This is my repository for some interesting and hopefully useful utilities that have an unusual or different graphical quality from the usual run-of-the-mill stuff. Here you will find functioning code for three main programming environments: firstly, javascript widgets for Konfabulator, also latterly known as the Yahoo Widget Engine; then equivalent jScript code for the similar Xwidget Engine; lastly Visual Basic code desktop widgets and utilities for VB6, creating WoW64 programs for the desktop. Some of these programs are also available as web widgets/NW.js, the latter not yet posted here. If you want to bypass all this text guff and just install some steampunk programs, simply scroll down this page until you find the section on installation.
I focus on Steampunk Design, why do I do it?
Well, I personally, can't bear the look and feel of current desktop computing being so locked into a 1980s 'modern' square box paradigm. Current GUIs, deriving mostly from Microsoft's efforts, have a basis in the GUIs we created in the late 80s and early 90s and despite regular 'improvements' those from MS or Apple still haven't moved on much. Do you run XP, Vista, Win 7, 8, 10, 11+? Well, if you do, that means under the skin you are still running NT5 or 6, all basically the same fundamental o/s. The only real differentiator is the GUI that MS foists upon you. Now, bear in mind a GUI is a GUI and should not be confused with the underlying operating system and due to that distinction you should really be able to decide which style of GUI you want to run.
A GUI should be independent of the o/s or at the very least the o/s ought to be very easy to theme and to customise as you wish. In the Linux world this holds true however, this just isn't the case with any Microsoft operating system as the default 'look and feel' provided with the current version of the os is really the only thing that really sets it apart from the previous version. Under the bonnet (or the hood), one version is largely the same as another.
You'll see a massive example of this with Metro or Material Design, the UI that comes with Windows 8 & 10. The underlying os is still good old NT6 and operates much in the same way that Win7 does. However, the whole user interface has been modified to try to get you to use live tiles on the desktop as you would on a Windows phone, to make you use 'apps' rather than programs as you would on the desktop. This schizophrenic approach to a desktop o/s is hoisted upon you as Microsoft has no decent tablet-centric o/s and instead are trying to squish Windows onto tablets - it isn't working, look at the death of windows phone and even more recently, the death of Windows on tablets. They are trying to get you to adopt a new GUI so that you conform to the business plan they have in mind for Windows. That business plan is now a failed model but you, the consumer is still suffering for it.
My aim is to help you break out of this corporate mindset and to think of desktop customisation as a natural thing to do, much in the same way that you decorate and design your home, make the desktop your place to live, to work and operate. So, with this in mind, I set out to create a series of wallpapers, widgets and icons for an o/s interface that meets the aims and needs of a small but thoroughly dedicated group of chaps and ladies known as steampunkers. Around the web my alter ego is yereverluvinunclebert, where you find steampunk design I won't be far away.
I have set out my steampunk design skills in this way to demonstrate what I can do graphically, underneath the graphics is a little skill in javascript and some slowly increasing capabilities in VB6. So, whether or not you are a steampunker or a coder yourself, with these widgets, programs and icons you can thoroughly retro-ise your desktop.
Why do I still code in some supposedly obsolete environments? Well, I coded my first desktop widgets in javascript but the most popular engine, Konfabulator, was deprecated by Yahoo in their process of going bust. They bought Konfabulator when they were rich but disposed of it when they were not. I then continued to create widgets for the Xwidget engine and that soon died too. Coding for a dying environment is a bit depressing... so I moved back to VB6, a skillset still retained from the late 1990s/early 2000s.
Why I am still persisting with VB6 when some think it is a dead language? Well, it was dead but now VB6 code has an amazing future with a brand new 64 bit, modern-language improvement upgrade on the way, in the form of Wayne Phillip's 100% VB6 compatible TWINBASIC (and the possibility of RadBASIC, another VB6 replacement contender), coupled with support for transparent PNG widgets via Olaf Schmidt's Rich Client Cairo graphics framework. I can now create graphically advanced programs and the future for my code is secure.
These are just some of my projects, this is just a selection, there are at least 120 of these programs in various forms, most posted here.
Above is SteamyDock, my RocketDock/ObjectDock replacement written in VB6, an unfinished but working project. Needs a rethink to encapsulate certain elements and make the code more streamlined. However, it works and it runs on all my Windows systems.
Above is my Steampunk CPU/GPU Thermometer widget using Speedfan to extract the motherboard temps and written in javascript for the Yahoo Widget Engine, a basically finished project that requires some fettling to fix a bug or two.
Above is my Orrery widget using javascript for the Yahoo Widget Engine, a basically finished project that requires some fettling to fix a bug or two that has arisen as time has progressed (as usual for me). Inspired by an Ian Tregillis creation, a beautiful eye candy widget, there also exists a Plasma version of this time keeper, a cut-down rainmeter version and a web version too. I contributed to these latter projects but the original Orrery is still my very own and I'm rather fond of it. Links to the variants will appear on the orrery repo.
Above is the Steampunk Clock Calendar, my very first widget built using Photoshop and using javascript for the Yahoo Widget Engine, a basically finished project that requires some fettling to fix a bug or two that has arisen as time has progressed (as always). Inspired by the time controller in Jeff Wayne's war of the Worlds PC game.
Above is my desktop hole widget using javascript for the Yahoo Widget Engine, a finished project. A desktop tidy tool, drop any desktop item onto the hole and it will be re-organised automatically. Also exists as a NW.js widget.
Above is my Panzer Clock widget, initially written using javascript for the Yahoo Widget and Xwidget Engines, each a finished project and now there is now a VB6 version also complete and working.
Above is my Panzer OHM temperature widget, written using javascript for the Yahoo Widget and Xwidget Engines, each a finished project. Uses OHM to extract the system motherboard temperatures. A VB6 version of the Panzer OHM widget is now available here under development but working.
This is my Volume Control widget, initially written in a steampunk form using javascript for the Yahoo Widget engine then converted to the Xwidget Engine to overcome a Windows change to the sound system, the Xwidget a finished project. There also exists a VB6 version whose coding is underway now.
If you like nixie tubes then you will like this widget available in javascript for the Yahoo and Xwidget engines. Fully functional.
The moon phase widget coupled with the orrery, gives the orrery some function, displaying the phases of the moon using javascript for the Yahoo Widget engine. Fully functional.
I do occasionally create something more 'traditional'. This is one of the supporting utilities for SteamyDock, the Icon Settings tool. A finished, working project written in VB6.
My steampunk media player. Fully functional. Written in javascript for the Yahoo and Xwidget engines. Uses the native Windows COM interface to the Windows media player. This provides the musical background to all my Windows installations. I could not live without it.
Some Christmas Baubles using javascript for the Yahoo Widget Engine, I have these on my desktop every Christmas. Advent is improved by having it run on my desktop.
My desktop icon sets shown above. These exist in several forms, PNG, ICNS &c. Not hosting them here on github but instead on Deviantart.
Above I have some 'simple' desktop widgets or trinkets as I like to call them. They are similar to large icons that you can dynamically resize and assign a function to. They are: Halfpenny, Sovereign, Penny Red, Poster and the simple magnifier. I use these as icons to various useful programs. Genuinely useful. Written in VB6 and for the Yahoo Widget engine, moveable eye-candy. Links above to the VB6 versions. All functioning. You can find the Yahoo Widget versions in my repository.
Lastly but not least, my planetary marble widgets, Earth, Sun, Saturn, Mars, Uranus, Pluto, Neptune, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Ganymede and Europa. Written in VB6 and for the Yahoo Widget engine, moveable eye-candy. Links above to the VB6 versions only. All of them functioning. You can find the Yahoo Widget versions in my repository.
For the casual installer you can find all the VB6 widgets here - each of the VB6 widgets will eventually have a setup.exe from which you can run and install. Note that for the moment the setup.exe for each will inevitably be an old version as I am still coding ALL the VB6 widgets now and fixing things as they arise. Developers, you can download the code and build it yourself as long as you have the VB6 IDE installed and follow the instructions! There will be no support nor assistance offered yet as the VB6 programs are ALL under development. When they are complete I will build a final setup.exe for each and from that point support WILL be offered. When stable, a note to that effect will be placed in a prominent location on the widget's own repo.
All the Yahoo widgets will be downloadable from here, all latest functioning/buggy versions, the Xwidgets too (soon) though the latter are deprecated. When your widget engine is installed, download the widget to a folder, double click on the .KON file and the widget will run. Same with the main.XUL file for the Xwidget engine. You can obtain the Yahoo Widget Engine here: https://g6auc.me.uk/ywidgets_sdk_setup.exe (direct link) and the widgets are here, you can find the xwidget engine at xwidget.com, though I really wouldn't recommend using it anymore. I recommend that you use the Yahoo widgets or the VB6 versions instead. Note: None of the Yahoo nor the Xwidgets will be receiving regular future updates but do feel free to tinker yourself, the code is yours to play with!
My code is FOSS. It contains code from other developers that is also FOSS. I give them credit on the repository description and in the code itself. My images are also free to use. You may use any of my images in any of your own creations but commercially ONLY with my permission. In all and any cases I require a credit using my name or my github pseudonym above - and in addition a link to my Deviantart or Github accounts.
The main credit goes to my mentor Harry Whitfield Professor Emeritus of Computing at Sheffield University who restarted me down a path of programming using javascript and widgeting. Also, to Olaf Schmidt, without whose RichClient Cairo framework for Visual Basic, the VB6 widgets/trinkets would not be possible.
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