This article refers to widgets in computing. For other uses of widget, see widget.

A widget (or control) is an interface component that a computer user interacts with, such as a window or a text box. Widgets are sometimes qualified as virtual to distinguish them from their physical counterparts, e.g. virtual buttons that can be clicked with a mouse cursor, vs. physical buttons that can be pressed with a finger. Widgets are often packaged together in widget toolkits. Programmers use widgets to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

Two commonly referred to type of widgets are the Yahoo widgets and the Dashboard widgets of Apple Macintosh computer users (Microsoft refers to them as Gadgets both in Windows Vista and the Windows Live sytem.). Widgets, in this case, are downloadable interactive virtual tools that provide services such as showing the user the latest news, the current weather, a dictionary, a map program, sticky notes, or even a language translator, among other things.

Some say that the word "widget" is derived from the combination of "window" and "gadget". This is unlikely. The earliest known occurrence of the word "widget" is in Beggar on Horseback (1924), a comedy play written by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. The hero of this play is a struggling composer who must choose between creating music that stimulates his soul (but earns no money) or earning a living by accepting a soul-deadening job in a factory that makes "widgets". The text of the play intentionally refrains from revealing what "widgets" are; clearly, they represent any purely mercantile commodity that has no artistic or spiritual value.

Various widgets

• Selection
  • Button
  • Check box
  • Radio button
  • Menu
    • Command menu
    • Context menu
    • Pie menu
  • Combo box (text box with attached menu)
  • Icon
  • Toolbar
  • Recursive
    • Tree view
    • Grid view
  • Continuous
    • Scrollbar

• Text input
  • Text box (edit field)
  • Combo box (text box with attached menu)

• Output
  • Tooltip
  • Status bar
  • Progress bar

• Window
  • Modal window
  • Dialog box
  • Utility window

Desktop widgets

Alternatively, a widget is a small specialised desktop application that provides easy access to frequently used functions or provides some visual information. Early examples of widgets were desk accessories on Mac OS. Typical widgets include News aggregators, clocks, calculators, calendars, desktop notes and weather forecasts.

Originally, desk accessories were developed to provide a small degree of multitasking, but when real multitasking OSes became available, these were replaced by normal applications. However, the widget model is attractive because of ease of development. Most widgets can be created with a few images and from less than ten to several hundred lines of XML/JavaScript/VBScript, depending on their complexity.

On Windows, support for widgets is mainly provided by Yahoo! Widgets (formerly Konfabulator), Samurize, DesktopX, Kapsules, AveDesk, and similar Widget engines. Native support for widgets is included in Mac OS X v10.4 (via Dashboard).Also, as previously mentioned, Microsoft will support Gadgets natively in Windows Vista via the Windows Sidebar.

The Opera web browser supports widgets since version 9. In Linux, the software SuperKaramba allows you to place widgets on your desktop.

Other programs which can display or are widget engines for Operating Systems are:

• Dashboard from Apple Computer's Mac OS X v10.4 (Tiger) operating system, a transparent layer that displays mini applications, or "widgets".
• Yahoo! Widget Engine (formerly called Konfabulator) is a cross-platform application that allows users to run and build mini-applications, or "Widgets".
• wxWidgets (formerly known as wxWindows) is an open-source, cross-platform widget toolkit.
• The Gimp Toolkit, GTK+, is an open-source, cross-platform widget toolkit, popular in X window system desktop environments.
• FLTK is an open-source, cross-platform widget toolkit designed for speed and small size.
• Kapsules, a free project for Microsoft Windows that first aimed to replicate the above Mac OS X v10.4 functionality, and is now compatible with many scripting languages.

See also

• Widget toolkit

External links

• Apple.com Dashboard Widgets Apple's directory of downloadable widgets.
• Yahoo! Widget Engine Widgets Widgets for the Yahoo! Widget Engine.
• Beon4u.com Widgets without Widget Engine .
• TagWorld Widgets Widgets for Social Networking Sites
• Opera Widgets Opera's directory of Web technology based Widgets running in their browser

Graphical user interface | Widgets

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