Editing Gadget (section)

==Application gadgets==

In the software industry, ''Gadget'' refers to computer programs that provide services without needing an independent application to be launched for each one, but instead run in an environment that manages multiple gadgets. There are several implementations based on existing software development techniques, like [[JavaScript]], form input, and various image formats. Proprietary formats include [[Google Desktop]], [[Google Gadgets]], [[Microsoft Gadgets]], [[Workbench (AmigaOS)|the AmigaOS Workbench]] and [[dashboard software Apple Widgets]].

The earliest{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} documented use of the term ''gadget'' in context of [[software engineering]] was in 1985 by the developers of [[AmigaOS]], the [[operating system]] of the [[Amiga]] computers (''[[Intuition (Amiga)|intuition.library]]'' and also later ''gadtools.library''). It denotes what other technological traditions call ''[[GUI widget]]''—a control element in [[graphical user interface]]. This [[naming convention]] remains in continuing use (as of 2008) since then.

The X11<ref>[[X Window System protocols and architecture]]</ref> windows system 'Intrinsics'<ref>[[X Toolkit Intrinsics]]</ref> also defines gadgets and their relationship to widgets (buttons, labels, etc.). The gadget was a windowless widget which was supposed to improve the performance of the application by reducing the memory load on the X server. A gadget would use the Window id of its parent widget and had no children of its own.

It is not known whether other software companies are explicitly drawing on that inspiration when featuring the word in names of their technologies or simply referring to the generic meaning. The word ''widget'' is older in this context. In the movie "[[Back to School]]" from 1986 by Alan Metter, there is a scene where an economics professor Dr. Barbay, wants to start for educational purposes a fictional company that produces "widgets: It's a fictional product."