I wonder if FileMaker sales are counted under Services at Apple, if so, that explains the customer unfriendly attitude.
Apple has been desperately chasing “growth” over the last 7 to 10 years, and they’re starting to run out of options, especially when they cut investment to bolster profits. At some point, they’ll have nothing left to cut and customers will slowly continue abandoning their products.
They get this message consistently. Here’s another one:
https://community.claris.com/en/s/question/0D53w0000680o7CCAQ/maintaining-the-current-record-in-a-found-set
In a defiant move Claris’ ‘new’ bundled 2023 product saw its price yanked up another 30% on top of what drove small businesses away already.
Claris now maintains the old ‘FileMaker’ product in order to not losing another huge chunk of customers.
A company working hard on managing their customers’ expectations.
Why oh why does it always backfire? 
I’ve seen this sort of thing somewhere else
Why the heck did I read it in the preview as such that they are selling Xojo? 
- I’m probably tired …
Yeah, it reads like ‘the Xojo Store is on fire!’. Maybe I’m not good enough at English grammar 
But I have never been more satisfied that my English isn’t perfect. Translating it 1:1 to German (as you know) sounds like the end is near
Ah, I wondered if that was a general sale or something I was getting because my license renewal approaches.
they have 2 models: you’ll either get 20 percent discount automatically or you cancel your subscription and you’ll save 100% 
I have a pro license and was thinking of just renewing for Windows only but I’m inclined to let it lapse unless & until I have some blocking issue with the one Xojo app I’m maintaining. Also I am giving serious consideration to just rewriting that functionality using probably WinForms for this client since they have no cross platform requirements anyway.
As long as your customer doesn’t urgently need Android you’ll be safe I guess
I would not consider not to do a renew when I would have an active Customer while you may need the new features. Especially of the API II… while your Software will not compile on any new version. And so it may be a good idea to follow for every version with an update for your customers and telling them: will cost bucks…
or, what I would do is: rewriting the App. So for the next 10 years you do not lease 7900 Bucks. That’s what I have done with it and so I have nojo. Java is quite nice to write along a Xojo Application cause it uses the same inheritance. So you can use the same Object models. That is with Dotnet more complex. And building the UI with Swing and Flatfaf is no problem. For Windows, Linux, MacOS as Desktop Application written with Java Swing or - to do it like @Jeannot - with JavaFX.
After using Xojo for over 20 years, I have let my license lapse for several years. I have informed Xojo of what it would take for me to consider renewing my license, however I’ve yet to see anything that I would consider worth the cost. Nearly everything I’ve reported or lobbied about goes ignored, even bugs I’ve reported in API 2.0 remain unfixed, you’d think they’d want to clean up their new API after deprecating decades worth of source code?
“2.0 All The Things” was a massive insult, and we paid for that.
This year, I’ve started to push myself to learn another tool and any new app I create will be in another tool. I don’t want to learn another tool, I don’t want to stop using Xojo. Xojo’s more than happy to take my eddies, but they don’t want to support developers like me.
On the positive side, this thread continues to exist:
https://forum.xojo.com/t/to-renew-or-not-to-renew-thats-a-hard-one/75860
That one IS a fun read
You have made invalueable work for everybody, who put his App in Mac App Store… not only for Devs but fpr Xojo aswell… well…
what to say… welcome to the Ex-Xojorians Club!
Not tired at all: I was thinking wrongly too “Did they really sell theyr Xojo Store ?”…
On the other hand, I discovered that this code works:
'Declare a database representing a REAL SQL Database
Dim BookDB As REALSQLdatabase
Dim TargetFile As FolderItem 'Declare a FolderItem
Dim stdout As TextOutputStream
Dim DBRecord As DatabaseRecord 'Declare a DatabaseRecord variable
Dim blnResult As Boolean 'Declare Boolean variable
BookDB = New REALSQLdatabase 'Instantiate a REALSQLdatabase object
'Create a file to store the new database
TargetFile = GetFolderItem("PersonalBookDB")
Extract from:
Jerry Lee Ford
Beginning REALBasic From Novice to Professional
(2006, Apress)
Example from pages 294-295…
Not only it compiles with Xojo 2021r2.1, but it works (generates the PersonalBookDB file and populates it)…
Definitely. That was the final nail in the Xojo coffin for me. Especially in my conversation with Geoff where I was told that I’m not representative of most users. I mean, where do you go with that after 20+ years of promoting the product?
