Deviation Actions
Description
o Added the capability to switch between smooth and normal second hand ticking.
The U boat clock Xwidget is a pretty Xwidget for your desktop. It is a dual time clock. Functional and gorgeous at the same time. This is the Xwidget that I created with the assistance of Cannuckenken/kjc66 and Harry Whitfield who sorts out my coding and adds elegance and functionality to my primitive attempts. It was originally a functional duplicate of Kjc66's original Xwidget clock but the widget has now advanced and moved on adding stopwatch functionality and two faces. It is now fundamentally different in operation, dynamic resizing, stopwatch functionality &c but it keeps the same underlying style.
STATUS: Completed I think.
// The addition of sounds.
THINGS TO DO:
Nothing... a bug or two, if you find any.
BACKGROUND:
Kjc66 (a miserable old sod) was working creating this clock using the Xwidget engine and while he was working on his own changes I just decided to create my own just to see how easy it is to build a clock for both the Xwidget and Yahoo widget. It turns out that the process is MUCH easier in the Xwidget engine. Using the Yahoo widget engine all the logic is done in XML and javascript code, in the Xwidget version there is no code required at all if you use Xwidgets built-in functions, timer, rotators &c.
CHANGES:
What changes did I make from the original Xwidget?
Whereas the Xwidget version does everything using core functions in the Xwidget IDE, this Xwidget does all the stopwatch functionality using javascript code. This code had to be written by hand rather than use the Xwidgets built-in functions. This made it portable to the web.
o Took a new dial face from the web.
o Created new hands with textures and depth.
o Re-created the top right dial from scratch.
o Re-created and relocated the bottom left mini-dial.
o Added new shadows and reflections to give more depth and brightness to the face.
o Added new shadows on the hands.
o Made a completely new take on the rim.
o Added about us image with links and credits
o Minor fixes to numbers and background.
o Added three mini gauges.
o Stopwatch functionality added.
o Added menus and licence code.
o In the logic more accurate timekeeping with a smoothflow second hand.
o Updated default image
o Ability to switch between two timezones for both clocks on the main face. </p>
o Added zooming in/out via the use of Mousewheel.
o New functionality to resize from within the preferences
o Now auto-resizes on startup
o Added comprehensive comments to explaining the code
o Alternative face, added ability to switch
o Added hints
o Add stopwatch functionality
o Add images to stop watch buttons and fade code.
o Stopwatch keys now display the stopwatch face if pressed
Not a lot of changes but they all take time to complete. This was a learning process rather than a conversion process just to create another widget. I have seen how Xwidget handles registration points, image rotation and shadows. Discerned some of Xwidget's coding limitations.
CREDIT:
All credit to kjc66 (a miserable old sod) for his inspiration and the work he has done to find the original source clock from Itala Fontana, he recovered some of the major numbers, built the two small dials to recreate the concept. I used his PNGs as the base and added to that. In the end I used the original image from Italo Fontana. Credit to kjc66 (a miserable old sod) for his idea and to Italo Fontana for making the original design - the real clock that goes on a wrist.
Thanks also to kjc66 (a miserable old sod) for the inspiration to make me start presenting my widgets in a more dramatic fashion too!
Here is just one more of over 500 steampunk icons and widgets that I have created that will leave your Windows or Mac desktop looking absolutely spiffing. There is a whole set of the little thingies and I must say they do look very steampunk indeed! They really are a suitable replacement for the boring old default icons that come with Rocketdock/ObjectDock &c.
It is a fully working Xwidget. Please feel free to download it.
Running the Xwidget in a javascript engine frees javascript from only running within the captivity of a browser, you will now be able to run these Xwidgets on your Windows desktop as long as you have an engine installed.
The Xwidget engine is here xwidget.com. These widgets work with Windows XP SP2-SP3, it has been tested on XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and 10.
Full instructions for this widget can be found here:You may use any of my images in your own creations but commercially only with my permission. In all cases I require a credit to the original artist using my name or pseudonym and a link to my own site.
