It seems that Xojo’s current business direction is to force users to learn another language.
Here are a few examples:
- When high performance graphics are needed, use DirectX, OpenGL, or Vulkan. Xojo has the basics of graphics, and the quality is poor and outdated. This requires a new window and code written in wrappers by C++.
- Want to draw something simple with the canvas? Anything more than simple-slow graphics, you quickly get bit by being forced to only draw in the canvas area. Having an algorithm attempting to draw to the canvas outside of the canvas section quickly causes reminders from the IDE that you can’t do that
- Want to communicate with other computers? Xojo takes the two options which are little-endian and big-endian and throws in middle-endian (also called mixed-endian) into weird communication between computers. Run a program once, its little-endian. Run it again, its middle-endian.
- Programming on Linux is a mess. Graphics are odd-sized and buttons are cut-off. Create a wrapper in gcc for linux.
- Writing electronics on the Raspberry Pi is difficult in Xojo. Learn another language, such as Python and C/C++ and you can create a Xojo wrapper for the electronic functions and big-banging required.
- There are waaaay too many other examples…
The one great part about Xojo, isnt the programming language, and is the community - which has a population that seems to be getting lower. Individual creators are able to make work-arounds for Xojo. Positive influencers to my programming life and style have been people like Julian, Alain, and too many others to mention.