Writings from the sticks

A link I was sent by another former user about a former users perspective on Filemaker and Xojo.

I guess I’m getting inured to these kinds of posts as they seem to have become more and more common.

Its disappointing.

No idea why, what post(s), etc.
I have a strnog suspicion its for things posted outside the Xojo forums.
But since the notice is fairly anonymous (the sender is “Xojo Forum”) and, in total, says

You have been suspended from the forum until September 4, 3020, 1:00pm.
Multiple violations of 5 forum rules
3rd official rule violation
User has violated numerous community guidelines, including:
-Avoid ad hominem attacks
-Avoid responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
-Be civil and respect each other
-Don’t post no-content replies
-Discussion of or links to blogs or websites that share privileged or internal Xojo company information is not permitted

I really dont know.

That said I guess I’ll be on discord https://discord.gg/dGSaDk
And on IfNotNil
You might ask a question on Xojo’s forum and find an answer there

So long and thanks for all the fish seems appropriate

Perhaps Queens “Another one bites the dust”

2020r1 introduces lots of changes. Some seem to be in the category of change for the sake of change.

The clipboard has changes to the names of parameters.

- Public Function RawData(macType As String) As String
+ Public Function RawData(dataType As String) As String
- Public Function RawDataAvailable(macType As String) As Boolean
+ Public Function RawDataAvailable(dataType As String) As Boolean
- Public Function RawData(macType As String, Assigns value As String) As String
+  Public Sub RawData(dataType As String, Assigns value As String)

Probably not a big hit for anyone and likely done for clarity in the tooltip in the IDE.

If you happened to switch your code to using API 2 then you’ll find a few small changes where you will have to update your code. This will break backwards compatibility since older frameworks / iDE’s will have a different definition for the values in the enumeration

Enum HashAlgorithms 
- 		SHA = 1
+ 		SHA1 = 1

MenuItem LastRowIndex has switched form being a method, to being a property. This shouldn’t cause issues UNLESS you happened to subclass MenuItem and implemented that method (in which case now you have to shadow it carefully)

POP3 Secure sockets have had several events removed – again this will break any chance of being backwards compatible.

- 	Event LoginSucceeded()
- 	Event RollbackSucceeded()
- 	Event ServerReplied(command As string, data As string)

PopupMenu had several of its method signatures altered. Again this wont affect you unless you had subclassed any of these and implemented these methods in your subclass.

- 	Public Sub AddAllRows(rows() As String)
+ 	Public Sub AddAllRows(items() As String)
+ 	Public Sub AddAllRows(ParamArray items() As String)

PrinterSetup has had a few properties deprecated in favor of new API 2 versions

PrinterSetup
- 	Public Property IsLandscape As Boolean
+ 	Attributes( "Deprecated" = "Landscape" ) Public Property IsLandscape As Boolean
- 	Attributes( "Deprecated" = "IsLandscape" ) Public Property Landscape As Boolean
+ 	Public Property Landscape As Boolean

Theres a new attribute on some items – RuntimeOnly

Not sure what it means or is used for since its undocumented by Xojo

Dim typeInfo As Introspection.TypeInfo = GetTypeInfo(Checkbox)

Dim propInfos() As Introspection.PropertyInfo = typeInfo.GetProperties

For Each propInfo As Introspection.PropertyInfo In propInfos
  
  Dim attrInfos() As Introspection.AttributeInfo = propInfo.GetAttributes
  
  For Each attrInfo As Introspection.AttributeInfo In attrInfos
    
    System.debuglog attrInfo.Name + If(attrInfo.Value <>"", " = "  +attrInfo.Value, "")
    
  Next
Next

shows this new one

10:47:07 AM : My Application Launched
              Deprecated = AllowAutoDeactivate
              Deprecated = Tooltip
              Deprecated = VisualState
              Deprecated = FontName
              Deprecated = FontSize
              Deprecated = FontUnit
              RuntimeOnly           <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
10:47:16 AM : My Application Ended

I’ve been accumulating a list of things that I can find Xojo has said are deferred until later, are removed or that they have no plans to implement at this time.

