And we used to give 'em him the money so he could write those cheques… So effectively we payed to have the CEO’s reports prioritized and our own ignored.
I actually understand why they decided to do string parsing, and I warned them NOT to do it in the first place.
If they used the correct API it would have (back in the day) reported 10.16 instead of 11.0 and Geoff said that was a mistake from Apple and his customers (him basically) expected it say 11.0. So they read the string from elsewhere.
I tried to explain to him that it wasn’t wrong, in fact it was a useful troubleshooting aid as not all of Big Sur UI things worked in 10.16, while they did in 11.0. The CEO didn’t care, and I have the suspicion it’s either because he doesn’t understand or because one of his customers tried to correct him. Either way he was wrong and it led to more problems down the road, and I warned him NOT to do it.
It has to do with believing n that what a customer says. And that was not given. While that was not given they had no Interest in it. And so it led to even more problems. If they would listen I would not be like it is. That’s the Story behind so many things. and it is a story of management failing.
On the other side you can’t listen to every customer. That is maybe also one part of the problem.
Or just plain expedience – again, due to inadequate staffing and not enough bandwidth to do more than a “lick and a promise”. Geoff’s devs are craftsmen, or were at one time, but he has probably beaten it out of them. When you’re drowning in work, the tendency is to stop caring.
it is also so, when the product needs a compiler guy and programmers for platforms and you have Xojo programmers you may not beat it off of them but you may not have the needed staffs to get the job done. Not getting the job done is resulting in? Ahh, yes, in bugs. that circle can’t be broken without changing the staff amount and -strategy. That they are not even considering in their entire planning and doing. They drive this product so without the needed staff to the point where they can say: okay, it’s enough.
Observation: none of the issues brought up in the thread has been solved - one year later.
The Xojo staff’s ‘did you file a feedback case for this?’ is rather dumb and exposes their laziness in doing their homework and a lack of respect for the work their customers have already done.
1000%
Came to that conclusion and had decided to quit
They let me go before I did but either way its been better for me, my mental health, and my pocket book
A couple of things are on the road map, like Popovers, “Modern Toolbars” (whatever those are) and a grid control.
But the rest appears to have been ignored, and I suspect it is because it came from me. Before “2.0 All The Things” I started to get frustrated that they appeared to be ignoring me and my requests. I even had a video call with the Xojo CEO and a couple of team members. When I stated it feels like Xojo doesn’t care. It went silent for a while, then finally one member said “We do care”, but I now firmly believe what she meant was “I care”.
None the less, it’s good that this post is still there, so that new comers can see how well Xojo values experienced customer feedback.
Edit: I have added more things that Xojo have ignored and provided an example. Some of the things I’ve highlighted have been ignored for over a decade.
I see that you renewed your offer to help to Xojo Inc. Your offer is generous, after all the years they’ve been busy ignoring it.
Looking at what the product Xojo is now, even with your help accepted, it won’t get out of the dead end their management has steered it into.
Above all, company culture makes it simply impossible to understand what a strategical error is. Without this insight and introspection, no change is possible.
Then, this company appears to be too frail now for doing the heavy lifting a turnaround would require.
With FileMaker I went through the same process. At some point, about 2 years ago, I understood that it is hopeless until the company behind the product performs a radical cultural change, putting developers back in the centre of their focus.
Such a change would imply that the strategy defined by senior management was fundamentally wrong and damaged the company’s most precious resource: developers. And such a move requires a humble leader, which we have yet to see.
So possibly it is time to leave that environment. Use Java. Your’e welcome in the club. Having Web, Desktop and Mobile in one Platform with JavaFX, Jpro and Gluon Mobile. And the best: only using Desktop: use all for free with IntelliJ CE.
Waiting for Xojo Changes and becoming professional makes you wait for the wonder of Christmas. Maybe there will be the day St. something will appear and start some wonder. I believe that it will not be happened if not:
Christmas and Easter are on the same day
the Hell is frozen’
Donald Trump becomes the most intelligent Genius of this planet
Elon Musk becomes a great Fan of Joe Biden
Xojo has more users than Java
Bill Gates spends you all the money he has
some curious Ideas more I have no Idea now you can add.
I have been slowly working on leaving, I’ve ported some helpers to Objective-C, the end results are incredible.
But it’s a slow process, and I am considering if I should take the opportunity to learn Swift instead. I have more experience with Objective-C and has a more functionality toolset, not to mention that some “documentation” I received from Apple, was in C++, which I think is closer to Objective-C than Swift.
Downside is that Swift is where Apple is going and I do wonder how long it will be before they cut of 3rd party support for Objective-C or start to make API and frameworks Swift only.
First they have to fix the bugs they created for “2.0 All The Things”, then they can start actually working on the backlog of bugs… Oh wait, nah, they just auto-close 'em and the bugs magically disappear, along with their customers.
Over the last 4 years or so there have been around 9 Swift only frameworks released, plus they started a cross platform rewrite of Foundaion in Swift this year. IMO Objective-Cs death is just a matter of time,