I visit the forums every now and then and it sure looks like there is less activity. And what there is looks to be people learning Xojo for the first time. Not a lot of power users asking and answering questions.
I’m 6 months post-Xojo. Every day I’m more comfortable using Go but still have a lot to learn. But the other day I fired up Xojo for the first time in months and it was slow and just looks so dated. The IDE is missing some nice features that I’ve come to rely on and I don’t see how Xojo adds any of those features in a timely manner (even if they were inclined to do so).
Go does a couple of language updates per year and say things like, “we added Generics,” or “we’ve increased compiling speed across the board by 20%” and so on. They tend to focus on what users actually want and will use rather than the hubris of thinking they know what users want.
I guess my point is that the longer I stay away from Xojo the more I don’t want to go back. Are there some things I miss about Xojo? Sure, but that list grows smaller day by day.
Welcome to the growing number of former Xojo developers.
Same here. I eventually settled on Java(FX) after exploring Go (unrivaled for web services) and Rust (incomparably elegant due to the precise information provided by the compiler).
I’ll write more about it at some point, but here’s a brief overview. The SceneBuilder is incredibly powerful and user-friendly. From dark/light mode, table views (with editing), file management, testing, error management, to performance, everything becomes simple once you understand the topic.
The only “exception” is menus, where you might need to make adjustments for macOS by distinguishing between Windows, Linux, and macOS using one(!) if query.
I can automatically create exes, debs, pkgs, or dmgs, and the Windows exe is automatically an installer (either exe or msi). Users don’t even need to have Java JRE installed, and a layperson wouldn’t even notice that Java is running.
The only real “disadvantage” compared to Xojo is that with JavaFX, you must compile explicitly for the target architecture, unless you use something like GitHub Actions (which is easy to do as well). However, this isn’t a problem for me, as I naturally test the software on every platform. Through Github, I can quickly access the project on the target platform and compile it within a few seconds.
I only pay for the JetBrains IDE and Github CoPilot, that’s it. So I’ve reduced my costs by a third, I’m having a lot of fun with the development and I’m umpteen times more efficient.
And last but not least: dealing with table views is extremely easy, logical and fast. And overall the performance is impressive, especially the database accesses. And all the problems with currencies and/or regional formats simply don’t exist.
9+ months of learning the ecosystem (more or less fulltime) is now starting to pay off. I would have liked to have spared myself that, but only while studying. I can only encourage everyone to switch (no matter what platform). If someone needs desktop apps and doesn’t want to build on Electron or Tauri, but cross platform is important, then there shouldn’t be a better alternative at the moment.
Lastly, dealing with table views is incredibly simple, logical, and quick. The overall performance is impressive, particularly when accessing databases. Issues related to currencies or regional formats are virtually non-existent.
After dedicating nine months to learning the ecosystem (more or less full-time), the effort is finally paying off. While I would have preferred to avoid this learning curve, it was necessary. I wholeheartedly encourage everyone to make the switch, regardless of their platform. If someone requires desktop applications and does not want to rely on Electron or Tauri, yet values cross-platform compatibility, there currently may not be a better alternative.
Thank you @thorstenstueker for the persistent and tiresome mantra . Constant dripping wears away the stone.
Erratum: “you must compile explicitly for the target architecture” … you must compile ON the target architecture …
Again, not a big issue at all when working with Git. It is even comparably much easier than Xojo, as with Xojo in case you need to debug on the target architecture and you don’t want to play around with the remote debugger, you have to ensure a 1:1 copy of your Xojo env, plugins, etc. Not so much with JavaFX. Okay, you have to install wix (as the windows installer engine), potentially some other tools, but those are all one time installations and independent of your projects.
One other disadvantage compared to Xojo, you don’t need CSS knowledge, but if you want to make a perfectly good looking UI it doesn’t hurt to know a bit of CSS, but Scenebuilder and/or the IDE will help you. Big advantage you can literally change every pixel on your canvas. You literally change the look of everything (if you want).