# Gadgets

Gadgets, like widgets, are user interface components. They differ from widgets in that they do not have a window of their own. A gadget must display text or graphics in the window provided by the parent, and rely on the parent for input.

A gadget is more light-weight than a widget, and has in many cases significantly better performance than the widget counterpart. You should consider using gadgets whenever possible.

The set of resources which you can set for a gadget is, however, restricted; for example, you cannot set foreground and background color because there is no gadget-owned window into which to apply the resource.

Gadget, unlike widget, is purely a Motif term.

See also:

- Widgets