#443 (Feature request) make attribute

[Jonathan Dushoff]

We agreed several years ago to expand the GPF make attribute. My suggestion (maybe not agreed) is that we provide all four possible cases:
* render
* click
* both
* neither

I often want "neither" when I'm doing background jobs (I find the background-specific links confusing), and "always" would be great when trying to fix something in project A by changing project B.

I think we also agreed that default would be "render" (=true, the current default) if the display option was absent, source, or a file name; and "click" (=false in the current system, if display=link or display=none, but make currently defaults to true in these cases)

We also agreed that an absent display attribute should default to link if linktext is set. I tested this at the same time; it is working: http://lalashan.mcmaster.ca/theobio/math/index.php/Make_defaults

[Lee Worden]

Yes, I support this in principle, and want to develop the details. I
don't remember what we resolved in the past, unfortunately.

I don't want to do away with make=true and make=false, as they're used
internally, in the GPF URL interface, etc. I'm interested in the
possibility of implementing the four cases you mention using maybe
make={true,false} and make-after={true,false}, the latter controlling
what happens when you click on a link.

Translated into those terms, I would reframe this request as the
following - please correct me if I have it wrong:

• implement the make-after attribute
• change the default behavior for display=link from make=true
  make-after=false to make=false make-after=true
• change the default for display=none from make=true make-after=false to
  make=false make-after=false (since make-after can't be used in this case)

I confess I'm not sure what the full current default behavior is when no
display attribute is specified - it could be make=true across the board,
or it may be that WW decides what the display behavior is - link,
source, html, image, etc. - and then assigns the default make value for
that. But I think it's as you say: always make=true (except in the case
of a source file that displays as itself, not as an associated project
file).

Anyway, I'm fine with adding a make-after attribute. Do you think the
four values you named are a better design?

I'm unsure what I think is best as a default for display=link. I'm
clear that you'd prefer that links didn't make during page render. I
think that using display=link with make=true can be very useful while
testing code in an edit/preview cycle, and I don't know what the
majority of users are likely to prefer as the default. Can you remind
me about why you want this change?

For display=none, I've always figured the default should be make=true,
because what use could a display=none tag have if not to cause WW to
make the target? The only other effect it has is to add its project to
the list on the sidebar.

Note also that image project files are currently (de facto) displayed
with make=false make-after=true by default.