Talk:Widget

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How common is the term widget sed for window components outside of unix? I speak with limited experience, but I have NEVER heard anyone use it to describe windowing components for mac, windows, java, by a developer of said system. I could really be wrong about mac, but I am squarly confident that windows developers don't. Anyone know more?

Alan D

    • I have heard the term widget used for (hate to use the word again, but...) widgets on a webpage (slashdot.org to be specific). I believe that i may have also heard it used for Windows also.

On the Mac: sure, even Apple uses this terminology. I have a copy of Cooper's "About Face", where he says "Gizmos, controls, widgets, or agdgets -- whatever you choose to call them..."; he prefers "gizmo", and apparently Microsoft uses "control". I admit it seemed really weird (as a longtime Apple and Unix developer) reading a book that used something other than "widget". I guess maybe it is a Windows-ism to use something other than "widget".

4/4/2005 Anyone know who came up with the term widget? I thought it would have been an economist, but the Oxford dictionary has a journalist (I think a journalist) named E. Lyons. Any thoughts?

The alt.usage.english FAQ traces it back to a 1924 play; I'll mention both in the article. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 16:17, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Boddingtons widget

Last week I had a can of Boddingtons containing a different kind of widget. It's a plastic cylinder (appeared to be about an inch in diameter) stuck to the bottom of the can. How does this sort compare in how it works? And do any other brands have this sort as well? -- Smjg 14:10, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Disambiguation Page

Hi. I suggest that a disambiguation page be created for 'widget', which would be better. The entries, quite obviously, can be written as - 1. Widget_(Device) 2. widget_(Computing) 3. Widget_(Comics) Thank you. Jam2k 10:50, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

I agree, and it is so done. See Widget (disambiguation). Scott Ritchie 18:29, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A note

It might be worth mentioning here that Roald Dahl used the term widget to describe male gremlins in his book The Gremlins back in WWII (females were fifinellas. Anyone looking into the history of the term might mention this. --DanielCD 22:33, 28 November 2005 (UTC)