A further development of the idea.

diff --git a/doc/todo/inlines_inheriting_links.mdwn b/doc/todo/inlines_inheriting_links.mdwn
index 5560b19c6b0902cb2c5dc3b18259f712493fb463..12531990ce7a07911de59887820fb30b47b7d1a1 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/todo/inlines_inheriting_links.mdwn
+++ b/doc/todo/inlines_inheriting_links.mdwn
@@ -5,10 +5,14 @@ Continuing the ideas in [[bugs/Inline doesn't wikilink to pages]].
 I thought of a use case for another feature: making [[ikiwiki/directive/inline]] inherit the link relations of the included pages (optionally, say, with `inheritlinks=yes`). For example, if I want to list `elements/*` that have been linked to in any of `new_stuff/*`, I could try to write a [[ikiwiki/pagespec]] like
 `elements/* and backlink(new_stuff/*)`.
 
 I thought of a use case for another feature: making [[ikiwiki/directive/inline]] inherit the link relations of the included pages (optionally, say, with `inheritlinks=yes`). For example, if I want to list `elements/*` that have been linked to in any of `new_stuff/*`, I could try to write a [[ikiwiki/pagespec]] like
 `elements/* and backlink(new_stuff/*)`.
 

-This is not yet possible, as discussed in [[todo/tracking_bugs_with_dependencies/]].
+This is not yet possible, as discussed in [[todo/tracking_bugs_with_dependencies]].

 
 It would be possible to work around this limitation of pagespecs if it was possible to create a page `all_new_stuff` with `\[[!inline pages="new_stuff/*" inheritlinks=yes]]`: then the desired pagespec would be expressed as `elements/* and backlink(all_new_stuff)`.
 
 
 It would be possible to work around this limitation of pagespecs if it was possible to create a page `all_new_stuff` with `\[[!inline pages="new_stuff/*" inheritlinks=yes]]`: then the desired pagespec would be expressed as `elements/* and backlink(all_new_stuff)`.
 

+> Or, instead of specifying whether to inherit at the place of the inline, add more relations (`inline`, `backinline`) and relation composition (say, `*`, or haskell-ish `$` in order not confuse with the glob `*`) and explicitly write in the pagespecs that you want to follow the inline relation backwards: `elements/* and backlink$backinline(all_new_stuff)` or, equivalently, if [["classes"|todo/tracking_bugs_with_dependencies]] are implemented in pagespecs: `elements/* and backlink(backinline(all_new_stuff))`. Of course, this suggestion requires the powerful extension to pagespecs, but it gives more flexibility, and the possibility to avoid redundant information: the same pagespec at two places -- the inline and the other matching construction.
+>
+> BTW, adding more relations -- the `inline` relation among them -- would satisfy [[the other feature request|bugs/Inline doesn't wikilink to pages]]. --Ivan Z.
+

 This is not just an ugly workaround. The availability of this feature has some reason: the classes of pages you want to refer to "recursively" (in that kind of complex pagespecs) tend to have some meaning themselves. So, I might indeed want to have a page like `all_new_stuff`, it would be useful for me. And at the same time I would like to write pagespecs like `elements/* and backlink(all_new_stuff)` -- and using the proposed feature in [[todo/tracking_bugs_with_dependencies/]] would be less clean because then I would have to enter the same information at two places: the possibly complex pagespec in the inline. And having redundant information leads to inconsistency.
 
 So in a sense, in some or most cases, it would indeed be cleaner to "store" the definition of a class of pages referred to in complex pagespecs as a separate object. And the most natural representation for this definition of a class of pages (adhering to the principle of wiki that what you mean is entered/stored in its most natural representation, not through some hidden disconnected code) is making a page with an inline/map/or the like, so that at the same time you store the definition and you see what it is (the set of pages is displayed to you).
 This is not just an ugly workaround. The availability of this feature has some reason: the classes of pages you want to refer to "recursively" (in that kind of complex pagespecs) tend to have some meaning themselves. So, I might indeed want to have a page like `all_new_stuff`, it would be useful for me. And at the same time I would like to write pagespecs like `elements/* and backlink(all_new_stuff)` -- and using the proposed feature in [[todo/tracking_bugs_with_dependencies/]] would be less clean because then I would have to enter the same information at two places: the possibly complex pagespec in the inline. And having redundant information leads to inconsistency.
 
 So in a sense, in some or most cases, it would indeed be cleaner to "store" the definition of a class of pages referred to in complex pagespecs as a separate object. And the most natural representation for this definition of a class of pages (adhering to the principle of wiki that what you mean is entered/stored in its most natural representation, not through some hidden disconnected code) is making a page with an inline/map/or the like, so that at the same time you store the definition and you see what it is (the set of pages is displayed to you).