Besides renaming of events and stuff, is there a principal performance or functionality difference of the new DesktopListBox.
Trying to determine if it’s worthwhile to convert complicated code from old to new.
ListBox is deprecated.
DesktopListBox is the current ListBox, but it is not a SupermanListBox, only code that can get bug removal (eventually) and get new Features.
Is it worthwhile to convert complicated code from old to new ?
When you will rewrite your application, you will use DesktopEverything (and get bad/hard time). Until then…
Excepted if a brand new feature is a must have for you.
I am not sure, but I believe you have to use a DesktopWindow, etc. (change everything to DesktopXxxx, not just DesktopListBox).
No, in fact DesktopListbox is missing certain grid features some developers make use of.
Myself and a few other professionals don’t see any reason to until Xojo themselves announce the IDE has been rewritten to use API 2 and Desktop-Prefixed-Controls.
If you desire one of the new controls like DesktopChart and are forced to convert a Window, sure that’s a need kind of scenario. But there doesn’t seem to be a justification for converting an entire project.
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Except for the knowledge you gain by working first-hand with API 2, through the course of that conversion.
That new knowledge comes in handy when starting a brand new project that wants to be forward-compatible, and can take advantage of the latest fixes and new features.
Just an thought worth considering…
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API 2 and Desktop-Prefixed-Vanity-Controls are two different things actually. Properly consistent code can be updated to API 2 quite easily with Regular Expressions. Lifeboat is entirely API 2.0 code, but uses all normal controls.
The Desktop-Prefixed-Garbage is A LOT of work and offers ZERO redeemable benefit for existing, complicated, working projects.
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I don’t necessarily disagree with that statement.
But… way back when I was a “professional” software developer, I used to say the same thing. Until I learned the hard way, that there was also nothing redeemable about ignoring technical-debt accumulated by not upgrading my projects as the technology (or terminology, if you prefer) advanced.
Prioritizing stability over fashion has its place, but it sometimes comes with an expiration date that’ll arrive sooner than you want. Just say’n.
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I could see the sense in this where existing projects (particularly big ones) are concerned. If one is starting a new project, it may as well all be API2. However, to keep an existing API1 project up to date with bug fixes and improvements, moving code to API2 can be done slowly and with no complications. My apps are not so large, so it was instructive to move the largest of them to API2 entirely, and record the issues that came up (which I posted about at the time).
Here’s a question: is the code behind DesktopXxxx going to be the same as the older version? I know that can’t be completely so since DesktopRectangle, f’rinstance, got rounded corners it didn’t have before.
The fact that Xojo is not eager to rewrite their entire IDE should speak volumes to when that expiration date may be.
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[quote=“TimStreater, post:7, topic:82824, username:TimStreater”]
Here’s a question: is the code behind DesktopXxxx going to be the same as the older version?[/quote]
With respect to Listboxes not completely. As Tim mentioned there was a loss of some features… I no longer recall what they were… But that is one of the reasons why I did not update my MergableCell Listbox for API 2 and open sourced it.
The thing is even for not so huge projects (new or old) the changes slow things down for me.
I built up my own toolkit (a lot of UI stuff) such as my listbox to give me more capabilities and allow faster development that worked around some of Xojo’s out of the box limitations…
Xojo broke much of it with all the IMO unnecessary changes nullifying many of gains my 20 years of using the tool gave me, and I did not have time to redo it all. Coding is not my day job - but I used to use Xojo to help me with it.
- Karen
If you want a super-powered listbox I can highly recommend DataView by PiDog software.
There are versions for both API1 and API2 and source code is available too.
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Wow, this listbox is very impressive, thanks for sharing!
It was nothing short of a savior for me! I can’t begin to tell you the advantages of using DataView over the XOJO listbox. The degree of control that DataView gives you (e.g., variable row heights, etc.) is quite impressive!
Guess no, did not find an option for it.
maybe tag @jim_mckay
I don’t think so, Beatrix (at least I know my version doesn’t have the rounded rectangle capability). But, I’m still using the API1 version and have not had the need to update DataView for the past couple of years. I know that Jim McKay (DataView creator) is constantly adding new features and fixing any bugs (I found his customer support to be stellar!). You might be best off to contact him directly. His responses are usually quick.
As someone who never used the old stuff and only uses the prefixed new stuff… I like it. All my FOSS software uses it for the most part except XojoEZUnit and the end user has had no problems. Almost 200 users across my software I know of so they’d tell me I think 
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