XWidgetSoft Forum

The next task to popularise Xwidget further is to convince the non-widgeteers out there that Xwidget is a usable alternative to other products. There is no other supported widget engine in development now that allows you to create non-square non-traditional apps with fully transparent backgrounds. These are still very rare in the whole world of desktop development. It can be done using Windows but it requires serious coding and is complex. Xwidget does it easily and by default. This is a mjor selling point for Xwidget that the world does not yet really understand.

In addition, Xwidget is underselling itself. It sells itself as a widget engine but in fact it is a lot more than that.
It is in fact a very simple way of creating javascript apps that run on the desktop perfectly well without requiring the complexities of node.js or electron.js. It uses jscript which is based upon ECMA standard javascript so any web app can be ported to Xwidgets and vice versa. Instead of CSS Xwidget output goes to objects whose screen position and other properties are described in XML. XML is a simple markup language that will be familiar to any javascript coder.

Xwidget engine extends Microsoft's jscript, to provide APIs that allow access to o/s functions that standard javascript simply does not - this is a real boon. Xwidget has an on-the-fly debugger that allows rapid application development, Xwidget has its own IDE (not the best but improving and it'll do in a pinch).

Xwidget has access to Windows activeX allowing you even more access to the Windows sub systems, FS, WMI, WMP &c

The good thing about using the Xwidget engine is that if you do all your logic in pure javascript if the engine goes "tits-up" then your code can still be migrated to the the web.

The thing is that Xwidget is a viable alternative to some serious apps out there that are attempting to do the same thing, ie. put javascript apps on the desktop (node.js, electron.js &c). Xwidgets is not being sold as a javascript solution for the desktop solution but it fits the bill perfectly.

See my article here on stackoverflow:

-oOo-

So here is the rub. Xwidgets is a solution for putting javascript apps on the desktop, freed from the imprisonment of the browser, it can create transparent background apps of any shape. It is a javascript RAD environment with a debugger and an IDE. It provides system level access to the file and operating system. It is what all javascript developers have been waiting for.

-oOo-

The next step is to start pushing Xwidgets to this market.

One thing is we need to show off the apps that aren't just clocks or weather; If you look on the galleries both on Xwidget and Deviantart a vast majority of them are those two things-- which, while cool, don't show off the true power of the engine.

Maybe we should find and promote the most complex apps that are possible to give power users an idea of what they can do.

That's a good idea, well for a start, there's my media player that is 6,000 lines of javascript. I'll submit this to the list. The important thing for this list is that any proposed widgets must not use any of Tony's cores (a timer core is OK as it is a simple API and an alternative to the javascript timer function) as what we are trying to demonstrate here is the power of javascript and NOT the power of Tony's cores written in C++.



My widget uses only timer cores so it is acceptable. Some of the other cores that provide access to system level functions are fine, battery monitor &c, it is just the complex functions such as the weather cores that obscure what we are trying to demonstrate. That weather core is probably five hundred lines of C++ code in itself and it could all be done in pure javascript.

You can get the media player here:



It also demonstrates use of ActiveX to access Windows filesystem and WMP.

Jim can create a weather or clock widget in no time at all (not disparaging Jim's work in any way) as he uses any one of his previous widgets as a template and he lets the cores take the strain. Most of Jim's widgets have almost no javascript code whatsoever and that's to his credit as it allows him to create so many widgets, 8,000 and counting.

The trouble is that we do have 500 gauges, 3,500 clocks and 3,997 weather widgets (that's a joke BTW).

We need the pure javascript examples. Tony, fancy submitting a pure javascript widget?

I've recreated this article on Deviantart to gain more exposure: