Hi all,
I've been working on a widget that acts as an app launcher (a la Launcher, Launchpad) for the dashboard. It's a pretty functional beta right now, but there are a few issues that still need hammered out before I can call it done for a real "1.0" app. I'm calling it dbLauncher, because that's what it is.
If anyone has any interest, it's available at the bottom of my site at swamp.irish where you'll see a download link. Let me know if that download doesn't work, it doesn't seem to like that it's a .wdgt and .zip file and treats that kind of funky. Not sure if I am able to upload a file directly here for download? Anyway, I'd appreciate anyone testing it for bugs.
How to use:
Known issues:
This resulted in me trying to use OS X a little differently than I always had, which involved removing everything from the left side of my dock except Finder and Dashboard and using it basically as an app switcher on the left and a group of popup folders on the right (a great OS8/9 feature notably absent from Rhapsody). This created a problem on Mac OS X versions without Launchpad in that I no longer had an App Launcher. NeXTStep/OpenStep solved this with the vertical part of the dock. In Rhapsody and the Classic Mac OS, this was solved with the Apple Menu, and I used Unsanity's FruitMenu for awhile to bring that solution to OS X, but I figured there had to be a more elegant answer than trying to recreate that menu structure (and remember what all was there compared to the default OS X Apple Menu choices that have been pretty well burned into my memory by now) on every Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard Mac I have. The old Launcher in Mac OS seemed like a solution Apple had come up with to this same problem, and the Launchpad was basically a modern reimagining of this same concept. I think my implementation works pretty well. It can be called up by a hot corner or a keyboard stroke, the Launcher can be moved anywhere on the screen, and if you enable the developer mode in Onyx where you can place Dashboard widgets on your desktop, it also will act pretty much just like the Launcher in System/OS 7/8/9 if you prefer to use it that way (maybe someday I'll add folder/tabbed view support). Anyway, hope it works and some people find it useful. Let me know what you think.
,Zack
I've been working on a widget that acts as an app launcher (a la Launcher, Launchpad) for the dashboard. It's a pretty functional beta right now, but there are a few issues that still need hammered out before I can call it done for a real "1.0" app. I'm calling it dbLauncher, because that's what it is.
If anyone has any interest, it's available at the bottom of my site at swamp.irish where you'll see a download link. Let me know if that download doesn't work, it doesn't seem to like that it's a .wdgt and .zip file and treats that kind of funky. Not sure if I am able to upload a file directly here for download? Anyway, I'd appreciate anyone testing it for bugs.
How to use:
- Install the Widget and click the "i" to flip it over to the controls.
- Enter the path to your app. You should not put ".app" at the end, and if there are spaces in the path, use normal filepath notation (\ ) for the spaces. Example path to enter for Safari: /Applications/Safari
- Click "SetAppX" under the field you are setting.
Known issues:
- The "Set Number of Items" function doesn't work yet. Right now, there are 6 slots all the time. Way further down the line I will try to make this all array-based so it can be scalable from 1-15 apps. The controls for that setting are just there to help me get the layout of the other controls on the back correct.
- It struggles with icons for apps with spaces in the filepath it seems. It will open the apps just fine, but the icons refuse to display for some reason. I am trying to figure out why that is the case and will have it fixed in the next version.
- The overall look is not super polished on the back panel. I will be cleaning it up for the next version.
- The icon is not super polished. I will be cleaning that up for the next version, too.
- The view of the widget that is displayed while it loads shows the InterWebPPC icon for all 6 spots. That's just because it was the app I originally tested with. I'll get a different placeholder for the next version.
This resulted in me trying to use OS X a little differently than I always had, which involved removing everything from the left side of my dock except Finder and Dashboard and using it basically as an app switcher on the left and a group of popup folders on the right (a great OS8/9 feature notably absent from Rhapsody). This created a problem on Mac OS X versions without Launchpad in that I no longer had an App Launcher. NeXTStep/OpenStep solved this with the vertical part of the dock. In Rhapsody and the Classic Mac OS, this was solved with the Apple Menu, and I used Unsanity's FruitMenu for awhile to bring that solution to OS X, but I figured there had to be a more elegant answer than trying to recreate that menu structure (and remember what all was there compared to the default OS X Apple Menu choices that have been pretty well burned into my memory by now) on every Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard Mac I have. The old Launcher in Mac OS seemed like a solution Apple had come up with to this same problem, and the Launchpad was basically a modern reimagining of this same concept. I think my implementation works pretty well. It can be called up by a hot corner or a keyboard stroke, the Launcher can be moved anywhere on the screen, and if you enable the developer mode in Onyx where you can place Dashboard widgets on your desktop, it also will act pretty much just like the Launcher in System/OS 7/8/9 if you prefer to use it that way (maybe someday I'll add folder/tabbed view support). Anyway, hope it works and some people find it useful. Let me know what you think.
,Zack
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