Talk:Graphical widget

Outdated and misleading terminology

The word "widget" is a grotesque and incorrect word when discussing software, computers, or UIs (where it is mostly used). It's usage should be phased out with more up to date terminology that gives clear meaning to the context at hand such as "component", "control", "input", "device", "thing". Instead of deliberately obtuse and confusing sentences such as "I asked the software team to update the customer widgets" (which means absolutely nothing) use sentences such as "I asked the software team to update the customer list component". Therefore, this page can be deleted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.9.201.23 (talk) 15:59, 2 March 2022 (UTC)

Name of combos

What would an slider and progress bar combo be called?

You have probably seen an examble below the video frame of youtube, liveleak and google video flash based players. (And other propably too) --Zarutian (talk) 03:17, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

Fliptych?

Is fliptych too unestablished to be added to this list? If not, it should be added here and at the category level.Ben Morrison

I have a decent amount of programming experience, have used various software on different operating systems, have done both high and low level UI programming, but I wouldn't know what a "fliptych" without doing a websearch. So, yes, I would say that it's too unestablished. The impression I get, in essence, it sounds like a made up word that yields few, if any, clues to what it is. A checkbox is a box that can be checked. What's a "fliptych" supposed to be? A "tych" that can be flipped? Shinobu (talk) 03:01, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Especially since "fliptych"s generally are an interface mechanism contained within a larger application. Apple CoverFlow is basically the only *ugh* "fliptych" in common use, and it is considered a GUI, not a widget. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.189.89.33 (talk) 07:45, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Origin of the word Widget

Does anyone know anything about the origins of the word Widget? I have seen the term 'wisket' meaning a gadget used in a note about turning lathes. This was in the MS notebooks of Simon Goodrich, mechanician to the [British] Navy Board at the beginning of the C19. I think its London area technical slang Apwoolrich 19:49, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

It's a contraction of "window gadget", AFAIK.

That's what I thought, too, but the article cites an origin unrelated to GUI programming. Either the non-technical "widget" (the one that means "miscellaneous thingamajig") is related to the GUI-widget, and therefore the GUI-widget is not a contraction of "window gadget," or the two words are only coincidentally related and the current explanation should be taken out of this article. 166.89.65.118 16:31, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Origin of the word Widget

The link below says the word Widget comes from the 1924 play "Beggar on Horseback", by George Kaufman and Marc Connelly.

http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifwdgtntsbywllmcw.shtml

also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widget

• I remember "Widgets" being used as a generic nonsense name for an unspecified product in business classes. When talking about inventing, marketing, distributing, etc. "your product," in several classes and instructive videos they would call this fictional item a widget. I assume it was because it sounded like a real thing, but had the advantage of not actually existing. I'm going to try to find some documentation on this, but it could be hard finding something web-accessible since the modern usage is tech and so is the web. If anyone else wants to go ahead, I think the word is in need of disambiguation. Durty Willy 03:39, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Disregard my previous comment. Apparently, this was already disambiguated, but when I searched for "Widget" in March, the search engine loaded the Widget (computing) page by default instead of the disambiguation page (or any other page where "Widget" was mentioned). My above usage was clearly noted in the Placeholder name article. Slight tangent: I also forgot about the Widget (beer) useage, an interesting little device.Durty Willy 04:54, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia widget for Mac 10.4. users

Apple has a Wikipedia widget available for download from this link. You can look up articles without being on Wikipedia.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/reference/wikipedia.html

That's a slightly different kind of widget. See Widget engine. Shinobu (talk) 02:56, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Progress bars

Is there an article about progress bars in Wikipedia? I searched and found none.

If there is one, a link need to be added here. --tyomitch 20:15, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

• Easy enough. >poof< Willy the Great has poofed up a link: Progress bar. A very recent article, which is a little suprising. Durty Willy 03:23, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Checkbox is a type of button?

Is there any argument for the categorization of a checkbox as a button? It allows selection between two choices (selection) and does not trigger an action (which buttons do). - Mpnolan 00:55, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Technically a checkbox is (at least on Microsoft Windows just a button with BS_CHECKBOX. Here is a list of window styles that can be used on button windows. Some applications do trigger things when you tick a box - there's no particular reason why they can't, other than convention.

Whether this means that they should be categorized the same is another question, but that's probably the reason that they were to start with. If they are, probably radio buttons should be as well, as they are similar. GreenReaper 01:47, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

In the technical area, Qt's QCheckbox class inherits the virtual QButton class. This, however, is purely for programming reasons and doesn't reflect the user conception of the widget. The confusion here mainly stems from the existence of both a PushButton (that looks and feel like a physical button) and a Button (which may be a PushButton, Checkbox and others). This terminology is alien to most end-users, though. This should be noted in the Button article, but not here. --logixoul 09:26, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

"Some applications do trigger things when you tick a box" - yes, like updating a preview, filtering a list, etc. I agree with you that to the user this still doesn't make them buttons. Checkboxes are buttons for programmers because that is practical, in the same way that it's practical that buttons are windows. Shinobu (talk) 02:53, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Merged

I've brought in stuff from the Widget Disambiguation page. A simple cut and paste. This will need editing. SilkTork 10:16, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Various widgets

I think this section would work much better as a gallery. Shinobu (talk) 02:50, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

What's this?

This section is unformatted and invalid for the article. I'll take it out until its writer want to fix it. Diego (talk) 22:54, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

• systematic
  • tiles (frames)
  • docking
  • grid
• free
  • windows (on a form or on the desktop)

• by
  • programmer and then fixed at compilation
  • user

Merge with Elements..?

I don't agree with the merger from Elements_of_graphical_user_interfaces. That article contains descriptions of things that are not widgets (cursors, selection, handles, arguably windows and hyperlinks...) I'd rather remove the useless 'List of common generic widgets' section and compose an encyclopedic section with text describing what are the main widgets, what their purpose is and how they relate to one another. Diego (talk) 17:05, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

I second that. The other article is a list of elements from a user interface design viewpoint, while this one is about the technical concept of representing certain elements as modular, window-like objects. -- memset (talk) 22:53, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Merger into GUI widget is not good idea:

• GUI is acronym used by advanced computer users, and as a part of encyclopedic article title is not good. The title Elements of graphical user interfaces is much better in that respect, although, I'm not sure why it is not named graphical user interface elements, which would be logical extension of article Graphical user interface
• from article content perspective , I agree with Diego that GUI widget is describing subset of graphical user interface elements and the best move would be to link it from the Elements of graphical user interfaces. --Simon321 (talk) 17:15, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

wgz

What is a wgz file? (I have seen it in a smartphone).--Nopetro (talk) 11:03, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: no consensus to move Graeme Bartlett (talk) 05:32, 13 March 2011 (UTC) Graeme Bartlett (talk) 05:32, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

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GUI widget → User interface control — Expand abbreviation and avoid use of jargon term "widget" (also ambiguous with software widget). --Pnm (talk) 21:38, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

• Oppose. Like it or not, that's what these things are called. See also Talk:Widget toolkit#Requested move. Andrewa (talk) 07:04, 20 February 2011 (UTC)
• Comment User interface control, while descriptive, is not a name normally used; better stay with the jargon. They are called widgets though, not GUI widgets. I'd suggest to move instead to Widget (Grafical User Interface) to improve both readability and precision using the disambiguation style. Diego Moya (talk) 21:18, 20 February 2011 (UTC)
  • Agree with all of this. Andrewa (talk) 12:06, 22 February 2011 (UTC)
• Comment: Is there any reason this article shouldn't/couldn't be merged into Graphical user interface elements, rendering this discussion moot? –CWenger (talk) 19:12, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

Graphical user interface elements includes elements that are not widgets, such as icons, cursors, selection, handles, shell terminals, hyperlinks... it's a more general concept. The section "List of common generic widgets" could be merged, though, as it's redundant. Diego Moya (talk) 23:51, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

If a separate article is really required, I would recommend Graphical user interface controls then. "Widgets" seems like slang (although it is becoming less so). –CWenger (talk) 23:58, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Another Resource

Abaa1234 (talk) 07:35, 24 September 2011 (UTC)here's a good resource:http://www.developerstalk.net/web7/a-list-of-basic-form-controls.aspx what do you think about it?

Requested move 12 November 2019

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved per lack of consensus (closed by non-admin page mover) DannyS712 (talk) 05:18, 20 November 2019 (UTC)

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Widget (GUI) → Graphical widget – Per WP:NATURAL. Says the same thing, but without the parenthetical disambiguation. _{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 09:13, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.