DEFERRED
– WebToolbar IDE Editor
– WebCanvas update to jCanvas
– WebMapViewer update.
– Draggable rows and columns in WebListBox
– WebLocation control
– Key filtering, formatting and validation
– WebListbox Editable cells
– WebListbox.Selected setter
– Session restoration
– selectable layout styles like fixed, flex, etc
– responsive design

Fluid is coming later on) …

NOT PRESENT NO PLANS TO ADD at this time
– WebAnimator
– Sheet and Palette dialogs
– WebSockets
– HTTP/1.1 Range requests
– Control sets

UNSURE – items I’m not sure if they are deferred or not planned
– WebToolBar Icon positions – icons above text

These I’m not sure of the status

MouseDown/Up events on controls like labels and canvas
X/Y cords for Canvas.MouseClick and ImageViewer.MouseClick
Missing KeyPressed Events like Textfield.KeyPressed
Listbox.HeaderPressed
Embed a pushButton in a WebListBox
WebRectangles clip their child controls, such as WebPopupMenus
Text line-wrap inside a WebListBox or WebRadioButton
WebFileUploader event ordering
ToolTips on WebTextFields don’t hide properly
Tab order does not wrap around when you hit the last control on a page
WebSDK documentation
Embedding a container in a WebToolbar

Any other you can think of or know of ?
Let me know and I’ll tack them on
An official list would be great.

ADDITION #1

A web version of Feedback is still coming and it’s being developed in the new web framework.

ADDITION #2

Favicons
Drag & drop
Web version of Feedback (60-70% done currently)

ADDITION #3 (Sept 18)

Web control sets

ADDITION #4 (Oct 1)

Responsive layouts (see https://forum.xojo.com/t/showcase-internal-web-2-0-application/57567/3)

2020r1 finally shipped today.

260 days since 2019r3 shipped. A long time between major releases.

For anyone using Xojo for the desktop, not web, this release isnt particularly noteworthy with fixes for the desktop framework.

There are a number of bug fixes to correct API 2 additions made since 2019.

The focus for 2020r1 was Web 2.0 which is a complete overhaul of Web projects.

Conversations I’ve had with others indicate that they expect several dot releases for 2020r1 to correct bugs and issues still outstanding on release day.

The other thing I’ve learned is that many expect that an update of an existing web 1.0 project to a web 2.0 project is more like a rewrite of that app using a totally new tool. This seems to be something of a disappointment that the IDE doesn’t do more work when opening an existing project. I understand Xojo’s rationale but this is disappointing none the less.

Be prepared to use an old and a new version of Xojo side by side to be able to move your project from one version to the next – or just bite the bullet and rewrite the application. Most of the rewriting will be in the UI – and any business logic that is not tied into the UI explicitly _should_ transition reasonably.

All this said, I mostly skipped testing 2020r1 as did many other long time users I talked to, as its focus was in areas that we were not concerned with.

noun | ˈadvəkət | 1 a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy

verb | ˈadvəkeɪt | [with object] publicly recommend or support

A good read on turning users into advocates

Along with useful links and examples of things that work and also discussions of why they work.

A good read for anyone running a business of any kind.

While you’re out reading have a spin through this one as well

I frequently have to look up certain events and read what returning true and false means.

I dont try to memorize this stuff any more.

One thing I do is insert something like

// this makes things semantically easier to deal with 
// and easier to read
Const rejectKey = True
Const acceptKey = False

into keydown handlers and then return rejectKey and acceptKey from whatever code I write. My code then reads like

// number ?
If Asc(key) >= Asc("0") And Asc(key) <= Asc("9") Then
  Return acceptKey
End If
// permits negative numbers being entered
If currentCellContents = "" And key = "-" Then
  Return acceptKey
End If

and its a lot clearer what the intention is

I’d originally written this post in May thinking that “Surely Xojo MUST be done by now” and that I could write a quick review post after Xojo released R1 “any time now”.

I wrote that originally on May 11

Its now August – 12 weeks later – and no release yet

Bob asked much the same question in June

He asked nearly 2 months ago.

And no release in sight yet.

As far as I can tell since REAL changed their name to Xojo Inc this is the longest delay in any releases they have had. It does seem to me this could easily be the longest delays in releases they have ever had since REAL Software was founded.

I have had a handful of license holders contact me saying they feel like they have been misled or even, as one put it, “ripped off” having bought licenses around the time of 2019r2/3 and then having received almost no updates since then.

The best advice I can give is “Try the newest release. When it has what you need only then should you buy a license. Otherwise keep your money in your wallet. Do not autorenew. “

I’m taking a break from posting.
Disillusioned am I.