Writings from the sticks

Recently there was a blog post about Xojo looking at WinUI as the new foundation for Xojo.
Thats great – except (you knew that was coming didnt you?)
WinUI wont support anything older than Windows 10 at this time (specifically they note Win10, 1809+)
How Xojo handles this will be interesting to watch.

Will they simply abandon Win32 and any users on older versions ? I could see that happening as it would be similar to what happens with old versions of macOS. Then to support old Windows versions you have to use an old version of Xojo.

It may be irrelevant since Windows 7 support officially ended in 2020.

Hopefully MS can ship WinUI as planned and Xojo apps on Windows will get a whole new look and maybe even new controls

http://feedback.xojo.com/case/61410

Last night I read a blog by someone who obviously misunderstands why it is INN and some inhabitants are disheartened by where Xojo is at this point.

There are some there who are definitely Xojo haters now. They didnt start out that way. Years of “it’s coming soon” have lead them to not believe those statements. “Show me” has become their mantra. It’s not real until it ships and everything before that should be ignored.

The IDEA of Xojo is truly wonderful – a tool that can tackle many targets & platforms with a consistent language and reasonably similar frameworks for each target. There are going to be differences and especially differences in behaviour – the web being what it is latency is an issue. Mobile/touch devices dont normally support the same kinds of UI operations as desktop does since there are no mouse or other desktop like input devices – usually. So there will be differences.

And many of those denizens on INN DO still continue to use Xojo. Not all. But many.

But INN’s purpose is to focus on cross platform development – so it has topics on different tools (B4J, Java, RemObject, Swift) that Xojo will not permit on their forums. And it does have uncensored commentary on Xojo itself. Again something that Xojo does not permit.

There ARE comparisons to other tools – primarily for those looking to expand their horizons in any direction (ie/ moving to Xojo from Java or moving to Java from Xojo) The languages are similar in so many respects that moving from one to the other is not difficult. And neither is likely a perfect replacement for the other in all cases.

Good cooks , like good carpenters, use many tools and dont try & use one tool for everything. It doesnt usually work if you try to make everything in the microwave. It doesnt all need the same power settings, the same cook time, nor does it all fit. The same is true for carpenters, Try to use a single tool for everything doesnt work well. Hammers make lousy saws, and saw make lousy hammers.

Being able to mix and match the right tool for the right job requires knowing how to use other tools. And, often, such comparisons or discussions about those other tools are not permitted on Xojo’s forums.

INN exists for all these reasons.

So yes you may get unbridled boosterism for some favourite tool – like Xojo or Java or RemObjects or Swift. But you can & will get other perspectives.

Me ?

I still say to people that I use Xojo and post code that uses it. I still like the IDEA of Xojo. And I’ve used it for so long I can bang out something pretty quickly. I do run into issues. I’ve filed some 600+ feature & bug reports and just keep on moving.

I just happen to dislike where Xojo is at today.
I’m allowed to have an opinion 🙂

I know Xojo just wrote one but to be honest I really like this one

This handy tool makes it so dead easy its crazy.

Even if you just hacve a static web site its dead simple

LifeBoat should be called life saver

Simple. Fast. Not expensive and does what it does without any muss or fuss.

And it looks good doing it.

Of just about any kind, not just Xojo web apps, LifeBoat is so darned handy you really should get it.

Its so easy to use that today I redeployed a web app several times in a matter of minutes.

Its truly one of those must have tools

Lately I’ve been writing a Web2.0 app and TBH I can see where folks are experiencing issues.

There are omissions, glitches and bugs that need addressing.

But, I also wonder why Xojo hasnt dog fooded Web 2 with Feedback or some other app they use and rely on ? And that would show them the issues developers are facing.

!5 years ago, before I ever joined REAL, they decided to write the IDE using the IDE. Something they hadnt been doing. A practice known as dogfooding.
And from my decade working there I can say that it helped make things easier to see when a user submitted a bug report. And there were a lot of bugs that never went out the door because we used the IDE to write the IDE.

It was a good idea to do this because

The engineers who are developing REALbasic are now having an experience more in line with their customers’ own experience, which gives them a better sense of what does and doesn’t work.

https://www.macworld.com/article/174461/realbasic-45.html

I do wish they’d write something like a web version of Feedback using Web 2. And, if thats not possible then work to make it possible. Feedback doesn’t have that complex a UI (does it?) It should be possible and if its not maybe that says exactly how ready Web 2 is ? It certainly says something about its readiness.

Your thoughts ?

Anyone who has been using Xojo for many releases probably has seen the dreaded “older version” dialog

It was a user request many many many years ago.

And now, at least with web projects, theres a different warning when you open a Web 1 project in a version that no longer supports Web 1 apps.

Well if you have even encoutered these issues and want to know whats the version I shoulduse to open this project you want the macOS QuickLook plugin from Monkeybread

Now lets be clear – MBS has two items named VERY similarly.
There is one that is a plugin FOR macOS.
And one you can use IN Xojo programs to acces QuickLook functions.

We want the first one. The QuickLook plugin for macOS.

Installation is dead simple.

Download the dmg. Open It.

In Finder Go To ~/Library/QuickLook (shift-cmd-G)

If it says “That folder can’t be found” then Go To “~/Library” and create it (the name is case sensitive) Now go to that folder.

And , from the mounted dmg, drag the MBS Xojo QuickLook Plugin.qlgenerator plugin to ~/Library/QuickLook.

Log out and log back in

I tend to use column mode so when I click on a project file I now see

If I right click I can select a specific version of Xojo to open the project with. Or I can use the Get Info window to specify which one should open this project from now on.

If you use other view styles in macOS CMD-Y will sho you the quicklook info for the file.

And you can start to banish those dialogs from you day to day work flows.

Lots of time I see people say they hack and hack at code until it “works”
But those accumulated hacks and patches can be troublesome down the road as you may not remember why you did something that way

And comments are, for the most part, obsolete the moment you write them.
And, unless you have some kind of enforced policy, either personally or corporately, they probably do not get maintained as code gets updated.

So how to avoid this situation where comments are useful and you cant read the code you wrote 6 months ago because you wrote it in a hurry and didnt bother with good names for anything ?

Quite honestly I find I like to be lazy.

By that I mean – slow down ! Take the time to do it once. And do it right. Or as right as you can make it at the time. Use long descriptive variable names. Give your methods good names. And then at least your code will maybe read more like english and actually self document the intent of the code.

Code you quickly hack together today and have to go back and decipher in a month or more does you no favours. In the long run having to revisit that code more than once will cost you both time & effort. And if it isnt carefully thought out you may introduce subtle side effects by making changes to your code.

Repeated studies have shown that the sooner to find and fix bugs and errors in code the less they cost to fix. Quickly written hacked together code is still early enough in the overall process that it can cost a ton to fix later (if you can fix it at all) Design flaws that arent caught can be horribly expensive to fix once a product rolls out – or worse cant be fixed without such a huge change that for all intents & purposes it will never happen.

My advice. Be lazy. Do it once. Do it right.

Had reports that the workaround I posted a while back to make 2019r1.1 work on Big Sur ALSO works on Big Sur on M1 macs

Covid is running rampant again in the province

Some random guy writes he thinks it is. Whatever.

Build me an app in HTML.
NO CSS, NO JS. Those aren’t HTML
Plain jane old pure and simple HTML.

Oh but you say I can submit forms and – yeah to the SERVER that is served from. But then what ? The server won’t DO anything with that form or the data on it unless its running PHP or Java or something that can DO something with the data (even just stuff it in a file !)

HTML on its own can’t process data, make decisions (no if then else or select case) or DO much beyond show you data (text, images, etc) from whatever web server its served from on.

Lets go look at what the W3 schools has to say about it

HTML is the standard markup language for Web pages.

https://www.w3schools.com/html/

The HyperText Markup Language, or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML

Note they do not say “programming language” – its a MARKUP language
The tags you insert tell a browser how to display things in bold underline lists etc etc etc

HTML describes the structure of a web page semantically and originally included cues for the appearance of the document.

It is structure and appearance. NOT behaviour. Thats up to a browser. Or maybe up to something else you add to a page that IS a programming language – JavaScript.

Yes HTML, CSS and JavaScript are usually used together

But on its own HTML is not a “programming language”

Still 😛

EDIT : as for the twitter replies lets just say that might hurt if the opinion were from someone that I respect. I dont. So no harm (no name calling required)
Next !

EDIT: if someone is looking for a job a & says they are a coder they better know more than HTML

Thanks to an astute reader

EDIT: Using nothing but html add two numbers and print the result 😛
Ready ! Set ! Go !