David Hyatt on Dashboard

[Chad]

I was just over at Surfin' Safari (Dave Hyatt's Safari blog), and notice he put up a short post clarifying what the Dashboard widgets are programmed in. Quite cool if you ask me.

I wanted to blog briefly to clear up what the widgets actually are written in.  They are Web pages, plain and simple (with extra features thrown in for added measure).  Apple's own web site says "build your own widgets using the JavaScript language", but that's sort of misleading.  The widgets are HTML+CSS+JS.  They are not some JS-only thing.

In other words, each widget is just a web page, and so you have the full power of WebKit behind each one... CSS2, DOM2, JS, HTML, XMLHttpRequest, Flash, Quicktime, Java, etc.  I'll have a lot more to say later on, but I thought it important to clear that up right up front, since a lot of people were asking me about it in email and such.

Surfin' Safari

[XanDaMan]

Intresting...I cant wait to hear more...

[oik]

i like daring fireball's new post about dashboard vs. konfabulator.

[Fusion]

i like daring fireball's new post about dashboard vs. konfabulator.

I was just gonna post that... :laugh:

[PureEdit]

I just wish tiger had a screen corner for dashboard, I am sure they will add it, but I want it now...

[oik]

i'm not gonna have enough f keys for all these nice expose effects... i don't wanna press fn, so i set all windows to f11 and desktop to f12. nowhere to put dashboard :(

[Elliott]

Dashboard currently has to be F12 as far as I know. :p

I remember those backlit keyboard keys always caused me trouble when trying to use Expos?.

[aristotle-dude]

i'm not gonna have enough f keys for all these nice expose effects... i don't wanna press fn, so i set all windows to f11 and desktop to f12. nowhere to put dashboard :(

How about using a screen corner?

[Steve]

Screen Corners for Dashboard isn't enabled in the Expos? control panel. Well not on my installation, anyhow. Besides, How often would you want those widgets up on screen? I think a screen corner might be a little too 'overkill' for Dashboard, but i guess its all subjective... For me at least, I wouldn't see myself hitting F12 too many times!:laugh::

You could always create a small Applescript app to call on Dashboard, and whack it in the dock?!:pp

[Elliott]

I've hit F12 more times than I thought I would. Lol.

[oik]

How about using a screen corner?

i fling my mouse about wildly... god only knows where it will come to rest. usually it's in a corner. i tried using expose's corners, but windows were flying about constantly :p

[PureEdit]

Screen Corners for Dashboard isn't enabled in the Expos? control panel. Well not on my installation, anyhow. Besides, How often would you want those widgets up on screen? I think a screen corner might be a little too 'overkill' for Dashboard, but i guess its all subjective... For me at least, I wouldn't see myself hitting F12 too many times!:laugh::

You could always create a small Applescript app to call on Dashboard, and whack it in the dock?!:pp

I am using it for iTunes, so I access it a lot.

[aristotle-dude]

Here are a two of the Dashboard gadgets to play with if you have Safari. It might work on KHTML browsers on linux too.

http://www.erikveland.com/gadgets/calculator/Calculator.html

http://www.erikveland.com/gadgets/calendar/Calendar.html

[Southern Patriot]

Here are a two of the Dashboard gadgets to play with if you have Safari. It might work on KHTML browsers on linux too.

http://www.erikveland.com/gadgets/calculator/Calculator.html

http://www.erikveland.com/gadgets/calendar/Calendar.html

Very cool. Thanks!