Konfabulator - A tool that can do nearly anything...
Mar 10, '03 08:27:00AM
Contributed by: robg
The macosxhints Rating:

[0 to 10 lights; 10 = perfect!]
Konfabulator is hard to explain, but basically, it's a JavaScript engine that lets you run a number of small programs called widgets. A widget can be thought of as a single-purposed utility, designed to provide you with some interesting piece of information. Such widgets could provide information on battery strength, AirPort signal strength, time, weather, headline news, etc. Yes, you can find such programs on your own, and some are included with the OS. But what sets Konfabulator apart from these is the integration (all running widgets are available from a menubar icon), the appearance of the widgets themselves (they support transparency and shadows and unique window shapes), and the extensible nature of Konfabulator (it's relatively easy to write new widgets).
Konfabulator ships with a small assortment of widgets (AirPort signal, analog clock, battery, calendar, digital clock, iTunes remote, a small floating slideshow window, stock ticker, weather, and a basic "to do" list manager). In addition, there are over 260 more widgets available in the Konfabulator section of deskmod.com. The widgets run the gamut from the very very specific (a widget displaying bus arrival times for certain routes in Stockholm, Sweden) to games (Go, Dice, Solitaire) to internet search tools (Google, Amazon, eBay) to headline news grabbers (SlashDot, etc.) to the whimsical (a cow simulator?!). One of the available widgets is XHints, a hint headline grabber for macosxhints.com (I was not directly involved in this widget, other than providing the site logo).
Konfabulator is one of those truly unique pieces of programming that seem to come along every once in a great while. Although released for only a very short time, the presence of hundreds of widgets speaks highly of how easily new widgets can be written. I've been hearing about Konfabulator for a while, but it wasn't until the XHints widget process started that I actually downloaded it and tried it out ... I think I'm hooked and my $25 will be headed their direction very shortly -- if I can stop experimenting with widgets long enough to register!
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