The status of the Object Dock SDK(s) in 2016

So... I have a number of questions on the subject of the OD SDK.

First, let me say I have had fun using the OD SDK, and have had no real trouble (aside from the data typing issue mentioned below) with it for years now!

Currently, I am using the "ObjectDock Docklet SDK v1.0" available from the link http://storage.stardock.com/files/ObjectDock_Docklet_SDK_v1.0.zip

Note that I consider it to have a bug in the definition of the final function in the DockletSDK.cpp file [WritePrivateProfileInt(...)] - the problem has to do with the inability to compile with the "wide char" aka "UNICODE" character set option, and the internal hard-coded dependence on the "itoa(...)" function - which expects and returns a pointer to a narrow char.

In any case, the fix that allows working with either char type is trivial, and I will make it available to anyone that wants it - but please read the bulk of my post before asking for it.

I am about to release an open source "docklet" that is based on this version of the OD SDK - but note that I have only used my docklet with a "one dock to rule them all" product that is no longer being developed... I expect it to work with OD itself, but that depends on things like "are OD SDK v1" docklets compatible with OD 2? Is OD 1 still a product, or has it been replaced with OD 2.x? Does the answer to either of these questions depend on "Win 10 -ness" or "64-bit-ness"? Note that while my docklet is a 32-bit DLL, I have been using it with 64-bit versions of Windows for years, including 7, 8.x, and 10.

Other issues include "when I release my open source project, may I include the OD SDK v1.0 zip file (with my above-mentioned fix)?", or would Stardock prefer/insist that I only provide the above link to the SDK, and then tell people how to fix the problem with wide chars, since my project uses them? I might mention that the downloaded SDK has no copyright or licensing information, which is part of why I am making this post... perhaps the idea was to place the SDK into the public domain, or instead to rely on some sort of "implied copyright"? Whatever the case, some explicit statement would probably be good.

Thanks for taking the time and expending the effort to create "the standard" in Windows "dock technology", with its quite usable API and functionality.

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ZubaZ

Join Date 11/2001

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Stardock's response is go for it.

Release your docklet with the fixed SDK. Provide some link to the original and credit to Stardock. At that point, we're good.

I look forward to seeing your docklet.

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Thanks for the quick response, ZubaZ - or ZZ - or Z2 - or Z² - whatever you go by, will do as requested.

The docklet itself is not all that exciting, but as I said, I have been using it for years, and have come to depend on it... it is yet another "summarizer" that allows you to select the values to place in a grid on the docklet itself up to 8 values from 4 HW monitor apps, currently supporting HWiNFO, GPU-Z, SpeedFan, and HWMonitor (this last only works for older versions since they seemed to "close" their shared-memory interface to non-paying customers).

I will add an entry to this post thread with the full GitHub link - this should happen in the next week or so.

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All right, here we go - RXMDocklet, just released last night:

https://github.com/robertroessler/rxmdocklet

The details - plus a pre-built binary for the anxious - are on the GitHub repo, but this is a docklet for ObjectDock 1.0 (at least, I don't have a read on how compatible 2.0 is), including source illustrating how to use a number of the features of the OD SDK from fairly modern C++ 11/14. There is also a fix for a minor OD SDK compilation issue included.

What does it do? It amalgamates (combines) selected sensor data from any of the supported monitoring apps, and displays them directly on the docklet, itself drawn with a user-selected background including clear, black, white, "graph paper", etc.

RXMDocklet in action