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Konfabulator: Whatever You Want It To Be
Squidgee writes "Arlo Rose, one of the developers who worked on Kaleidoscope, and the ill fated Eazel desktop environment for Linux, has come out with another potentially Mac-shaking app: Konfabulator. Konfabulator lets you run any program written in XML/Applescript/Javascript (It's own little hybrid of all three) in its engine, seamlessly placing the app onto your desktop. Examples of such apps are: A CPU Monitor, a Multi-Clipboard tool, a weather monitor, a battery monitor, etc. It allows for easy developement, beautiful apps, and unlimited functionality."
The main thing is just how easy it is to write widgets. It took me about ten minutes to write a widget that keeps track of my amazon associates account, which was something I wanted to just have always visible. But amazingly, it actually makes writing widgets so easy that graphics designers, not programmers, can do most of it, which means that quick one-off widgets are often astoundingly good looking.
I've had this sig for three days.
Konfabulator actually has a couple useful widgets. The first is one that let's you hide all windows but finder. Super useful has since i've switched I haven't found an easy way to jump to the desktop. This mades the other widgets more useful as they're easier to get to. While the clock & newsreader widgets are pretty useless, CPU monitoring, net traffic monitoring, a calendar, a to-do list, and an e-bay auction monitor turn my otherwise blue-and-empty desktop into something useful. Oh, and did I mention the nifty widget that shows the current terror alert level? :-)
reech bee-yond ur clip-0n
Konfabulator is a desktop tool... there is the ability to make it talk to web servers, and parse the results returned... potentially, you could end up with quite sophisticated widgets that talk to web services, and have some degree of interactivity...
So no, this isn't a lot like what
Um....
;)
Command-tab to finder and command-option-H to hide others.
Option-click the desktop. (Also works with option-clicking other apps in the dock.)
I think there's about a bajillion more ways.
I do have a Konfab registration code, I'm happy. But, as I don't have a TiBook (My IBM drive controller died) I'm pretty skrood. Konfab looks very very promising in terms of what you can do with it. Hopefully it won't go the way of OpenDoc
I will now redundantly add my name to the end of my post. You know, in case you forgot me or something.
Uh, wtf?
Konfabulator is a runtime engine for scripting languages. It allows very functional applets, which Konfabulator calls widgets, to be written quickly without higher level language knowledge. It's $25 shareware.
All the widgets that come with it are useless to me.
The widgets that come with it are merely very simple examples! You can make a widget to do that task you've always wanted to do even if you have no programming knowledge. A widget that does about anything can be made with about a page of code.
OMG, the widgets are just eye candy that take up to much desk space!@ Plus, I have menu extras that do everything!@
1. Then make a widget that is whatever size YOU want it to be!
2. Make a widget that ISN'T eye candy (in your opinion), and displays the data however YOU want!
3. The widgets that come with Konfabulator are simple examples, to show the kinds of things that can be done, while also being visually pleasing.
4. The size issue has been discussed at length. The response seems to indicate the ability to actively scale any widget just didn't make it into 1.0. (I don't speak for the authors, but that was my interpretation.)
Konfabulator still isn't worth it to me...like I said, I have menu extras and docklings that do all this stuff!
If you can't see any purpose for Konfabulator, and can't think beyond applications you already have, and are stuck on the size of the default widgets, then you have utterly, totally missed the point of Konfabulator: to let people with very minimal programming language, i.e. almost anyone, make a small application that does whatever they want it to and looks however they want it to; the ability to actively obtain and display information by any scripted action, or to cause events to occur by any scripted action, all in the interface of your choosing.
The widget library is all clocks and newsreaders!@
Konfabulator has only been out for a week, and relatively few people know about it. There are already over 75 widgets. Yes, there are a lot of people who are just "skinning" the existing widgets, but this is the beginning. There are two people who can benefit from Konfabulator: those who are willing to write a little JavaScript, and those who are talented with artwork and graphics. There's nothing wrong with 20 beautiful clocks that people may want to choose from. Lots more widgets will continue to come.
