Comparison of widget engines
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a comparison of widget engines. This article is not about widget toolkits that are used in computer programming to build graphical user interfaces.
Contents |
[edit] General
| Engine | Creator | Version | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| adesklets | Sylvain Fourmanoit | 0.6.1 | GPL |
| Amazing Brass | 32Bits | 0.21 | Shareware |
| AveDesk | Andreas Verhoeven | 1.3 | Donationware |
| Dashboard | Apple Computer | 1.0 (April 29th, 2005) | Part of Mac OS X v10.4 |
| DesktopX | Stardock | 3 | Shareware |
| gDesklets | Martin Grimme and Christian Meyer | 0.35.4 | GPL |
| Google Desktop Gadgets | 5.0.0701.18382 | Freeware | |
| Kapsules | Andrew Powell | 0.9.9 | Freeware |
| KlipFolio | Serence | 4 | Freeware |
| Opera | Opera Software | 9.10 | Freeware |
| Serious Samurize | Gustaf & Oscar Lundh | 1.64 | Semi-free software |
| SuperKaramba | Hans Karlsson | 0.39 | GPL |
| Yahoo! Widget Engine | Arlo Rose and Ed Voas † | 4.0.1 | Freeware |
| Microsoft Gadgets | Microsoft | ? | Part of Windows Vista |
^ The Yahoo! Widget Engine was originally released by Arlo Rose and Ed Voas as Konfabulator. The name was changed several months after Yahoo! acquired the software in July 2005.
[edit] Platform
| Engine | Mac OS X | Windows XP | Windows Vista | Linux |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| adesklets | No | No | No | Yes |
| Amazing Brass | No | Yes | ? | No |
| AveDesk | No | Yes | ? | No |
| Dashboard | Yes | No | No | No† |
| DesktopX | No | Yes | ? | No |
| gDesklets | No† | No† | No† | Yes |
| Google Desktop Gadgets | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Kapsules | No | Yes | ? | No |
| KlipFolio | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Opera | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Serious Samurize | No | Yes | Yes† | No |
| SuperKaramba | No | No | No | Yes† |
| Yahoo! Widget Engine | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Microsoft Gadgets | No | Yes† | Yes | No |
^ The next version of the KDE is planned to include support for Dashboard widgets.
^ As for the next major version the gDesklets' developers are planning to support Windows XP and Mac OS X.
^ Early versions of Windows Sidebar have been successfully ported to Windows XP, though this activity is forbidden under the EULA.
^ The current version of Samurize (1.64.2) runs on Vista but there are a few minor issues that need to be worked out, such as security dialog prompts.
[edit] Technical
[edit] Languages
What programming languages the engines support. Most engines rely upon interpreted languages.
| Engine | HTML | XHTML | CSS | XML | JavaScript | Perl | Python | C++ | Executable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazing Brass† | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| AveDesk† | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? |
| Dashboard | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes† | Yes† |
| DesktopX | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| gDesklets††† | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Google Desktop Gadgets | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Kapsules† | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| KlipFolio | No | No | Yes† | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Opera† | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Serious Samurize†† | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SuperKaramba | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
| Yahoo! Widget Engine† | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No† |
| Microsoft Gadgets | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
^ Amazing Brass has a custom programming language and compiler, known as Shiny, for easy creation of plugins. Compatible plugins written in any other language capable of producing a DLL can also be used.
^ AveDesk can be extended using AveScripter, which supports plugins written with XML and Javascript, extended using CSS.
^ Widgets for Kapsules and Serious Samurize can be written in any scripting language for which there is an ActiveScript engine, including PHP, JScript, VBScript and Ruby.
^ This is only relevant for Opera's extensions; the web browser itself supports HTML, CSS and others.
^ Samurize supports DLLs compiled with C++, Delphi, PowerBASIC, and FreeBasic, among others. HTML/XML/CSS support can be added by using certain plugins.
^ Yahoo! Widget Engine supports Perl and Python indirectly through the use of the shell, provided that the interpreters are installed on the machine (on Mac OS X, they are by default).
^ gDesklets might support Perl scripting through PyPerl [1] in the next major version.
^ The next major version of gDesklets will support Yahoo! Widgets. Thus, JavaScript support will be included, too.
^ gDesklets will provide some CSS like dialect in the next major version.
^ KlipFolio supports custom styles using CSS syntax.
^ Yahoo! Widget Engine can interface with COM (windows) or AppleScript (Mac OS)
^ Dashboard uses a technology called Cocoa Plugins.This allows for Objective-C code to be used through the plugin. The plugin is written with Cocoa and is compiled.
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