"Quartz Composer is a visual development tool that can turn most any data into amazing, live-action graphics and animations, using a programming model that is easy to understand and work with. This article shows you how to use the stunning graphics abilities of Quartz Composer along with the easy development of Dashboard to create fun, beautiful widgets that attract attention and display information with rich visual content."
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Member since:
2006-02-09
Member since:
2006-11-24
Sure, you can. But WHY, at least in this particular implementation (correct me if I'm mistaken)?
Shouldn't Javascript take care of the in-widget animations? I can see Compositor as useful in the abstraction between the background and the darkened Dashboard layer (example: the "ripple" effect when you "drop" a widget into the "water", hence the name "Aqua"), but not as a fundamental component of the widget itself.
This begs the question: do Dashboard widget developers have any good Javascript libraries (of the dynamic AJAX kind) handy, or is this just Apple's attempt to place their OS-native hooks into web-based technologies?
Also: AppleScript embedded into HTML, anyone? It could become the next VBScript.
Member since:2007-01-30
Member since:2006-06-03
Member since:2005-11-06
This begs the question: do Dashboard widget developers have any good Javascript libraries (of the dynamic AJAX kind) handy, or is this just Apple's attempt to place their OS-native hooks into web-based technologies?
Also: AppleScript embedded into HTML, anyone? It could become the next VBScript.
No, this is not for web pages, widgets are Mac apps, not intended to run on a browser at all (other than for debugging purposes perhaps) so it makes sense to take advantage of the features of the OS. In fact, widgets can also be done in Cocoa (Objective-C).
Member since:2005-07-11
Anyone who asks the question "BUT why?" either doesn't understand what Quartz Compositor is or is wondering why someone should use a non "standards" tool? Yes, if you want to port your tool/widget to other platforms later, probably stay away from it.
Quartz Compositor is an interesting way of coding however. I remember a 3rd party free application years ago on OS X that did this sort of thing, I'm guessing Apple bought the technology and turned it into QC because the free application dissappeared and QC appeared.
It's so much more than just a nice way to make cool effects. It gives you access to a lot of tools, effects, ways to image or display your data.
But it's just a tool like anything else that will allow you to do some things that javascript / cocoa can't do (or in cocoa's case, would require a lot of code, sweat and tears).
Should you use it?, yes, but only where you need it. If you don't need it (or want to port your code to other platforms), don't use it. Easy.
Very cool that Apple has included it though. I've used it in a couple of places (I cheated and used Dashcode - lol).
Oh, if you look at Motion 2, I think you can see a lot of QC in there too.
Is there anything like this in the Linux world, would love to know (I'm sure there is)...
Edited 2007-02-15 06:03
Member since:
2006-02-05
