Just taking a moment to reflect when my latest project has been sent off to the customer.
After +10 years of using Xojo on Windows as my main development platform I have now completed my first all-Mac project (albeit targeting Windows). On my 2018 MBP 15" (i7 with 16GB of RAM) with Parallels 14 Pro I have spent two days developing a rather complex piece of software for geothermal calculations.
What now strikes me is how stupid I have been for trying to run Xojo IDE on Windows because of us targeting Windows.
Some of the immediate benefits I have experienced are:
Rock solid stability and performance (compared to Windows version of Xojo IDE that is - I still feel the IDE sluggish compared to other Mac application). No IDE crash in two days!
No plug-in hell with random plug-ins not loading forcing me to waste hours and days of troubleshooting and guessing
Silly fast run/debug cycles. My Windows machine had a 7th gen i7 and 32GB and when I open the same project in Xojo IDE it takes about four times longer to compile and launch a debug session
Language Reference actually working without glitches
I completed this project in two days and I would say mainly due to working with Xojo IDE on a Mac.
I often start by the Mac version. That said, I found that the cross platform promise is kind of overstated. To obtain a smooth running Windows version, nothing replaces doing the last mile on a real PC.
I remember that from back in the days. I haven’t found any issues with the visual appearance between the platforms which I remember was commonplace back in the days. Launching into Parallels is really fast.
The user interface experience using a Mac is far more simple and superior than Windows.
Some of the software may be the same when using it, but finding your way around the desktop - copying/organising files with big projects etc. Mac OS is better IMO
Are you talking about Xojo or the OS in general? The OS experience we could discuss in a separate thread, but just say that that I don’t agree with you.
With so few Controls, building that window would be nice.
Try a window with far more Controls. Think at an ERP or a complex application; (created from a Cardboard Folder) I have one where the paper Page 1 spans between three Windows (1a, 1b and 1c) and the data are saved in a DataBase (50 different Columns)
In the last 4 weeks or so I have been doing the opposite, as in I tortured my self to make application on Windows, only for the purpose of trying to see what I can do better for Windows Xojo users (if anything at all).
It is pretty bad, but some of it can be worked on if putting the mind to it. But everyone has to do it I think Xojo, component vendors and the users, to keep Xojo on its toes about the matter and maybe point at solutions.
I will hopefully release first major improvement for Windows on my part tonight which is result of this somewhat torture project.
Ouch! Windows sure needs some Xojo-love so I respect your decision.
BTW: Only cross-platform issue I noticed in my recent app is the Einhugur SearchControl (version 2.0.2) that shows up bad on Windows 10, but OK on Mac:
Its not Mac is faster, its about the ide is crap on windows. Visual Studio is a much more bigger and better ide than xojo and runs rly smooth… i think the windows xojo version needs much more improvements
There’s an old expression about eating your own dogfood and Xojo took a huge step in that regard when they started building and compiling Xojo using Xojo.
It would be interesting to see the results of another step in that direction: Having the entire Xojo team do their primary day-to-day development work on Windows PC’s for a full year.
[quote=405071:@Mattias Sandström]Ouch! Windows sure needs some Xojo-love so I respect your decision.
BTW: Only cross-platform issue I noticed in my recent app is the Einhugur SearchControl (version 2.0.2) that shows up bad on Windows 10, but OK on Mac: [/quote]
Its looking good on Windows 10 in the Torture My self to develop on Windows App.
Are you sure your using the Buddy control feature ? (Only way it can ever work on Windows is to use the Buddy control feature). I will log on the windows machine and post screenshot here in a sec.
My primary development machine is Windows and I have to occasionally release a product on Mac. I am always able to have My apps work on Windows, and trying to make it work on Mac is an absolute embarrassment - if it works at all.
It might be that I am used to the Windows-Xojo-way and not the Mac-Xojo-way of doing things. I am glad to hear that folks enjoy programming on Mac. However, all of my work is on Windows or Linux, so Mac errors are not investigated because its not important for my projects.
I am sure that the programming language will get even better in the future.
I’m also a “design on Mac, test on Linux and Windows” user. It’s just not time effective to try and do the design work on Windows or Linux after you’ve worked with the Mac OS IDE. Waiting seconds after you click a control tio select or deselect it makes things a mess.
Even if you are not a zealot (for your OS), you are always happy of your running OS (else, you will change it). When you double-click in a word, you kno how your OS behave when you shift-Arrow (left, top, right or bottom).
You can mimick your OS behavior in (one of) the other OS to fit your habits.
I recall a PC engineer work on Drag and Drop in a Mac OS beta that replicate the Windows behavior (whick is far different). Fortunately, some people noticed that, and in the following beta, Mac OS behavior was back (and it is far better).
On Mac OS, a file drop in a OS (Open / Save) Dialog simply change the current dialog to the dropped file actual folder, in Windows, it move the dropped item location: far different. It also change the Save item name to the dropped item. I love both Mac OS behavior.
I use Windows on VirtualBox on my MacBook: the real difference is in Windows, not in the hardware.
I am free to modify (eventually) Windows behavior to be as better as I can (vs standard Windows), but if I do that, WIndows Zealots will not be happy (and let the world know), while my other users may be happy and were asking why other applicatons do not behave the same. (optimistic sentence).
Another Example of non Windows behavior:
We start developing out General Ledger System in 1983 (MS-DOS) where it was usual to use the Enter-Key in an input situation and to set focus to the next control. After migrating to windows all our customers don’t want to use the Tabkey to step thru the input fields.
So we created our own controlset to support the use of the Enter-Key. Now this is implemented till today and we where never asked for Windows compatibility.
What i’m trying to say is that we have to take care about what an application should do and not what Apple or Microsoft defined as a standard. We have to set the focus to the solutions not to the technical aspects of different platforms.
