XOJO

Hello,
I am a developing Desktop Applications using VFP9. Now I want to switch over to a new Language. I was confused in selecting between C#, Python or Java, which one is best for Desktop applications [ Speed, dependencies, portability ]. Now I found XOJO and it seems that XOJO has everything I needed at one place. Kindly suggest me whether I should go for XOJO or not? Is it possible to distribute my application without installing it ( copy paste)? Thanking you,
Regards,
Dhiraj

You can just zip the app, send to a friend and run it. No installed needed.

Xojo creates native, compiled (not interpreted) apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux from one code base. The language is simple to understand and use, yet powerful enough for experts, and the integrated IDE makes debugging pretty easy too. This is an extraordinary achievement that you are not going to find anywhere else.

Plus you can try it for as long as you want to for FREE… .the only restriction on the “FREE” version is it cannot be deployed to others, but runs on your own machine to allow you to write anything you like and test Xojo as fits your needs

Thanks Kem & Dave. I want to know that whether XOJO is stable or not . it can process the data [ few million records ] as fast as others, can I distribute standalone exe to my users & Report writer is powerful enough for complex reports [ features & capacity to produce PDF format etc. I am using VFP now.
Regards,
Dhiraj

Xojo is very stable in my experience, and with excellent backward compatibility. I have code written eight years and many Xojo versions ago that compiles and runs with only minor tweaks. I have apps compiled 12 years ago that run under Mac High Sierra.

Under Windows, the exe is not exactly “stand-alone”; it needs a directory of runtime library files in the same directory as the exe. I believe there are some third-party “packaging” apps that can turn it into a single standalone exe.

Different languages have different areas where performance excels or lags. Having said that, Xojo is quite fast, especially in 64-bit, aggressive mode. How fast it can be is often up to you and the way you write your code, and sometimes if you’re willing to sacrifice readability or convenience for performance.

Note however that running a debug version through the IDE will not be as fast as the standalone, compiled version.

Also, Xojo has a fantastically supportive community of experts (like Kem :slight_smile: ), concentrated in one place - here. With many other languages (I’m looking at you, Swift!) you have to hunt down and sift through often contradictory and/or outdated information all over the internet.

…or use an installer. I like Advanced Installer, Inno Setup is also very popular. There are quite a few out there. One will fit your needs, budget and preferences. This will generally be preferred by corporate users over packaged applications.

[quote=388247:@Dhiraj Mehrotra]Report writer is powerful enough for complex reports [ features & capacity to produce PDF format etc. [/quote]You’ll probably need a third-party plugin for that. Valentina Reports is pretty good imo.

BKeeney Shorts https://www.bkeeney.com/allproducts/bkeeney-shorts/ has a Report Designer and Viewer that you can embed in your Xojo projects and can create some pretty complex reports. In combination with the DynaPDF plugin from Monkeybread Software you can render to PDF.

If reporting on a Mac, don’t need the PDF plugin as the Mac has the ability to print to PDF as a printer. On windows, there are a number of free apps that can also give this functionality ( print to PDF as a printer alternative), but this needs to be installed separately. It does save the added cost of the MBS plugin, however

Ubuntu always has a “Print to file” option which defaults to *.pdf and I notice my Windows 10 PC also has a “Microsoft print to pdf” listed among the printers which is not something I’ve installed, I don’t know if it was added with another app or whether it’s there by default now.

This is for versions below 8.1 since in 8.1 you have it installed like in MacOS. Check WIndows 7 as I never had it, I do not know.

If you compile your app for 64-bit, Xojo will use LLVM which is an optimizing compiler. I would expect it to process data as fast or faster than most other languages but I don’t think we have ever benchmarked it against other languages in terms of data processing. Specific frameworks may have optimized some of their data processing functions more than others.

However, if you’re talking about SQL updates to records in a database, that’s a function of the database engine rather than the language.

It has been standard in Windows 10 since the beta.

Likewise, the Edge browser does support PDF.

But the level of support for PDF is not quite up to par with what is available in macOS.