RomanDA, 1st, Thanx for helping us out!  I'm not sure where to begin as I have no real concept of using DX.  I've made 1/2ass attempts of using it ,but haven't gotten it down yet.I've been overloaded with Object Desktop'07, and just trying to understand all there is to offer (Massive GrayMatter OverLoad!)
Since you are offering your time, energy and kindness, I believe I should start,with you at the Beginners, Step #1  .
Again, THANX 4 Your Precious Time, Assistance and Caring for LostSouls!

I would like to learn how to make some widgets with DX.

In particular, any or all of the following: a Calendar, a Weather widget, ToDo List, Media Player, Clock, and Meters for Drives, CPU, Memory etc. It would also be great if there was a guide to show us how to add simple animations to them.

But I have one question. Would I be able to post my creations here on WC using the scripts that you provide in the guides or would I need to learn how to write my own code? I know absolutely nothing about coding and I haven't seen any royalty free scripts available that we could play around with and modify.

I would love to have a tutorial that describes building an actual working Desktop environment. Of course, the graphic elements could be skipped, because I'm sure that is a topic for another discussion (you either got skillz or you don't, LOL). Setting up the various parts of a desktop, (i.e. sounds, anims, scripting actions, and the sort). I would love to start building my own desktops, but am very intimidated by DX. GreenReaper has offered a little help in #stardock, but there is only so much you can teach someone,or learn, through a chat client.

Thanks again for "stepping-up".
boodahbellie

My plan for this is to start VERY simple.

With a "lets make a widget", provide the graphics and scripts, and show people how to put it together.

Then move up slowly to more complex widgets.

As for using scripts, if i post something on here in a Tutorial its all yours, have fun. You might want to note "thanks to RomanDA for the scripts" thats all i would ask.

I like the suggestions so far.

Thank you DA for never forgetting us noobs!

I'd really like to know how to do a Weather object. Mostly, how do you know what images to display (sunny, cloudy, etc.) I had to limit my first weather object to text because I was pulling and parsing the info like you would for an rss reader. I realize everyone is using Martin's scripts but I always like to know the nuts and bolts of what I'm doing.


That's all for now. Good luck with this Starter Guide. It is much needed and will be much appreciated. Thanks again.

Scripting! How is it done and where can it be learned? Are there scripting programs, or do you just pull it all outta your head? Is this something you would cover in your tut? I would love to be able to create widgets and objects, but I don't have a clue about scripting and would like to learn.

Well... Zubaz will tell you i never code anything myself, i "Take" what i need. The truth is, he is very close to the truth. The BEST way to find code is to first determine what you are trying to do.

For instance, how about checking the time between 2 dates (for say a COUNTDOWN program of some sort).

I first look at my favorite place GOOGLE and do a simple search: "vbscript date difference"
by looking at the first 2 or 3 links i find this:

olddate = "6/26/43"
nowdate = Now
Diff = DateDiff("s", nowdate, olddate)

So now i have something i can stick into DX.

The other way is to IMPORT widgets into DX that do what you are looking for (asking permission of course!), and looking thru the code to see what they did.

I will try and cover this as well (when i start this...)

DesktopX uses a version of WindowScript which consist of JScript and VBScript. W3Schools is a very good starting resource to get to grips with JavaScript and VBScript.

Then you got the unvaluable DesktopX documentation to guide you through the DesktopX functionalities.

"Unvaluable" or "invaluable"?

BIG difference.    

1. Start small: A "Hello World" widget... Basically, just a widget that says (in text and/or graphics, "Hello World").

2. Next, a widget with a little interactivity: Two or three buttons that you can click to make a message window appear.

3. How to incorporate coding/scripting into the widget, so it can do more complex things.

4. How to store settings, such as configuration settings and user input.

5. How to retrieve info from your computer (system settings, resources, etc.)

6. How to retrieve info from internet sources.

7. How to interact with Windows and programs (e.g., Outlook).


Sample applications:
- Clock
- Weather
- Calculator
- Color chooser
- System monitoring tools
- Post-It notes
- Simple games (Centipede, etc.)
- RSS readers
- Search boxes


Thanks for taking the time to do this for us.

I can do that!



Thanks for the link.

Okay, here's a pretty specific question. . . I'm using the Marvin widget (from the gallery), and, like a poster stated about it, the widget would really benefit from having a "mute" button, because it's cool when he wanders around your desktop spouting Marvin sayings while you're typing a document or searching the internet, but not so great when you're listening to music or playing a game. How would one such as myself tweak the sound properties and add a clickable mute option to widgets? Thanks.

No hablo english!

Thanx for the replies to my question(s). I will check them out and I await the tuts! Thank you for taking the time to help!

Hi, Iwould like to see if you could make a tutorial on how to use "read, write, create, edit, etc." databases.

Thanks in advance