[Started a new thread to keep Dave’s thread clean of discussion]
It’s no surprise at all to me that our forum’s membership has a more mature (experienced) age group.
There are several reasons for this but one of them is simply the fact that Xojo has been around for so long, when other programming environments have come and gone. There are people here, therefore, who already had a computing career of some kind, pre-REALbasic and jumped to RB as a new modern RAD environment. And there are, I would guess, quite a few of us here in our 40s like me, who were just finishing up at University when RB 1.0 appeared and it seemed like a slice of heaven after learning Modula-2/Prolog/Assembly/C/C++ etc at Uni. I took RB/RS/Xojo with me wherever I worked, from my first job at Nortel Networks, until I left to work on my own.
Microsoft’s killing classic VB is surely another big attraction - rather than having to learn a whole new environment, lost VB coders can easily switch to Xojo, and gain new targets in the process.
I’d argue there’s one more reason and that is a lot of us are sole developers - we are consultants or run our app companies - and Xojo is a natural fit for us. We don’t have the resources to have a Mac dev, a Windows dev, a database dev, a Web dev etc. So, using Xojo, it’s a little like we have other people working with us in our one-man/one-woman businesses.
I would like to see some younger people join us. I know there are notable exceptions around here in the last few years but I had hoped more young people would be joining us by now. I suspected the Pi target would do some of that for us but the penetration in Pi circles in almost non-existent. I know, because I hang out there too. The Pi is huge in education circles - my 7 year old daughter has one - and getting some Xojo recognition would bring some fresh blood to us. I hope in the next year that there will be a Pi 4 which will be capable of running the Xojo IDE reasonably comfortably. A free version of the IDE that runs and builds only on and for the Pi, would be a nice way to introduce kids to Xojo.
Fresh blood isn’t just important for the financial aspect of Xojo’s health but also because of the new ideas they bring in. I appreciate the contribution of everyone on the forum, including the guys/gals in their 20s. Technology moves so fast and what was once the norm 10, 20 or 30 years ago, is often antiquated now, and the contribution from people like @timi is hugely appreciated, as they bring a fresh perspective. (Not all new ideas are good ideas, of course.)
I know there have been moves from Xojo Inc and MBS in previous conferences, but it would be great if there was more outreach to the younger generations and more scholarships were encouraged to attend conferences.
Anyway, this was just a few thoughts over a cup of tea. As for me, this is one of the few communities that, at 40, I can feel rather young It’s great to see people in their 70s and 80s here, I’m sure Xojo keeps the brain finely-tuned. I hope to be still coding at your age. Now, back to coding…