Widgets; what else can they do?

from WinCustomize Forums
Hey guys, I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but all the widgets for DesktopX seem like they do the same thing. I mean, people are putting out new ones almost every day, but they're all clocks, calendars, and cpu monitors. It just seems to me we're just reinventing the wheel over and over here, just giving it a different skin. Now I don't have the know-how to program anything, but I'm interested to see what kinds of widgets you guys can make that run on DX.

Just a thought for some of the more advanced programmers out there.
1,508 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yea, that's been the case since the beginning. DX widgets can do pretty much what any other regular application and such can do.
In my little collection of unfinished projects I got a gadget to measure angles and lengths on the monitor by placing rulers across the desktop.
And another project is a application launcher type of widget.

I think SD is trying to address this by making a new product where coders can create a skinnable widgets. Sounds like it'll be something where the coders create the framework and allows other people to create widget skins.

A number of times there's been threads about this and various attempts to address it without any real success.
Though, I got the feeling the DX community has been doing some nice stuff lately and I think there is things brewing.
RomanDA's tutorials are also nice as it gives good breakdown of DX's capabilities. Hopefully they'll spark some interest at some newcommers.

But in the end it boils down to that creating something new in DX require some time coding and to me it doesn't seem that there's a whole great interest there. Which is understandable in a way, but considering the amount of creative webdeveloper, esesially in these times with AJAX and rich web applications being buzzwords, I'd expect to see more people creating new fresh content. Maybe DX needs to be adverticed more towards this group...
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
This subject seems to pop up on a regular basis. There's lot's of different things you can do. In fact there are some amazing 'What are You Working On' threads.

Lately the big and I think positive push amongst DXr's has been towards building more development resources to help others in creating their own widgets. A great starting place is in the DesktopX Tutorials Forum.

From a developer perspective I think the issue is mostly time vs rewards. While accolades are nice, some green doesn't hurt either. So, don't expect any really complex widgets to be appearing anytime soon. Personally I try to share code or objects because usually I'm on to learning something else that can be implemented into objects/widgets/gadgets!

It doesn't hurt to suggest ideas either.
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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If you want to find the really dynamic widgets you've got to go into the personal galleries. I'm talking about RomanDA, Vad_M, Tiggz, and many many more (including these two guys above me).

Widgets are only as inventive as their inventors. Inventors are only as inventive as their time and patience will allow. Not a whole lot of people have the time and patience to really dive into learning DX, coming up with new ideas, and then following through. By all accounts skinning is much easier to get into. Hopefully, with DA and others cranking out tutorials and other learning resources it'll get people excited about using DX and it'll make the learning curve less steep.