The January/February 2015 (13.1) issue of xDev Magazine came out a month ago with
5: Source Code: A word from the Publisher Finally Marc can publish code for iOS
6: Letters
7: Hacker (cartoon)
8: Xojo News
11: Xojo Calendar
12: Review: Xojo Trainer
14: Birmingham 2014: Most of us couldn’t make it to the U.K. for their annual Xojo Conference, but fortunately Richard was there to capture it all in words and photos.
21: Data Access: What’s the best way to access data within Xojo? Kevin and Scott walk you through the pros and cons of three different paradigms.
30: Xojo Health Journal: Health logging is all the rage, so longtime xDev contributor JC Cruz documents creating a health journalling application.
52: iOS First Look: We’ve been waiting for this day for a long time: Xojo can now create iOS applications! But what is the experience like? Marc covers an overview of iOS development using Xojo, explaining what you’ll need, and how it works.
63: Beginners Corner: For those getting started Step-by-step, build your first iOS app!
73: We Are Xojo: Profiles of those who use Xojo
80: Xojo Talk: Thoughts on Technology Xojo 2014r3 and more
83: Databases: Database Design always matters
87: Tips & Tricks: An instant word processor, coloring listbox rows, and more
92: Regex Corner: Mastering pattern matching Using literals in Regex
By now you should all have had enough time to read the latest xDev - so what do you think? It would really help us if you could let us know what you liked, what you want more of, what could be better.
So in the future after each issue comes out I want to ask for your feedback, and if you could spare us a few minutes that would be great!
I just bought the Omega Bundle yesterday so dont have all the necessary bits yet, but from what Ive seen it looks quite useful.
What I would find useful is a masterclass slot each time. Pick a plugin, and invite the developer to run through the main benefit of it, providing small coding examples and what it can do. It would highlight the plugins, so good exposure for the developer, it would provide a good reference source for the end user and would show just what Xojo is capable of, which could be useful for any newcomers.
Win win for all I reckon.
I’ve often wondered why we dont have a masterclass type section here on the forums.
I thought about a new column “MBS corner”, but that would be more of a “it is such a huge collection that it is intimidating. Lets get started on it and take others along for the ride” type of column, where I would pester Christian for the correct way of doing things before writing it.
For a master class on MBS Christian would be the go to guy, but he has his own blog, as does Bob, and I think that is one big stumbling block. The other is that it takes a loooong time to write a column, especially when you are not a native speaker, and Christian and Bob (to name just two) are very busy with their work too plus I think both have families
So I would LOVE to see a master class column, but I would also understand it if they say no. Writing the columns is VERY time consuming for a token return (it takes me 3-4 days for each column, and I get $50) so if I had a business to run and a family to feed then I would have to decline
P.S. Another point: imagine Bob writing a column on how to use the plugin he is selling. Naturally he would also like to put it on his website/blog. But if it is available on his website then what is the point of the column?
I do enjoy your Tips and Tricks section, always something interesting there. I noticed JC Cruz had an article in XDev for the first time in quite a while. I’ve always liked his articles, very in-depth.
It is interesting to note there are more posts lately of people who used to develop for Mac only who have ported their apps to Windows. Without Xojo, it is a rather complex endeavour. Porting Objective-C or even Swift to Windows is simply not possible, as it is so tied into the framework. Xojo abstracts programming from all that under the hood, and makes it exceptionally simple.
I do not know if that makes me a geek, but I have always programmed for both Mac and PC. For quite a while, Windows was very crude, as compared to Mac. Today with the proper machines, it is getting here. Even things that were considered purely Mac like bundles can be done in Windows, given a bit of effort. And there are things that Windows does and not Mac OS X, like being able to use Xojo apps with a touch interface.
Writing an app for a touch interface, and giving it the modern look of Metro apps, to run it for instance on a x86 tablet, requires rethinking, and refactoring the often old fashion apps of Windows past. I will probably submit that to Marc Zeedar, as well as other topics in tune with the new Microsoft Windows 10 paradigm.
Amazingly enough, the more I go, and the more concepts like Web interface, as well as iOS UI, come into play to help me devise better Windows apps. For instance, I found myself building sort of an Auto-Layout for Windows lately, to better suit the extremely fragmented screen sizes. Not to mention the arriving hi dpi challenge, at the same time simpler to support technically than Retina, and a lot more involved in terms of UI design. Think about it : not long ago, the common Windows Screen was 800x600. Now there are several laptops at 2560x1700, not to forget the Samsung ATIV at 3200x1800. An app designed for 800x600 will have a diagonal of only 5 inches on a 15" high dpi screen. And using the global scaling feature is pure massacre, as it simply enlarges the small UI, making the high resolution screen look like an antiquated low res junk. A properly designed app can bridge the huge gap between resolutions, and provide the highest possible res, without need for declares.
Always one of the drawbacks. Magazine articles do point people my direction but it’s not quite as direct.
Plus I have the 60+ hours of video training that I have available. I can do a video, write a blog post, or write an article on pretty much any topic. The trick is always to figure out where to make the time for all of it and to figure out which one gives me the best return on my time and energy investment.
@Markus Winter What’s your policy on letting authors re-use their contributions? How about letting contributors publish their articles on their own personal or company sites (not other magazines etc) say, 3 months after the publication in XDev?
@Marc Zeedar What’s your policy on letting authors re-use their contributions? How about letting contributors publish their articles on their own personal or company sites (not other magazines etc) say, 3 months after the publication in XDev?
As a new subscriber I found the product a bit bland. The content is great, but I expect the presentation to include an audio/visual experience. We are after all in the information age.
Perhaps I’m in the wrong place being a Windows developer, and as a Pro user I’m waiting until renewal before I spend much time with iOS. Now I know you’re all going to say “but you can develop iOS apps now”, but quite frankly I don’t see too much of a commercial demand for those apps. Add Android though & there might be an argument for it.
@Markus Winter I purchased this sub and a previous issue (you can guess which one) only because you were promoting the product. I look forward to seeing you down under again next year.
@Michel Bujardet If I was an app developer I would have to agree totally, but it’s what my client’s expect that’s the issue. So I can say I’m XPlat for desktop/service apps, but 1Plat for mobile? Um no! So I’m sticking with WE which is XPlat mobile and waiting for Android support for true apps.
But in regards to this conversation I can see why xDev is focusing on iOS, it just has limited appeal for a non-OSX/iOS developer. And I’d like to see links from the mag to multimedia articles including the Xojo youtube events.
Please no. The audio/visual newsletter might look good in Harry Potter, however audio/visual has two big disadvantages: no search, and low information density (resulting in large files).
I notice that every time I think “there was something in one of the webinars but where?”
From what I have seen a lot of Android developers got disappointed by
unwillingness to buy (less disposable income on average)
copy cats / imposters for successful apps
high rate of piracy
All in all while Android has the majority of the market share the economic (lets not talk about moral) argument is very different.
The situation is of course different in your situation where a product is required across all mobile platforms, but that is a niche market.
Eeeeek! Not my fault! You can’t blame me!
(On the other hand: Marc, hear that!? Can I have a raise now? )