I’m currently using 2016R4.1 as my subscription has expired.
There’s two things I’ve been waiting for before renewing -
Hi Craig,
I bet they are fixed (among others). Anyway you always can find more detailed information about new features and bug fixes in the Release Notes.
Javier
1: And you can check the printing quality by your own using the new version and run your application in the IDE.
2: Save answer as Javier.
The bug was squashed:
From Release Notes:
64-bit Windows executables now have the correct icons.
Thanks, yes I could download and install the latest IDE and run all the print functions in several program using lots of paper that would all go in the bin… or just ask here and do my bit for the planet 
PS. Several posts about poor print quality in 2017 version on this forum so I really needed to find out.
Updating at the right time in order to get the most reliable versions throughout your subscription period is getting quite tricky. I don’t want to pay for a version that I can’t use while I wait for bugs to be fixed.
That is why I really love to be able to use for testing every current version.
For the printing:
Why dont you print to pdf and watch carefully the results ?
How can you do that ?
Linux: install a virtual Printer (Print to PDF); you are on your own (from me) 'cause I never do that;
macOS: Print, in the print dialog, choose in the Popup Menu either Open in Preview or Save to Disk;
Windows 10: I read somewhere that a virtual PDF printer exist, but I still have to test that.
On Windows XP (deprecated), I used PDF Creator (do not install PDF Architect (at install time you have to uncheck that). Very easy / nice.
HTH
Thanks that is a good idea and yes the print looks poor quality on the pdf output too (using Dopdf free pdf creator).
It’s very hard to see when the poor print quality first started but it’s caused me a lot of embarrassment with my customers. It’s not that I write complex programs but there are lots of functions and testing every one would take a very long time.
I really don’t think I should need to test every part of the program every time I upgrade the IDE especially when I’m not changing any code or using any newly developed XOJO controls or functions? Am I asking too much to expect things not to break after years of reliable functionality.
May be useless, but
Do a correct print to pdf using your Xojo 2016R4.1 as reference for future version test comparison.
Then when a new version is released, you only have to check the release notes / load that project and print to pdf
My 2 cents on the topic. While your expectations are quite right, there is a difference between expecting that something will work, and doing due diligence to make sure that the product I ship will actually work. By not testing my entire app, I am guilty of exactly the same thing as if Xojo ships an IDE where something was broken and no longer works as expected. Testing my whole application every time I change something (my code or the version of Xojo I compile with or the installer that I package with, for example) is simply making sure that my customers will not have any bad surprises with my product.
This is called Quality Assurance. In my opinion, it is not optional.
Wish it was that simple but it’s not. My system isn’t the same as theirs.
The Print works fine on my main IDE (Mac Sierra) but fails on Windows. Installation fails for some Windows XP users because of missing system files. Windows 10 users (original version without updates) have all sorts of write permission problems. Some of the many Linux distros never seems to reflect the same functionality requiring lots of workaround code. Firefox and Safari render my HTML5 code differently to Chrome.
There’s more than 200 functions and over 20 forms in one of my programs.
How far do I go for quality assurance each time I change the IDE?
Well for one thing, Windows XP is no longer a supported target, and hasnt been for quite a while.
You treat this like any major feature and you do your due diligence. Louis said this perfectly. If you can’t do the testing then you have to change your approach.
My best update ever was a tiny little change in the Valentina plugin. Which caused my app to show chinese characters. It was between christmas and new year so that not very many customers were affected. But I learned my lesson with updates.
And remember to use real hardware, not VirtualBox (like I do for Linux).
BTW: who said Life is easy ?
[quote=349318:@Craig Grech]Wish it was that simple but it’s not. My system isn’t the same as theirs.
The Print works fine on my main IDE (Mac Sierra) but fails on Windows. Installation fails for some Windows XP users because of missing system files. Windows 10 users (original version without updates) have all sorts of write permission problems. Some of the many Linux distros never seems to reflect the same functionality requiring lots of workaround code. Firefox and Safari render my HTML5 code differently to Chrome.
There’s more than 200 functions and over 20 forms in one of my programs.
How far do I go for quality assurance each time I change the IDE?[/quote]
When supporting so many platforms and OS versions you cannot test everything yourself, but really need others to test for you and report in a structured way. And going from one Xojo version to the next one can have huge impact, so if you don’t have time to deal with unexpected behavior, stick with the version you’re at for at least the project.
What do you think of the solution of releasing it as a beta version with lots of disclaimers in the Eula advising that it is for evaluation purposes only and no responsibility for loss of data etc. etc.
Saves me a huge amount of work without risking reputation or user data.
Didn’t know this, I still have a lot of XP users and my program still works fine as long as you install the runtime files with the executable. I noticed in the latest XOJO version you can do this automatically. Isn’t this to support old systems?
Craig:
Even Microsoft does not support Windows XP ! Now, from the user point of view
“my computer works, why d you want me to do any upgrade ?”
Answer: Maybe to be able to run some new versions of your applications ?
Disclaimers: What about the people who never read anything * ? They will give you bad reviews / press
[quote=349478:@Craig Grech]
Didn’t know this, I still have a lot of XP users and my program still works fine as long as you install the runtime files with the executable. I noticed in the latest XOJO version you can do this automatically. Isn’t this to support old systems?[/quote]
It could still work. No support <> not working. But if it doesn’t work, nowhere to complain.
As a side note: anyone still using XP without an extended support contract from MS is really asking for trouble.
As others have stated, not supported <> doesnt work, but it does mean that if you encounter a bug, we wont fix it if its XP specific. As a matter of fact, neither is Vista.
You can see our supported systems on our System requirements page here:
http://developer.xojo.com/system-requirements
And a list of when we stopped supporting things OSs here: