A number of recent forum threads and blog posts have invoked my name. I mostly didn’t respond to those individual posts and decided to write one big post.
I’m still in the community: Sort of. I took a full-time job just before the pandemic hit the US and I’m so thankful that I’m able to provide for my family in a stable and hopefully long-term position. Xojo consulting wasn’t keeping me very active and that’s even after it was just me doing the Xojo consulting. You can chalk this up to a variety of issues that all revolve around Xojo.
Consulting leads just don’t show up like they used to: At the height of BKS we had 4 full-time developers and a DBA/Project manager. That means we picked up at least two big projects a year and a ton of smaller filler projects. Those just don’t show up any more. Do cross-platform apps now use a different language? Is it because of Xojo quality issues? Is it because of bad press? Is it because I expressed my displeasure with Xojo? A global pandemic that greatly accelerated a looming recession? Sure. All of the above probably. But I know other consultants that are in the same boat though a select few have flourished during this period too. So maybe it’s an ebb and flow thing.
The whole API 2 fiasco: API 2 is of dubious quality for existing projects. If you have a couple hundred thousands of lines of code in classic API code you simply do not have the time or resources to convert. What’s worse, is that I have several Windows apps that crash (as in poof! No crash log or catchable exception) in any version of Xojo that uses API 2. This one thing keeps me using 2019 R1.1. (Update, this was resolved in one app that used WebKit for the HTMLViewer renderer and is marked as fixed for 2020 R1.1).
If you want proof of this statement ask anyone at Xojo when the entire IDE is going to be converted to API 2. That alone is a multi-year project and I don’t care what Geoff says – they are NOT eating their own dog food when it comes to API 2. They decided that it wasn’t worth converting to API 2 for existing work. That says volumes if you ask me.
More targets less engineers: Xojo used to have only desktop targets which meant that everyone on the development team focused on desktop. Since then they’ve lost/fired engineers and created more targets. How much time and effort has gone into iOS, and now Android development? You simply cannot tell me that they are adequately staffed to handle all of these targets. Web has been a multi-year project as has Android. In the meantime they touched every single class in Xojo for API 2.0 and given the results I’m not sure the platform as a whole is better for it. As far as I know they have no *dedicated* compiler engineer and that seems to be an issue with 64-bit debugging.
Locking of threads and banning of users on the forums: It’s their sandbox and their tools so they can do whatever they want with their forum. But it sure seems like a lot of threads get locked (by non-Xojo employees!) and posts get deleted rather quickly. Look, I get it, they want to present a consistent look to the world but the almost fanatical control of the forum feels…desperate. Banning of users should be the very last resort.
The comical stance that professional developers are not the core users of Xojo: Xojo will deny this, of course, but I’ve been around for 20 years in this community. I’ve seen a lot of developers come and go. There’s the hey, this product is very cool phase. Then there’s the now I’m going to do something hard with this tool phase. Some get through it. Many don’t. With the many dealings with former Xojo users not once have I heard of Xojo contacting them on why they left.
Hell, maybe the users that know Xojo the best are the hardest ones to please. Maybe it *is* easier to find new buyers than to appease existing customers for renewals. But it’s the existing users that are the best marketing tool of the company in my opinion. How many times have I promoted Xojo over the past 20 years? Many people accused me of working for Xojo and being a shill.
Trust is Earned: One of the things that we, as developers, need is trust in our tool of choice. For many developers that have been around a long time that trust was earned a decade ago. The API 2 fiasco and the many new targets has eroded and downright sheared off the goodwill for many of Xojo’s most ardent supporters. I don’t know how the company recovers from those hits without being brutally honest with users and themselves. They simply cannot be everything to everybody. With Swift getting ported to Windows and .NET Maui on the horizon, in addition to other tools that are making big strides in cross-platform development Xojo needs to be laser focused on quality releases or they might find themselves in the dustbin of history. Earn back our trust and I think they’ll be rewarded. Keep mucking around with the above issues and the future doesn’t look bright. Again, in my opinion.
Where I’m at: I’m still doing Xojo programming for a living. I am not doing much consulting because I don’t desire to. I’ve always tried to do the best for my clients and, frankly, Xojo is not living up to my expectations for my clients. I think they’ve forgotten where they came from and what developers LOVED about the product. I’m sure there are some people that find Xojo because of web apps or iOS but I can’t imagine it’s a lot of new users. I could be wrong on that but I’ve wondered for many years who is Xojo’s audience.
My products, the ones I’m still selling, are getting minimal to no effort on my part simply because I’m not doing much consulting. These products were things I used on a regular basis and with no consulting there’s no usage and no need to update. I’m looking for homes for them because they deserve to have a developer that cares about them. Some in the community have suggested open sourcing them and I can tell you right now there is no freaking way that’s going to happen. No argument in the world is going to convince me otherwise so just stop sending me that recommendation. I’m not asking for much (in my opinion) to get these products but perhaps that’s also indicative of how poor the Xojo 3rd party market is right now and an overall indicator of the health of Xojo.
I wish nothing but the best for Xojo. This last year and half has soured my outlook to the point where I just can’t recommend it to anyone that’s serious about a commercial desktop applications. I haven’t done a web project in well over a year and it’s been many years since I’ve done an iOS project in Xojo. Without outstanding desktop support I’m left in limbo and wondering why the hell I keep renewing a license.
I know I’m not the only one with these thoughts and ideas. Feel free to add comments below. Please try to be respectful towards Xojo employees and each other.