This is an interesting AI based tool that allows one to build app for Mac ecosystem easily and also deploy the same to app store.
No thanks. I’d rather use my own brain.
And I don’t care if it takes longer, I need the exercise.
Case in point: edited my post because I had a typo.
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I started using Claude code in Xcode. Works quite well.
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That would be my question why not doing that? I mean: what is better on the solution ith RORK? Is there something really better?
As we know from our collective experience with Xojo, when they say “Native” they’re likely allowing for a slippery definition of the word. Their product page talks about RN, but they’re using the Swift logo in some of their graphics, which is strange.
I totally abandoned Xojo 6+ months ago and work exclusively in Xcode with Swift now. Though I have Siri & Apple Intelligence disabled on all my Macs and devices, I’m making fine progress building working apps without any AI help.
Xcode is a hell of an intuitive IDE.
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How lucky you are !
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Xcode is free for everyone with a Mac.
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I am.
Giving up xojo was the best decision I made in a long time.
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I have to say: true, I feel the same. XoJo is a juggernaut of Bugs, chaos in development and customer service. I am happy too. When developing for macOS and / or iOS only XCode is the best way to develop. No Java, No C#. XCode. And if somebody would ask me: Swift and SwiftUI.It is flexible as heck and it works without compromises. Nearly no Workarounds needed for standard applications and fast implementation of own functionality.
We could speak about the usability of XCode. Compared to IDE’s like the Jetbrains ones. But at the end: comparing to the XoJo one XCode is gold standard.
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Not sure I agree. Native is that it uses Apple’s own frameworks under the hood. The fact that you can use declares to access so much is part of that nativeness. The fact that your apps pretty much automagically show correctly on newer versions of iOS just like apps that are built with Xcode do means they did something right.
the main difference is that Xcode is free. So when something new comes out for iOS, you don’t have to spend another $1000 or wait until they (Xojo) get around to implementing it.
After all of my time with Xojo, 12 years on my own and then 11 as an employee, I have great respect for that company… and I still use their product for building little tools that I use every day to help keep track of my hectic work life. That said, the experience of building an iOS app with a watch companion has been so easy that I’ll probably never use Xojo for that again.
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Well, you’re not wrong.
I guess my main beef was the depth of native support vs. the effort required. Listbox worked well enough, but, well… enough said.
In the end, it was the how much xojo was overselling their product. I don’t mean the price, but the “promise” of it.
My employer held the license, but even with their deeper pockets they couldn’t justify continuing the gamble. I retired when they started retooling (a happy coincidence). I had a lite license so I could continue as a hobbyist, but not after they dropped that license last year.
I’m much happier now, after investing the time to finally learn Swift & SwiftUI. At first I was going with a hybrid approach with embedding some SwiftUI in storyboards, but I see now that the whole Liquid Glass thing works best when the base app is SwiftUI.
Now I can build apps well beyond what lite was capable of, and it costs me less 
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Listbox is a great example of native-ish
Yes it uses OS calls too draw - everything ultimately does
Yes it kind of adheres to some UI guidelines for the scrollbars etc
But, under the hood its custom code
There is no underlying UI control from any of the OSes that is a “listbox”
Hence there are few declares that can be used to affect changes to its behaviour or appearance
Contrast that with a TextArea that is an OS supported control and with declares on macOS can turn into a VERY capable text editor pane - because it is the OS control
So “native” definitely has gradations at least on the desktop
On iOS since it is the only supported OS for those projects types the controls are all native iOS controls (or at least they were when I last worked there)
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Honestly Norm, I think we (Xojo) learned that one lesson very well with Web 1.0. Don’t create any controls from scratch if you don’t have to. Customers complain if you don’t have the control they want and they complain if you do but it doesn’t work the way they want it to. Having the native controls means Xojo can blame Apple, Microsoft, Google, Bootstrap and everyone that designs themes for Linux… as it should be.
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