OMG, they used Java??! Java is slow as HIZZELL on Mac OS X
1. Uh, this is JavaScript, not Java. They have nothing to do with one another.
2. As an aside, Java on Mac OS X is not slow.
This is Active Desktop all over again.
No, it's not, because this doesn't suck.
This is bullshit! They're charging you $25 so that YOU have to go out and do the work of making widgets!!
Look, you can decide if this thing is worth $25 to you or not. They're not charging $25 for the default widgets; they're charging $25 for an easy-to-use and innovative programming/scripting framework. The default widgets are JUST EXAMPLES. Also, we'd better warn Metrowerks to stop charging for CodeWarrior, after all, CodeWarrior is useless unless you actually make an application with it!
By the way, anyone reading this at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, we have a site license for Konfabulator. Email for info.
I still don't get it/think Konfabulator is usless/think it costs to much.
Well, no one's forcing you to use it. Sorry you don't see the value in being able to quickly whip up little mini-apps that can do pretty much anything, AND be visually pleasing!
Anyone know how to make the widgets sticky across desktops when using codetek virtual desktop? I dragged the application to the applications listing in the codetek preferences where you normally put apps you want to be persistent, but it doesn't seem to work.
Not a big deal since the gallery of widgets so far seems to fall into 3 categories: rss feed readers, system montors, and clocks. None of which I need. But I am interested to see other things as people develop more stuff. Certainly a great way to showcase OS X eye candy if nothing else!
Try cmd-option clicking the desktop. Blow your mind! And then if you're so inclined, cmd-option-m. Bam!
When you start it up, it says something to the effect of "I'll walk you through the startup." and then does a number of things WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. First, it creates a ~/Documents/widgets directory. It doesn't warn me about this until after it is done.
Guess we'd better also string up Adobe (Acrobat), Oracle (Corporate Time), Qualcomm (Eudora), Apple (Final Cut family), Microsoft (Office), and Connectix (Virtual PC) for putting things in ~/Library/Documents...
Then it launches a bunch of mini-apps; again, it does not ask me if this is ok.
That's the authors' judgement call about how to start the application. Your comment would be the same as saying "Microsoft Office started the PROJECT GALLERY without my permission!"
I ended up in a state where I had all these weird things on my screen
The setup assistant tells you it's opening up a few sample widgets for you, just to get you familiar with it. It also tells you that you may close any or all of them.
and no application in my dock/ This thing is running but I have no way to shut it down. I had to open Terminal to kill the app.
LOL! The setup assistant also tells you that Konfabulator is controlled and accessed via its menu extra, which is represented by two little gears on your menu bar. It's got a "Quit" option right there.
This thing breaks the entire Apple human Interface guidelines
No it doesn't, as everything you've said so far is wrong.
it sticks applications in the users Documents directory which should never be done
They're not applications at all. (You could also argue that this, and quite a bit of the other stuff placed in Documents, would be more appropriately placed in ~/Library, but that's another discussion altogether.)
and to add insult upon injury, it only runs clocks and stuff -- there is no way to write your own application that I could see.
Oh, this is especially hilarious! You apparently didn't look at Konfabulator's website at all, nor did you take two seconds to look at any of the widgets, which are all just text JavaScript code that can be rewritten or modified in any way, nor did you see the fully documented reference for creating widgets, nor did you apparently even READ the post you responded to! Do you think that it's through some magic that the widget library exists? That there is no way to write code, yet people somehow manage, by miracle of miracles, to be doing it?
Konfabulator: USELESS and HARMFUL.
Your post: USELESS and HARMFUL.
Just so you know, you can interface with _any_ command-line application (A ruby app, for example) with the runcommand("commandhere"); call. So literally any programming language can be used with it. Check out my widget CPsUn for an example of this. There are many others out there, too!
things that make monitoring, resetting, alerts and other "simple" operations like that easier. WITHOUT programming
Get Big Brother. The free version rocks.
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