like conditionalpages.mdwn, which could contain a set of
+conditional-wrapped page names; that seems like the most elegant and
+ikiwiki-like approach.  Alternatively, [[/ikiwiki.setup]] could contain a
+Perl-generated exclude option by default; that would work, but it seems
+hackish.
+
+> Another way might be to have a third directory of source files where
+> plugins could drop in pages, and only build the files from there if their
+> plugins were enabled.
+> 
+> Using the conditionals in a page to control what other pages get built
+> feels complex to me, --[[Joey]]
diff --git a/doc/todo/recentchanges.mdwn b/doc/todo/recentchanges.mdwn
index 4cba25692..f1620ecd0 100644
--- a/doc/todo/recentchanges.mdwn
+++ b/doc/todo/recentchanges.mdwn
@@ -26,3 +26,5 @@
   > That would work rather well for pages like [[todo]] and [[bugs]], where
   > you want to know about any updates, not just initial
   > creation. --[[JoshTriplett]]
+
+  > Of course you can use email subscriptions for that too.. --[[Joey]]