Why I like Dashboard better than Konfabulator

OK, I'm impressed! I just wrote my first Dashboard Widget in under an hour without really trying, with no special experience, just some HTML familiarity. And that made me realize that I like Dashboard (in Tiger, OS X 10.4) much better than Konfabulator: it's so much easier to write my own! Plus I haven't had any stability issues with Dashboard, and I did stop crashing after I removed Konfabulator from my desktop Mac (dual G4 MDD). So that's two reasons to like Dashboard over Konfabulator: easier, and no need to troubleshoot stability issues!

I don't think Dashboard is a rip-off either; see Daring Fireball. If you want to write your own widget, take a look at the basics and more detail from Apple.

Or you could just wing it, like I did, with this procedure:

1. Copy an existing widget, like /Developer/Examples/Dashboard/Sample Code/Blank Widget
2. Rename and edit BlankWidget.html; edit Info.plist, and version.plist
3. Replace Icon.png and possibly Default.png if called in (the new version of) BlankWidget.html
4. Rename and edit BlankWidget.css and BlankWidget.js if applicable (I skipped these)
5. If (the new version of) BlankWidget.html looks about right in Safari, give it a whirl in Dashboard!
6. Rename the folder to [Widget name].wdgt (only wdgt extension is important)
7. Move it to an "active" location, like ~/Library/Widgets