freediverx's Profile

I have ZERO programming experience yet I was able to easily create a slick RSS feed widget using Dashcode. I tried looking for a similar tool to create a Yahoo/Konfabulator version of my widget and all I found were lengthy tutorials on HTML and Javascript. I have no intention of teaching myself to program just to create the simplest of widgets for Windows. So anyone who scoffs at Dashcode is talking out of their ass. Sure, it's not going to allow a newbie to create a sophisticated widget beyond the capabilities of the included templates... but at least it includes those templates, along with some easy to use, built-in graphics and fonts tools. I had thought of presenting my company the idea of hosting an RSS newsfeed along with downloadable widgets to generate more frequent visits to our company web site and to entice customers to register. It took me just 15 minutes to create a simple, yet slick-looking Apple widget using Dashcode. But when I realized that no similar development tool exists to create widgets for the windows platform (ie Yahoo/Konfabulator), my plan started to fizzle. Worse yet, though, I then realized that the appeal of widgets is far more limited for Windows users than for Mac heads. The average Windows-using schmo doesn't even know what a widget is and probably has little interest in adding yet another resource hogging application to their already buggy and bloated Windows Pee Cee. I use both OSX and Windows, and while I happily install and remove widgets on my Powerbook, I am more than a little reluctant to install Yahoo / Konfabulator on my Windows machine. Why? Because it's yet another resource-hogging utility to layer on top of my already sluggish and unstable Windows installation, and because installing and removing apps and utilities in Windows is a far messier and riskier process than it is on my Mac. So while a widget would be a no-brainer for any Mac user (since Dashboard is already built-in), it's useless for the vast majority of non-enthusiast Windows users. So enough Apple bashing. Dashboard is awesome. Dashcode is awesome. Nothing comes close on the Windows platform when you consider the issues I just covered.