Slashdot Mirror
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."
I can save most people the trouble of checking out the site.
1/2 the widgets are clocks.
1/3 of the widgets are newsreaders.
The rest are silly widgets that do nothing but take up space.
All of them are HUGE and take up tons of desktop space.
If you want to check their forums, I can save you that trouble also. 1/2 the posts are people having orgasms over the product and 1/3 of the people are complaining about the price.
Right now the widgets don't do anything that menu items or docklets do much better.
Konfabulator proved its worth when a coworker had to use the weather module to find out it was raining outside.
Cursed cubicles.
I totally agree that the current widgets in the gallery are not particularly useful - and nothing to make me want to buy it...
But the value of Konfabulator is not in those widgets... the value is in what might come in the future. The value is in what *you* write for yourself...
As an example, a colleague of mine has written his own widget for monitoring/restarting web servers...
What is special about it? Nothing much... What does it enable? People with some scripting skills, but not the ability to write Cocoa apps, an easy way of creating small pieces of functionality that are useful to them (if no-one else). What's better about it than a cocoa app? It allows many different pieces of functionality to be hosted in it. It allows creativity. It is an app with components, rather than a multitude of apps eating up menu / dock space.
No, there may not be any immediate value for you yet. There isn't for me. But Konfabulator should not be judged on what it is... you should keep an open mind to see what it can become.
I thought John Gruber's review of Konfabulator at Daring Fireball was interesting: he points out that you can't use native widgets -- every graphic element has to be composed -- and that he'd have liked an IDE. He also thinks that adoption rates would be better if they gave away the runtime engine (the app itself) but charged for the development environment.
I can't see this getting past the "this is cool" stage, or getting anywhere near the "this is useful" or even the "this is indispensable" stages.
See also Crazy Apple Rumors, which, as usual, hits the nail on the head: "While there is widespread confusion about what Konfabulator specifically does, there is little confusion about the fact that it is stylish and it is the hottest new application for OS X."
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!