XWidgetSoft Forum

thanks for all widgets u make its nice program.

Thanks for the support mortuus!

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It's the best and easiest out there.
Makes Rainmeter look ancient.
Can't wait for version 2

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Cheers, Pete

Hm did u stop adding new widgets or?

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...and remember: don't take life too seriously...
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ah that's where u r. I was worried!!

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Cheers, Pete

Personally I still think that the yahoo widget engine (YWE) is slightly better than the Xwidget engine at the moment.

It has much more standard and fully-featured Javascript and XML support, the implementation of javascript is much more elegant. Xwidgets implementation is lacking and is used merely for as the glue for scripting. The YW engine has full and thorough documentation, you can see it here:
.

I wish Xwidgets had the same.

Xwidgets has an IDE - YWE does not. However, with YWE the IDE is Photoshop and your own code editor along with a photoshop conversion script the combination of which which suits me just fine - view that script here:


You can get photoshop here for free:


Xwidgets has the advantage of being the only current javascript widget engine that is still being developed (if not actively). The idea of the IDE is good though the implementation is VERY clunky and needs serious improvement. The documentation is extremely patchy and unfortunately no improvement is expected here soon. As a result support is required but this is very patchy too. Xwidget has a few more cores than Yahoo Widget engine and this makes it much easier for a newbie to create widgets without using a single line of code. However, those core functions that are missing from the Yahoo widget engine you can create in code instead using fully-featured javascript. Xwidget is expected to have the functional advantage here overall and in the future as new cores are introduced.

On the downside, YWE has no support and no active forum, parts of it will also start to fail to function if Windows radically changes in the future, the equivalent of the volume core has already stopped functioning due to changes in the way that NT6 systems secure the volume controls. When Xwidget 2.0 and 3.0 come out Xwidgets deficiencies may change and it may start to be functionally superior to the Yahoo Widget Engine? Who knows? I am hoping though my hopes here are not currently being realised...

For the moment though I still code for the YWE and only then do I convert to Xwidgets. The process is shown here:

I have only created four Xwidgets but I have many more to convert. What is stopping me? Frankly, I will create no more Xwidgets until the serious structural problems of Xwidgets are sorted. The lack of developer involvement in the forums, the lack of updates and news about same. No visibility of the core code and no development/support team to take the infrastructure forward. The serious site problems (listed as malware-supporting by many main browsers) and the a/v tools marking the widget engine itself as malware. So much has to be fixed before anyone should seriously touch Xwidgets with all its technical deficiencies.

So, a comparison of Yahoo widgets and Xwidgets means that the Yahoo Widget Engine wins hands down at the moment, purely because of that complete documentation and Xwidgets clunky IDE. Xwidgets are definitely not the best - not yet but if that IDE is sorted and the documentation starts to appear, well then...

I failed to mention the ability to port simple clock/battery widgets to Android. If this is your aim then Xwidgets has a serious advantage.

There is uebersicht for the Mac which is a Java script engine and on GitHub nad could possibly be ported, but TBH I really want Xwidget to prosper.

Me too, but honestly I don't think it will. Tony does not seem to understand the depths Xwidgets has sunk to. He has just bought another domain and is hosting the site there too - that shows little understanding of the sh1t that his baby is in, all caused by him with no clear solution.

I do start wondering whether Tony's reticence to make the engine open source means that the code is hiding something. I DO hope not.

I think he just hasn't a clue as to anything outside of coding.

Uebersicht for the Mac is very interesting but not yet fully featured. The Yahoo widget engine also works on the Mac OS/X as well as Windows, same code producing identically functioning widgets. Even on the Mac I would stay with the Yahoo Widget Engine.

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XWidget Software Developer
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I am SO glad you are responding.

Good that you have contacted the a/v owners

I think you should open it for the following reason. It will give ownership to the community, we can have roles in it's development, we can HELP you. We could help with new cores. People will help if they have the opportunity. At the moment it is all YOUR baby and it is hard to help when you aren't party to the inner circle.

I am SO glad you won't give up on Xwidget!

So good to finally hear from Tony.
Great that the website is now clean.
And even better that Tony still has a positive outlook for the future of Xwidget.
Tony you and your product have a LOT of fans out there. Please remember that.

And if you need help ask and I am sure many of us will be happy to help if we can.
(PS I tend to agree re open source. This has come up with Winamp which I am very involved in and they concluded that open sourcing it would not be a solution also)

KEEP AT IT TONY.

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Cheers, Pete

With regard to open source - you couldn't be more wrong.

The community here barely exists and the project is all down to one man. It has already foundered several times with really bad decisions on Tony's part and the failure to take advice. The site and forum infrastructure has been down/compromised by malware flagging several times. This is ALL because it is a one-man project with the one-man taking the wrong direction.

If he could create a real community with members taking responsibility for different parts of the whole then the project would become inclusive rather than always appearing dodgy and on the verge of failing. It has looked like this several times.

The fact is that one uncommunicative developer, malware flags and a bad reputation for PUPs gives the world absolutely no confidence.

I look at Xwidget and cannot for the life of me find enough in it to want to convert any more of my widgets whilst the project is in the state it is.

Currently - we get no developer feedback on new functionality, no developer fixing on the forums, no input into what actually goes into new releases, no visibility of code, no real attempt to repair any of that bad reputation earnt, a quiet forum with only one real contributor (Jim King), on top of that a static website with no feedback, a small community of developers, a small community of users that lacks the ability to help market the project as it is not in control...

Just to show you how small the community is here - on the old Konfabulator site I would receive a thousand downloads per day per widget.

We are not partners nor equals in a great venture, we are not able to contribute. We are just servants waiting for Tony to deliver something into our grateful hands. That isn't happening, we get next to nothing. As a result Xwidget to me, still looks dead in the water.

Open sourcing the code is the first step towards getting a team together. There will be no real team without ownership and you can't get ownership in a closed-source product. Without that team the whole effort is pointless anyway as no-one will push XWidget, very few will use it and it will remain a marginal project with a rocky future.

Until Tony decides to open-source Xwidget I believe it is very brave of people like Jim to carry on coding. All your (and his) work could go down the pan in a very short while. The exact same thing happened with Konfabulator/Yahoo widgets and those who code with it now are stuck with no alternative except Xwidgets and that future is looking decidely rocky. At the moment there is no future, nothing has been announced, no plan, no roadmap, no deliveries, nothing.

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XWidget Software Developer
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Tony, when the update do? Please repair what he wrote Jimking in point 1 and 2 ..

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Tony, just ask for help, assign roles, ASK for help! We will give it.

Konfabulator was closed source - that is why it is dead. If it was open then we could have continued to develop it.
Xwidgets only needs to open-source to get more help. Open-sourcing Xwidgets will not harm it in any way!

We can then start looking for coders/devs. We could maintain the site, improve it. Help with documentation, at the moment we don't even know what we are all doing. There is no community here and I can see the need to build one.

I know how you feel about working alone for little cash. Xwidget won't earn you a lot of money unless you make it the best, you provide the direction, get assistance and let us help you make it happen.