TiddlyWiki

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A Standard Edit dialog on a Tiddler

TiddlyWiki is a wiki-modeled client-side single page application written by Jeremy Ruston that is designed to be used as a personal notebook. It is a single self-contained HTML file that includes CSS and JavaScript code. When the user downloads it to their PC, TiddlyWiki can save the entered information by overwriting itself on the user's disk, at the user's request. Following TiddlyWiki conventions, users can make a new entry, called a Tiddler, in their local copy of the TiddlyWiki file and save it for future reference. Existing Tiddlers can also be modified or deleted in the same way.

TiddlyWiki is published by Osmosoft under a BSD open source license, which makes it freely available. Developer Jeremy Ruston describes it as experimental, and in that spirit many people have used the original HTML file to create TiddlyWiki Adaptations. These fall under two general categories: those that retain the client-side write only feature, and those that add server-side file writing to make TiddlyWiki more like a true wiki. Links to both these kinds of Adaptations are put in the original TiddlyWiki file as they become known. TiddlyWiki Adaptations typically add features that were not originally envisioned by Ruston, and some of these features have been included in newer versions of TiddlyWiki.

A feature that sets TiddlyWiki apart from a standard wiki implementation is its content presentation. Jeremy Ruston had this to say about it:

A TiddlyWiki is like a blog because it's divided up into neat little chunks (tiddlers), but it encourages you to read it by hyperlinking rather than sequentially: if you like, a non-linear blog analogue that binds the individual microcontent items into a cohesive whole. I think that TiddlyWiki represents a novel medium for writing, and will promote its own distinctive Writing Style.

Although a TiddlyWiki is designed for keeping notes, it can also be used as the foundation for a complete Web site. Photo album and slideshow generator Umibozu (wiki) is based on TiddlyWiki.