BASIC or not?

Since my last post, there has been a discussion on the Xojo forums about the things I said. Most of it has been very positive, and I am grateful to the responses and subsequent discussion that has arisen. However, there is one thing that has been mentioned a couple of times that I would like to address, and I want to do it here as it could possibly clarify what I said before.

Some people think that I should not refer to the underlying language of Xojo as BASIC, and that is a fair point, it is no longer strictly BASIC, but it does have it's roots in the language. Hell, it was once called RealBasic.

Xojo, in my opinion, is an evolution of the BASIC language. BASIC, for those that don't know, is an acronym for Beginners All-puporse Symbolic Instruction Code. This does not mean that is is only for beginners any more.

It was originally design in 1964 as an easier language for non-programmers to be able to create software for mathematics and scientific pursuits. It then became the favoured language for home computers during the 80's during the boom in the market with most home computers having a BASIC interpreter either built in or available as a cartridge add-on (notable exception being the Jupiter Ace, which used Forth).

At that time, the language was fairly limited in what it could do, and the structure of the language also meant that without careful planning, the code could become rather unwieldy and unmanageable. However, the popularity of the language meant that developers continued to evolve it. This involved adding proper functions and subroutines, custom data types and now full object oriented features.
So, the BASIC of today is now very different to the language first developed in the 60's, but does that mean that it is no longer BASIC? Personally, I would argue that it IS still BASIC. The language retains a lot of it's roots, and unlike some other languages, whilst there are some ANSI standards for the language, BASIC developers have always added their own quirks to the language.

In conclusion, I think that Xojo (the language) is BASIC in the same way that the language of Delphi is Pascal. Both have their roots in their respective original languages, but both have exceeded the originals.

Does this make Xojo any less desirable, useable or important? Not at all, today it is a very capable and strong language.

For more information about the origins of BASIC, take a look at Wikipedia

Why Xojo?

Why do I use Xojo?

When talking to my peers in the software industry and they ask what I primarily use for application development, I get a number of reactions when I tell them Xojo. At first I normally get a response that indicates that they have never heard of Xojo. After explaining what it is, the next question is "why not use the standard tools, such as Objective-C for OS X or Visual C++ for Windows?".

In order to answer these questions, let me first give you. Brief history as to how I discovered Xojo. 

When I switched to a Mac, back in 2006, I had come from a Delphi development background. I had just spent the last three years using nothing but Delphi for virtually all of my software. However, making the switch from Windows meant that I needed to find a new development system. At the time, I was not aware that OS X came with developer tools (possibly it didn't, but I'm not sure). So I started to look for a Delphi equivalent for Mac. That led me to Lazarus, the FreePascal IDE that was purportedly cross platform. Unfortunately, at that time, Lazarus required X11 to be installed for OS X, not only for development, but also on the target machine. This was not really acceptable to me, so I moved on. 

My next find was RealBasic. Having also worked with Visual Basic in the past, I was intrigued by this system. RealBasic was supposed to be cross platform, using native controls and allowed for rapid development. I could write on a Mac and compile for Linux, Windows and Mac without the need to use a non-Mac computer. So, I bought a licence.

RealBasic has since been renamed, twice: Firstly to RealStudio, and now Xojo.

Since then, I have also brought my skills for Objective-C and, Apple’s new language, Swift up to date and can comfortably use these. Lazarus has also ditched the requirement for X11, so that is no longer an issue for me.

So why am I still using Xojo?

I think the best way to explain would be to list the pros and cons, that I have discovered, regarding the language:

Cons:

• It is not free. Unlike Xcode (for Swift and Objective-C) and Lazarus, Xojo is not free and requires the purchase of a license for development (rather, I should say, for distribution, Xojo, Inc do allow you to download the IDE for free and program away, but to create stand alone binaries, you do need a license).
• It is slow. Actually, that’s not a really fair statement. What I should say, is that applications written in Xojo do not perform as quickly as application written with the official tools. However, most of the time, that is not an issue, the only time I have encountered a problem with speed was with a very graphic intensive application.
• It’s not as widely supported. As it is not one of the more common languages out there, resources can be a little difficult to find.
• Not all platform features are supported. This needs qualifying. Not all platform features (Windows, OS X or Linux) are supported “out of the box”. However, Xojo does allow access to the platform API’s. Which does bring me on to my next point…
• Xojo, Inc are always playing catchup. This does seem like an odd thing to say, but it is true. As this is a third party development system, the Xojo team can only address new features AFTER they are announced. 
• Fiddly submission to the Mac App Store. With Xcode, I can submit apps to the App Store with very few clicks. However, to do this with Xojo, I either need to go to the command line, or use a third party tool, such as App Wrapper.

That’s a few cons, and for some people it might be enough to turn them away from Xojo. But now we get to the pros:

Pros:

• Cross platform development. Even though I mainly develop for OS X, having the ability to recompile the same source for Windows or Linux is a blessing. I have even been commissioned to write a Windows application in the past, all of which (besides final testing) was done on my Mac.
• Native controls. Whether you are on Mac, Windows or Linux, Xojo will mostly use native controls. There are some that are not (e.g. Listbox), but most of the time, it is very hard to see any difference.
• Fantastic community. I know I mentioned in the cons about the difficulty in finding resources, however, when you do find those resources, they are normally excellent and well supported. Not to mention the very active, and friendly, Xojo forums.
• API access. As I stated above, Xojo allows you access to all the API’s of the operating system. On OS X, this includes the frameworks. Whilst it can be fiddly, it can be done.
• The debugger is easy to use. I know this is an odd “pro” to include, but after having used the Xcode debugger for a couple of projects, I have really come to appreciate the Xojo debugger.
• Rapid development. I can create an application in a couple of days that could potentially take me a week in other languages.
• Easy to understand. Whilst I know that BASIC is not everyone’s cup of tea, and I also know that some still see it as a “toy” language, I find the syntax very easy to read. This is also one of the reasons I used to use Delphi over C++, it’s just easier to read, and therefore debug.
• Xojo promotes good programming. What? How did that get here? But it’s true. Because there are times when an algorithm can be very processor intensive, this can slow the application down. I addressed this in the past by re-writing apps in Objective-C, however, with some careful planning and clever coding, Xojo can perform the required tasks at the required speed. So in this way, it does promote better programming.

That’s just a few of the pros and cons. I could list a lot more, and I am sure I have missed some that other Xojo users would have included. In my opinion, most of the cons can be negated by programming techniques, careful planning, or (in the case of App Store submission) inexpensive third party applications.

I know that Xojo is not for everyone. There are times when I will use Swift or Objective-C for a change, but it is a very useful tool that shouldn’t be overlooked in the industry.  

The upshot is if the end application works and does what it’s supposed to, does it matter what language is used?