That’s because, to too many people, software is like sand. Anyone can shovel sand from A to B, so why pay a professional to do it when you can get a college student in?
I can’t understand what the problem is for some of you folks. I had very little difficulty with API2, which also allowed me to throw away a number of my methods.
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Not heard of BCPL, then.
I’m no more 20 y/o. So, too many changes at once slow my productivity down drastically.
It is not the dot notation that hurt, it is changes like g.DrawRect → g.DrawRectangle (there are worst example with a different word in API 1 vs API2).
And as a single developer, I do not talk with my (non existent) team about what is now this or that (doing that speed up the memorization process). So, I have to constanty search in the Language Reference (that do not have a keyboard shortcut anymore) about this or/and that.
As a youngster, I do not had troubles to change from BASIC to Assembly, Pascal, etc. Now, I prefer to avoid doing that (or retire).
Did you noticed that the last XCode have a built-in GIT Menu ?
Ha, ha, neither am I. I’ve been writing software since 1965. But this was a one-time change (well it should have been) and I’m always referring to the doc.
No. But then I’ve never used GIT. And the last time I used Xcode was to build a 68000 cross-assembler about 10 years ago.
Lot of time wasted for all who decided to use it. Thousands of man hours wasted just for a Whim, changing the look of the languaje instead of fixing bugs or add real functionality.
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There were extra methods for String, which I found useful, added to them being zero-based, also useful, and the new database methods that incorporate prepared statements are extremely useful.
I’ve moved entirely to API2, dumped all xojo.core.xx, and haven’t regretted it at all.
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Depends on how much old code you have and how much if it was originally OPC (other people’s code)
The IMO gratuitous name changes that don’t change function are a pain, but much of that can be dealt with CAREFUL search and replace… But not the change in indexes or the need to deal with exceptions and some other changes…
That can make maintaining/modifying good sized existing projects a lot of work in some cases and using a lot of the open source Xojo/RB code available problematic… It is hard not to mix API 1 and API 2 code by accident, which besides killing backwards compatibility (often needed because of new Xojo Bugs), potentially can introduce hard to find bugs because of things like the index changes, which you can’t easily see when reading code.
So IMO the change to API 2 has a significant cost, that to me does not look like it is worth the benefit.
I have been using the product for 20 years…It would be different for newcomers.
Most existing users at the time never did move to the Xojo framework … If that is when you came in, your attitude is more relatable to me…
But most Xojo code (outside of iOS) was not written in the Xojo framework. That framework was not widely adopted for desktop or web…
-Karen
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There is a lot to like about API2, but a lot of wasted effort too. DrawRect to DrawRectangle, Append to Add, other other renaming just for the sake of renaming were a waste of time. But iterable dictionaries, 0-based string methods, FolderItem improvements, etc were all welcome improvements.
I understand the argument in favor of more explicit names, and that would be fine if the language were being developed in a vacuum. But that’s not Xojo. There is a non-zero cost to renaming these things, and the benefit is negligible at best. It wasn’t worth it.
All that said, I’m fully invested in API2. There’s no sense pretending it isn’t the future of the language. Of course, I said that about the iOS Xojo framework and was wrong.
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Most of which could have been added without causing lots of potential issues for using the existing code base many have.
I think API 2 is the future only because I don’t think they will go back this time… and I dread the intro of the API 2 controls…
But so much effort is and has been wasted on the changes that really don’t add anything significant, when the product needs so many other more important things IMO.
-Karen
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Have you ever intensively used Xamarin? I did. If you think Xojo have a lot of bugs, wait till you experience Xamarin. You’ll soon be an expert in work-arounds.
Xamarin wasn’t created by Microsoft. They bought it. It took until version 4-5 (= +/- 8 years) before being reasonable stable.
And .NET MAUI, well that is just a baby to use a metaphor. In November only a preview is released. They have a long road to go.
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And it’s still actively used; eg. Delphi and (more closely related language-wise) RemObject’s Oxygen.
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Xamarin, ouch 
. I tried it a few years ago. On Windows: bugs, didn’t work right. On MacOS: bugs didn’t work. On Linux: well you guess the result. Never again I will go that road. The idea is to bring .Net to MacOS and Linux. Bad idea. That proves large companies may fail, and smaller one succeeds !
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That is what I said 
The whole Xamarin thing was a woraround to make multiplatform stuff, working along .Net but not really being part.
so, what are those releases called Previews? Maui is schedulled to be feature complete for the previw number 6, then 2 more with only bug fixes and a Final release for November.
No software is perfect but it can´t be worst than what Xojo delivers for a first release.
That is the plan. We all know plan B exists.
Xamarin itself isn’t a work-around. On paper it’s great and well thought out. However in practice it’s a typical open-source project. Hastily built and expanded and only care about what the programmers find cool themselves.
Yeah right. As if it’s production ready by November. Well, maybe. But history tells that this will take years to mature.
Let’s see. I have 40 years of Microsoft experience and never saw them make things that were ok from the start. They are a billion company with loads of staff. Xojo is a small company. I expect Microsoft to do much much better than Xojo.
One advantage of Xojo is that their support is much better than Microsoft. Ever tried to contact Microsoft support?
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Oh, there is support @ Xojo ?
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I get the sarcasm.
Maybe you didn’t, but I had a number of good experiences with them.
I had some horrible ones with Microsoft’s “support”; like the contact I had with “Barry” from India ….
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Don’t be in a hurry to find out.
Microsoft has had a reputation for lousy customer service since the 1990s. Even being a preferred customer with a direct line to them, it didn’t work either.
In the Windows Store, there is no way anymore to contact Microsoft. It has become pure self-service with no way whatsoever to talk or email to support. Clicking on support takes to a maze of canned responses.
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