Should I learn Xojo?

I have just discovered Xojo. I have been reading a few things and watching some videos on you tube. Based on that, I am wondering if I should spend my time trying to learn to program with Xojo or try something else. I taught myself to program in Pascal years ago and then have been programing with Liberty Basic. Am interested in OOP but just brand new to it. I hope to get some honesty here as I don’t want to waste my time. Need to do some database stuff which is new to me also. I’m a PC windows guy I guess you would say.

So imput would be nice.

Thanks,
Milfredo

Thats kind of like walking on to a Ford car dealership and asking if a Ford is the right car for you :slight_smile:

Is XOJO perfect? no. But name ANY programming language that is.
Does XOJO have one of the overall most knowledgable and most courteous forums? Yes, by magnitudes…

I program in three languages in my day job and Xojo for most other things. It depends on what you are developing for.

If you are programming to an existing environment where other people would be making changes to the application then I would seriously consider using the same tool set unless the functionality makes it impractical.

For most other situations I say download Xojo and just dive in. After going through the Introduction to Xojo ebook you will know if it is the environment for you. You can do this without spending a cent by running your program in debug mode. When you decide you are ready to compile the application, then you will need to pay but not before.

Go for it - you won’t be sorry. At start it is very easy to learn and use, yet it is powerful and so you can get as complex as you want.

After you get started with it you’re probably going to love it. Use it a little longer and you’re going to love it even more. Use it long enough and something is going to really piss you off. Then they’re going to release some really cool new features and you won’t be able to put it away. Then they might raise the pricing and you’re right back to pissed off again, but everyone has bills to pay. Then 64 bit will arrive and we’ll all be happy again. I think you can expect the above from most development tools.

In the long run I think you will find it’s one of the best tools for cross platform development. And as Dave pointed out the forum is top notch. Everyone here is always helpful with even the most basic of questions. When you have a problem that is more complex, there are many developers more than happy to help you and the Xojo engineers are here frequently helping out. Anyway that’s why I stick with it.

I think only you can answer your question, but it won’t cost you anything but time. Welcome aboard.

we are biased around here. we are PRO Xojo, so we are going to say yes. Over the years I have programmed in many languages and still program in 2-3 on a regular basis. And of those, I program in Xojo the most.

now, should you actually learn it or not? we can’t decide that for you.

Very easy to get into and have a simple program up running in minutes, but this is no toy language. Very powerful and can do a lot of things. If you can know a Basic language, you’ll pickup Xojo in no time, most of it is very similar or the same as other Basic languages. Great forums here, by the way.

Whatever the language, the only way to know if it fits is by trying it. Just like shoes.

Now,does it do database well ? Yes.

You should not look at this as “the only language I’m ever going to learn” as the programming concepts are the same whichever language you go for.

However some languages are MUCH easier to learn. I wouldn’t recommend any of the C languages to get started - I’ve seen too many people give up. It will be difficult enough to get your head around object-oriented programming, so it helps if you don’t fight with the language at the same time. Basically it’s like learning Finnish grammar in Finnish vs learning Finnish grammar in English.

As a beginner you are pretty much down to three choices: Xojo, Python, JavaScript.

Python is a great language with a good community and lots of free resources but mostly used for scripts and seriously hampered by the lack of a good IDE.

JavaScript is the most common and has recently stepped up a gear with JavaScript FX but is mostly geared towards the web.

Xojo (previously known as REALbasic) has a small community (more like family) and is probably the easiest to learn (after all, BASIC was designed to be easy to learn). But it was designed to be object-oriented from the start so is basically a marriage of the “grammar” of C++ with the easy language of BASIC, resulting in a very powerful language.

And don’t underestimate personal preferences. Look at some actual code. For example many can’t stand C syntax with semicolons and wavy brackets everywhere.

Above all: have fun.

First let me thank you all for such quick responses. What I needed to know and is actually most important to me has been answered. It is the community and their attitude that is most important to me, as I am a hobbyist programmer. But I have a fairly sophisticated Horseracing program I wrote that I gave away for free to a lot of folks. I want to rewrite it and add a database capability to it to make it more flexible and robust.

So thank you again for your input.
Look forward to getting to know many of you and not drive you too nuts…LOL

Milfredo

If you are looking for additional training we offer over 60 hours of streaming video (as well as an offline version). You can find more information at http://xojo.bkeeney.com/XojoTraining/

We also have some consulting clients that pay us for very specific Xojo example apps so they can incorporate it into their own projects. Great way to jumpstart your app if you’re having a problem in a certain area. Exactly 100% of our consulting projects are database driven so we have a ton of experience in them.

Anyway, welcome to the community and let us know what we can do to help!

I started a project exactly one year ago. Its not simple, but the most important thing was, that I had to learn the language and the database-function, because I am completely new in programming in this way. (Did some programming in 1981-1982 - you can imagine the difference)
And I can say the material, which lead me through the period of learning, was really perfect.

Maybe my program is not as sophisticated, as others, but I can find always a way to solve the problem.

And if there is a wall of stone in front of me, then I got this forum.

So for me it was the right choice.

I have the feeling that learning is a constant process. One moment I think I understand Xojo and the other moment I come to the conclusion that I still have much to learn.

The features and options which Xojo delivers are so complex and extensive, I think it is a very good idea to learn Xojo. You can do many things with it and create them in an easy way.

Just get your feet wet and jump in. By the way Milford, welcome in the Xojo community.

Have very much Xojo fun!

Chris