I'll second that. I like your Applescript. Another easy free one is DashPrefs - http://captire.info/DashPrefs/
While, yes, there are lots of options
for applets and pref panes for sending the simple
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO
commands to the Unix shell to enable/disable Dashboard, it has since been realized that they are useless and actually a bad idea. It is possible that having Dashboard disabled could create issues with system update installers. But moreso, Dashboard takes up no system resources in RAM or processing power if you haven't yet invoked the Dashboard since the last login. So, disabling it so that it can't be invoked is unnecessary and creates an extra step of first re-enabling Dashboard for those times you may need to use it. Much better is simply restarting the Dock which resets Dashboard as well back to its state of taking up no resources.
IMHO, I'd especially recommend against something like DashPrefs
since, ironically, running a Preference Pane Binary to turn the Dashboard on and off to save system resources increases the system resources needed when you launch System Preferences!
Plus, it seems to me that in order to launch a single Widget while things are disabled with DashPrefs, the steps would include launch System Preferences, navigate to that pane, then reenable Dashboard; and once you're done with your widget, you go back to preferences and disable Dashboard again, and I'm still not sure if it sends a restart command to the Dock in order to free up currently used RAM.
Edited by Joe Weaks, 09 March 2007 - 06:18 PM.