Once in a while, when I face some puzzle in writing and posting to my blog, I wonder why I continue to use Flint, a Tinderbox template to create my blog instead of an application made for it like Wordpress. The learning curve is steep, and the license is not inexpensive. Tom Webster ("Blogging with Tinderbox" via Mark Bernstein) reminded why I like Flint for my weblog:

I recently went back to deciphering Flint, which is a collection of macros and templates to turn Tinderbox into a pretty robust weblog generator. Ever since Radio Userland I have liked the idea of maintaining a weblog locally and then only needing to upload html to a remote server with no server install necessary--easy to keep my thoughts on my laptop where they belong, and very simple to publish what I want to publish. I realize that you can accomplish the same thing with a weblog client like Ecto and any garden-variety weblog app, but Tinderbox's ability to replicate a post-it board full of non-linear notes is brilliant and irreplacable. Why does this matter? Look at the popularity of tagging as an organizational scheme for modern blogs. Tagging has become popular precisely because 'chronological' and 'hierarchical' just don't cut it as organizing principles for the giant spinning cork ball of the creative mind.

Tinderbox, however, lets me link any old note to any other old note, and back again--so my notes can be organized like index cards spread out on a table, regardless of how my weblog reads. That makes it much easier for me to revisit things I might have missed, and keep "back burner" thoughts percolating for when inspiration strikes. It also lets me maintain a private weblog and a public weblog all in one Tinderbox document--a highly usable intersection of Wiki and weblog, all searchable and linked on one big canvas. Again, though there are other apps better suited for weblogging, there are none better suited for brainstorming and organizing my thoughts--and now all I have to do is drag a note from one part of my drawing table to another, and it is published (or not). When you can truly live within Tinderbox for everything, the tool itself stops being visible and starts becoming a natural extension of your thought process and not just a "blog tool."

Tinderbox has yet to become a natural extension of my thought process. It takes time to master it. Still, I like the potential for using one application for brainstorming, taking notes, re-combining them, and generating new permutations of concepts that I might not have thought of otherwise. Once mastered, Tinderbox is a great tool for thinking and learning. The weblog is just an extra benefit.

Here are some other articles on Tinderbox:

Matt Neuburg's review: Light your fire with Tinderbox
Matt Neuburg for creating web pages: Creating Online Help with Tinderbox
Tom Webster: Problem Solving with Tinderbox
Tom Webster: More Problem Solving with Tinderbox
Doug Miller: Miscellaneous posts on Tinderbox
Ted Goranson on outlining: Deep Tinderbox
Alastair Weakley: Using Tinderbox for writing

My posts will slow down, perhaps become non-existent for the next few weeks. Right now, I'm finishing up grading for the semester. My schedule for the next few weeks is:

• May 13: Tinderbox informal discussion in Boston.
• May 17-18: ELMS (Education of Language Minority Students) grant workshop at Kean.
• May 22: Conference presentation for NJWA (The New Jersey Writing Alliance)
• May 23-24: Conference presentations (2) at NJTESOL/NJBE
• May 25: ELMS grant followup meeting
• June 2: ELMS workshop

The YahooMap macro lets you display a Yahoo Map for any lattitude ot longitude. The arguments are

1. a name for the map, which should be unique within this page (i.e. if you need two maps on the same page, they should have distinct names)
2. the latitude of the center of the map
3. the longitude of the center of the map
4. the map width, in pixels
5. the map height, in pixels

To create this map, we write:

^do(YahooMap,testMap, 30.244047, -97.74175, 300, 200)

The macro ^do(googleBox) creates a google search box that searches a specific site.

The site to be searched is specified as the URL in /Configuration/google.

You can link to the amazon listing for any book if you know its ISBN number

^do(amazon,055380197X,Locked Rooms) gives you Locked Rooms.

^do(amazonCover,055380197X,Locked Rooms) fetches a small image of the cover, if one is available: see the example at right.

It's easy to fetch flickr photos for any tag, or a random selection from your personal flickr account. Just enter your account number in Configuration/flickr and use the ^do(flickr) macro:

You can also use the ^flickr_tag macro to retrieve the latest flickr images for any tag: ^do(flickr_tag,Paris,3) gets you some pictures of Paris.

The macro ^do(tag,theTag) marks a published note with the corresponding Technorati tag. For example,

^do(tag,Tinderbox)

will assign the Tinderbox tag to the page: [Tinderbox].

You can follow the tag link to see related pages elsewhere on the Web. (More information on Technorati tags)

The define macro lets you create handy dictionary links. ^do(define,epistle) gives you this: epistle*

You can easily change the macro to change the appearance of the definition if you don't like the asterisk.