About monorail widget (Merged threads)

[KAN]

Well Sambo, Remember that I coded this myself. I am only 14, and have little experience in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I wanted to make a widget that would drive around your dashboard, and you could control the speed and color of your monorail. Unfortunately, I could not possibly do that, and if I could, I would force Nautilus to make me a large amount of images, and I do not want to do that. Remember that HTML is kind of hit or miss, depending on how you write it, and I haven't even looked at CSS or JavaScript...


Just food for thought.

[DisneyImagineering]

Don't worry, the widget is great. I have been making widgets for a while and can tell you that they can be hard to make

[KAN]

Originally Posted by DisneyImagineering

Don't worry, the widget is great. I have been making widgets for a while and can tell you that they can be hard to make

Just out of curiosity, do you publish them? I've tried uploading to various sites, but they compress the already compressed file... Unfortunately, Apple does not like that...

[DisneyImagineering]

I only publish some of them. Currently, I have a Mickey Mouse Widget on the Apple Download Site

Would you like me to upload it for you?

[KAN]

I do not follow...



Do you actually have a hosting service that does not make files even smaller than they are? Help please!!!


But OK, thank you!!


Maybe we can get MiceChat a bit more publicity...

[DisneyImagineering]

It will take about a day to get it uploaded. I will send you the link once I upload it

[DisneyImagineering]

I uploaded it to my site Cast Member Games & More - Downloads. I also submitted it to Apple. Wait about one day or so for it to appear on Apple the download area.

DisneyImagineering(castmember)

[Sambo]

Originally Posted by KAN

Well Sambo, Remember that I coded this myself. I am only 14, and have little experience in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I wanted to make a widget that would drive around your dashboard, and you could control the speed and color of your monorail. Unfortunately, I could not possibly do that, and if I could, I would force Nautilus to make me a large amount of images, and I do not want to do that. Remember that HTML is kind of hit or miss, depending on how you write it, and I haven't even looked at CSS or JavaScript...


Just food for thought.

KAN,

Please don't think I am discounting your work or drive to do something cool. It is good artwork - and for what it is - it is good work, and in light of your newness to the skills, all the more extraordinary.

My issue wasn't with any of that, it was with the purpose of the widget. I just don't get the fascination to have an static image of the monorail on a desktop. I just change my desktop image for that. A widget that to me serves no other purpose than just a redundant decoration. Maybe it's a Mac thing, but it just puzzles me. It's like texting. I don't do it because I'd rather just talk. Why spend the time to txt when you can converse? Sure, if you are a student in class and need to escape the boredom then a phone call is out of the question. But as a constant form of communication? I don't get it. It's like a widget that serves a mini-purpose of a desktop image.

Keep up the work and learn more. There is importance in advancing accomplishments. Even if old curmudgeons like me scratch their heads...

[DVkid07]

I haven't spent much time in the wonderful world of widgets, but do spend a great deal of my time in Quartz Composer (the graphics program that makes possible a lot of the pretty, animated stuff in a lot of OS X apps). After reading this thread (and enjoying the work that's been put into this so far) I'm contemplating turning some of my free time (heh!) towards doing up some Mach VII fun in Quartz.

The benefit of Quartz graphics (over bitmap or a video file) is that you can constantly modify the graphics based on user input. My first few ideas on this front are allowing user-selection of any color for the monorail, not just the official three. Another thought is to have doors that open and close, perhaps even with the iconic Jack Wagner voice over (though Core Audio isn't something I'm too well versed in.)

My idea with this thing would be to turn the widget into something of a desktop toy. Anybody else have any ideas? And do the guys that have put so much time into this already have any objections to my playing around with an idea that they piloted?

[DisneyImagineering]

Cool idea, but that would require rewriting the ENTIRE code. Also, Quartz is famous for having problems when integrated into dashboard. Just my opinion though

[DVkid07]

Originally Posted by DisneyImagineering

Cool idea, but that would require rewriting the ENTIRE code. Also, Quartz is famous for having problems when integrated into dashboard. Just my opinion though

Well to be honest my initial thought was to do it up in a cocoa app but then you'd have to launch the app in order to see and/or mess with it.

[DisneyImagineering]

Very Interesting. It's a great idea, but I think at the moment they just want a dashboard widget. Why don't you ask them?

[DVkid07]

Originally Posted by DisneyImagineering

Very Interesting. It's a great idea, but I think at the moment they just want a dashboard widget. Why don't you ask them?

Well, since I am trying to find a way to waste the day other than massive doses of House reruns, I'm going to mess around with the Quartz side of it.

Once the composition is cooked, I can then put it into an app to fine tune the controls, then try my hand at widgetry after that. Worst case scenario, I have a fun little app to play with.

[DisneyImagineering]

Sounds fun. If you need help on making widgets, just ask me

[DVkid07]

Originally Posted by DisneyImagineering

Sounds fun. If you need help on making widgets, just ask me

Thanks! As far as I can tell, its basically an embed tag and some javascript to bind the controls. However, these things tend to make more sense when I'm talking about them rather than actually doing them.

Below, I've got some shots of the doors in Quartz. They move back and forth nicely, with a binary trigger.




The color is adjustable (any value, not just Red, Blue, Orange) but I haven't done anything in Interface Builder to make this really usable to anybody that doesn't get my QC logic.