In the last edition of XDev magazine (issue 22.2), the main article is titled “Vision of the Future?”.
The author said: “I would love it if Xojo would add support for VisionOS. I don’t know how much work that would be. Could the current iPad target be enhanced to work better with Vision Pro until we get full VisionOS support?”
I will really interested on knowing about what is the “Vision” of @Geoff_Perlman. His opinion could be, at some point, a possible guideline of the future steps of Xojo related with this new technology.
The author also said “Every app already exists with iOS and that is not the case with Vision Pro, where we could be the first developer to release something.”, and I agree with this.
First movers take the risk, but if successful, also take the earnings.
And I must say that: reaching my 60’s I find it not only a possible opportunity but I also feel that it would be very fun.
Any details on what is missing for this?
I suspect the hardest part is that VisionOS exclusively uses SwiftUI
I had already read the Xojo’s blog Published June 22, 2023 by Geoff Perlman.
There it was said: “We have tried running some Xojo iOS projects in the Vision Pro Simulator and they work without modification so that’s a very good sign”
In the XDev article the author said: “You certainly can’t take advantage of unique Vision Pro features that way, but depending on the app, it might be good enough”
This is in the same line than the Xojo’s blog article.
But the author of the magazine and me also, is curious on the following: “Could the current iPad target be enhanced to work better with Vision Pro until we get full VisionOS support?”
This, as I understand Christian highlighted, it would be nice to hear from @Geoff_Perlman, in his CEO roll, what he think about it.
We continue to evaluate VisionPro and the interest from Xojo developers in creating apps for it against all of our other priorities. Obviously in the perfect world we would support it ASAP but like all companies (Apple included btw) we have limited resources so we have to look at everything through the lens of what provides the best value for users.
Long time user here. Please continue to improve on existing platforms prior to taking this on, which sounds like what you are leaning towards.
VisionPro is neat, for sure, but it could be irrational exuberance, especially at its current price and the current economic headwinds. Apple spent millions, maybe billions on their Electric Vehicle efforts and ultimately scrapped the entire project. Meta’s effort in this area has not gained wide-spread market acceptance either.
There is no point Xojo spending any time on Vision Pro.
The number of users of Vision pro is miniscule, and the number of Xojo developers who would want to/be able to create an app for it that does more than an iPad app is even smaller.
Thanks @Geoff_Perlman for telling us what you are thinking about VisionOS and Xojo.
We always have to dream with a prefect world, and till now Xojo is making my personal dreams comes true. I am very satisfied with the company and the product.
Similar to XDev publisher I will appreciate if “the current iPad target be enhanced to work better with Vision Pro” if that is possible and takes a reasonable effort from the Xojo team.
I agree with @Joseph_E that the main amount of effort have to be orientated to improve existing platforms, but some effort have to be expent on new technologies, also when the number of users is still minuscle and, as @Jeff_Tullin said, when the number of Xojo developers interested on creating apps for this platform is even smaller.
For marketing pourposes, and in order to be recognized as a very first mover player on the multiplatform development language market, small efforts in this direction could have some reasonable ROI (not sure, but may be possible).
From what I understand, it runs iOS apps as flat apps slapped into the virtual world, but if you want immersion, then yeah it probably uses Swift frameworks, which will create more work for Xojo, until Xojo re-writes everything to use Swift on the Mac. It’s also really easy to take a Mac, iPad, iOS SwiftUI app, check a box and run it on AVP, where certain platform specifics are automatically swapped for AVPisms.
Agreed, they have too many things that already require more attention than they can spare, another target, would probably kill the company.
The current version of the Vision Pro is a Developers kit, at least according to some internal docs. Apple BC, would have sold it at reduced price to encourage developers to build for it.
I’m on the side of skipping it, Xojo is hitting big targets right now and Android support being as mature as IOS would be way WAY more valuable.
Ps
I also really want the Xojo Libraries to come out. I think it’ll really make things easier for the community to develop.