A point of view from an old user

Not to start a cat fight, just a little feedback in case it helps the dev team.

I came back to Xojo due to the need for cross platform compiling for a small project. I worked on a simple app for a diagnostic tool for an iot project that needed a way to diagnose and talk to it via serial port and needed to be able to deploy in windows and Mac.

I moved away from Xojo due to the nature of the projects, back then you couldn’t deploy to IOS, so I started coding in c++, objective c, swift and moved out about 5 to 7 years ago (maybe more!). I was a hard core Xojo dev then when it was called real basic or studio.

I think the IdE concept is great and well thought out. But it is slow, and as you progress it gets slower. It runs like a turtle by the time you are finishing a project. Coming from other code editors the text editor also feels kind of crippled in things like quick search capabilities, in line help, refactoring tools, etc.

I also have to mention that the language is not too elegant IMHO. I know that many prefer if/end if to if () {} syntax or while wends to while {}, (among others) … this is always a personal taste of course. But just to say that the language it’s starting to show age when looking at many modern ones. Again I understand this is a personal taste thing and many might love it and I respect that.

I have always admired the OOP implementation of Xojo and the adherence to patterns like interfaces, classes, instances, delegation, etc. It is truly an OOP language since it’s origins. Many things I learned here helped me a lot in other languages!

The compiled product Works great and adds a lot of value and the benefits it offers are simply amazing! … I will still use Xojo for simple cross platform development, but I hope that this message helps Xojo team (or not) as feedback to consider in the future.

This is not a complaint! It’s only a humble point of view!

Hi Francisco,

Many of your words ring true, but I would like to say the syntax, or language, is most important to my use of Xojo.

I also use several other languages, (NOT objective-C, who the fuck came up with that mad idea?), although the other languages (C, C#, C++ and several BASIC variants) I use make good products and applications, my enjoyment for code, my own projects at home (I am a Radio Amateur) are largely done in Xojo.

Until recently, Xojo has been without doubt my most favourite environment to work with.
You have returned at a time when the product was last updated at 19r3.2.
this update was to cater for a future update to a version of MaciOS that is not even released, it has no bug fixes for the prior release version, 19r3.1, which was released in January 2020 if I remember correctly.
the most recent version of Xojo that has none of API2 and no event name changes is 19r1.1.

just search the forum for API2 and ‘new event names’ to see what was going on during that time.

I am sure the dev team are going to be allowed to make every effort to get things back on track.

I like Objective-C! At least I can look at Obj-C from 20 years ago or yesterday, and understand it.

Swift on t’otherhand! Heck you can’t even compile Swift code written 3 years ago in a modern Xcode without changes to it and that’s if you can read it :slight_smile:

Hi Sam,

and that I why you are great at doing the stuff you do and help all of us out who’s brains just can not fathom obj-c.
its like learning Spanish, being really proud you did something great (read BASIC) then someone starts talking in Portuguese.
you think you know whats going on, but in reality all you can do is order drinks and get the bill.

thats obj-C to me, el constructo loco!

Indeed, I looked into Swift at its inception and it was quite promising, but it then entered such state of flux, it became difficult to follow.

Unfortunately, making it open source gave it the Linux fragmentation syndrome.

On the other hand, until recently, Xojo was a brilliant example of backward compatibility. I started coding in RB back in late 2000.

When I started posting to the MAS back in 2013, I picked projects from the turn of the millennium, opened them in Xojo, and with very little modifications, they were ready from prime time.

I find in unfortunate that API 2.00, instead of keeping what made RB/Xojo so enduring, systematically renames what has worked unchanged for over two decades. But hey, I am just a grumpy old man :wink:

[quote=497127:@Mark Carlton]You have returned at a time when the product was last updated at 19r3.2.
this update was to cater for a future update to a version of MaciOS…[/quote]

[quote]MaciOS[/quote]:wink:

@Mark Carlton — I partly understand you about Obj-C but don’t mix the language and its syntax. The syntax is difficult to write and requires a lot of help from the IDE, but it is very easy to read/understand and the dynamics of the language is absolutely great, IMHO.

If Obj-C wasn’t as versatile as it is, transition from Carbon to Cocoa would have been a nightmare in Xojo.

Thanks all for your posts. Like I said, its a preference taste. I have learned to love Swift. The problem with swift it that is uses a different paradigm than OOP… Its more functional programming… But it has some great features.

About the Xojo language, again… Nothing against it, it was the first thing I Learned and I can live with it. I like more the latter but heck… Who am I to say something to a success story!

About the API2. I will do the searches. I downloaded the newest one. So…

Thanks anyhow.

My comments about the IDE Stand though.

Again. I am writing this because I am using it.