Xojo vs Omnis Studio

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone can share their opinion on the differences between Xojo and Omnis Studio. The later seems better for web apps due to support for building responsive pages. Although I guess this could change with the next release of Xojo.

Is the learning curve similar?

Cheers, Paul

Background:
I used Omnis extensively between 1990 & 2007. I probably used just about every version from Omnis 3 DOS to Omnis Studio 4.3 to create in-house database solutions and solutions for our customers. I also dabbled a bit with externals / xcomps and modules for the Omnis 7 to Omnis Studio converter.

I have used various versions of Realbasic / Xojo extensively since 2006. My experience is based on building desktop apps as I have not created any Xojo web or mobile apps.

Omnis Studio Pros
• Probably the best tool I have ever used or come across to build database applications.
• The ability to modify code / step back while debugging is so powerful.
• Great set of built-in controls including the oh so powerful data grid and report class.
• Very powerful language which allows you to write dynamic code / libraries.
• Great community
• Support / Development team @ Mitford House were great. They listened to advice & feedback, bugs were usually squashed quickly and I often received pre-release xcomps / fixes. They even provided the source code to the JPEG xcomp so that it decoded full colour images.

Omnis Studio Cons
• It isn’t really suitable for applications which aren’t predominantly database driven.
• The Runtime costs can be prohibitive (although the speed of development usually offset their cost).

Xojo Pros
• Can be used to create more kinds of applications (the reason I switched). It is possibly the best tool for creating native cross platform desktop apps.
• Great community.
• Remote debugging is great.
• No Runtime costs.

Xojo Cons
• At this present time I would say there are issues with quality as the number of bugs you run into is depressing.
• The code language / feature set seems to have stagnated (64 bit / HiDPI was possibly the last major core improvement).
• The debugger is very basic in functionality.
• The IDE is slow and quirky.
• You get the impression that Xojo Inc. don’t really listen to feedback.

Should we really discuss this here?

This topic is on the line. As long as there are no links and it doesn’t become an advertisement, it can run its course. Tread lightly.