Xojo

Xojo

Developer(s)	Xojo, Inc.
Stable release	Xojo 2015r4 / December 17, 2015 (2015-12-17)
Operating system	Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux, iOS
Available in	English, Chinese, Japanese
Type	Programming
License	Proprietary software (Commercial software or shareware)
Website	xojo.com

The Xojo programming environment is developed and commercially marketed by Xojo, Inc of Austin, Texas for software development targeting Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, x86 Linux, iOS, as well as the web and Raspberry Pi. Xojo uses a proprietary object-oriented BASIC dialect, also known as Xojo.^[1][2]

Developers can use Xojo to create applications by using drag-and-drop to build their user interface and then use one programming language to enable the functionality of their application cross platform.

History

In 1997 FYI Software, founded by Geoff Perlman, bought CrossBasic,^[3][4][5] which had been marketed by its author Andrew Barry^[6] as a shareware product. CrossBasic got its name from its ability to compile the same programming code for Mac OS and the Java virtual machine (although the integrated development environment was Mac only). A public beta was released in April 1996.^[7][8] The CrossBasic name was trademarked by another company, so the product was renamed REALbasic.^[9]

Prior to REALbasic version 2, the Java target was dropped and later replaced with a Windows target and database support.^[10][11] Windows builds contained many bugs when finally released, and it was very difficult to write applications that ran on both Mac OS and Windows.^[12] The option to compile for Linux^[13] was added in 2005 and the IDE was ported to Windows and as a free public beta for Linux platforms. The new IDE sported a new user interface redesigned to more closely resemble Xcode.^[14]

In 2004 REAL software announced the "Made with REALbasic Showcase" program to highlight applications created with the product.^[15] In 2009, a migration assistant was launched to help move code from Visual Basic.^[16] In 2010, to combat BASIC's poor reputation, REALbasic was renamed Real Studio.^[17][18] Real Software also announced Real Studio Web Edition, allowing developers to compile web applications without the knowledge of multiple web technologies.^[19]

On June 4, 2013 Real Software officially changed their name to Xojo, Inc. and Real Studio was renamed Xojo.^[20] Also on this date they released Xojo 2013 Release 1 which included an all-new user interface, full support for Cocoa on OS X, improved support for web applications, all new documentation and a new "Introduction to Programming Using Xojo" textbook^[21] that was designed for beginners to learn the fundamentals of object oriented programming.^[22]

The Xojo IDE is currently available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, 32-bit x86 Linux,^[23] and can compile 32-bit and 64-bit applications for Windows (Windows XP and higher), Mac OS X (running on Intel-based Macs using the Cocoa frameworks), x86 Linux, iOS, the web, and Raspberry Pi. Xojo is self-hosted: the Xojo IDE is built with the current release of Xojo.^[24] The 2015r3 release includes 64-bit support for Desktop, Web and Console targets as well as a new platform, Raspberry Pi.^{[25] [26]}

In 2016 Xojo was awarded the Big Innovation Award^[27] from the Business Intelligence Group for being an innovative development tool that has brought new ideas to life.

Features

Xojo supports inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism and is strongly-typed. Xojo abstracts developers from platform-dependent API calls, dramatically reducing development time.^[28]

The built-in framework supports:

• dictionaries,
• declarations to external libraries (dll, dylib)
• Visual Basic datatypes compatibility,
• full Unicode support,
• regular expressions,
• application programming interface calls to compiled C libraries on all supported platforms,
• ActiveX and basic OLE support (on Windows); COM objects are not fully supported,
• Notification icons (on Windows),
• Windows registry (on Windows),
• cooperative threads,
• scripting language embedded in Xojo programs,
• XML parsing and generation,
• console and service application support
• Apple events (on Mac),
• Address Book (on Mac),
• Keychain (on Mac),
• Spotlight (on Mac),
• QuickTime (on Mac and Windows),
• sound,
• real-time 3D graphics,
• serial communications,
• sockets (both TCP, UDP and IPC),
• SSL
• HTTP, POP3, SMTP and SOAP

Example code

This example writes to a new text file:

Dim t as TextOutputStream
Dim f as FolderItem
f=GetSaveFolderItem(FileTypes1.Text,"Create Example.txt")
If f <> Nil then
 t=TextOutputStream.Create(f)
 t.WriteLine(TextField1.text)
 t.Close
End if

This example draws a triangle in a Canvas control. It is placed in the Paint event. The parameter g as Graphics is passed into this event:

Dim Points() as Integer
Points=Array(10,10,100,50,10,200,10,10)
g.ForeColor=RGB(100,200,255)
g.FillPolygon Points

The following code connects to a database and uses SQLExecute to insert a record into a table:

Dim dbFile As FolderItem
Dim db As New SQLiteDatabase
dbFile = GetFolderItem("Employees.sqlite")
db.DatabaseFile = dbFile
If db.Connect Then
  db.SQLExecute("BEGIN TRANSACTION")
  db.SQLExecute ("INSERT INTO Employees (Name,Job,YearJoined) VALUES "_
    +"('Dr.Strangelove','Advisor',1962)")
  If db.Error then
    MsgBox("Error: " + db.ErrorMessage)
    db.Rollback
  Else
    db.Commit
  End If
Else
  MsgBox("The database couldn't be opened. Error: " + db.ErrorMessage)
End If

XojoScript

XojoScript is a scripting language which is similar to, and shares many features with, Xojo. They are both object oriented, support modules and use almost identical datatypes (Xojo has some differences, mainly for compatibility with some C APIs). XojoScript is mainly used to script applications written with Xojo, and (from the 2006r1 version) is also used in the Xojo IDE.

Compared to the different scripting languages that can still be used with Xojo (thanks to the ability it offers to call C APIs), XojoScript can be better integrated into applications made with Xojo by the possibility it has to call the methods and to use the properties of the object passed to the script parser and compiler.

Example code

This sample code asks the host program for a number and doubles it:

Dim Value As Integer
Value = Val(Input("Which number?"))
Print(Str(Value*2))

It is up to the host program to decide how to implement the callback methods called from Input() and Print() - XojoScript just expects both methods to accept a string parameter, and the first method to return a string. Usually, the program would prompt the user presenting the string passed from the script, and returning the user input to the hosted script.

Current editions of IDE

The Xojo IDE is free to use for learning and development. Compiling or deploying applications with Xojo requires a license. Multiple license levels are available for purchase, enabling Desktop, Web and iOS. Licenses can be purchased a la carte, in any combination required. Also available is Xojo Pro, which is a bundle that includes added support, guaranteed beta program access, access to a special Xojo Pro-only forum, 3x Feedback multiplier when ranking support cases, access to consulting leads, and a license that will work on 3 machines.^[29]

Unlike most programming environments, project source code is not stored in plain text files by default, but in a proprietary, single file format. However, source code can be saved to a plain-text format for use with version control systems and can be exported to XML format as well.

A Xojo license provides the ability to build with any version of Xojo released during the year the license is valid. When the license expires the user can continue to build with those versions but can't build with newer versions of Xojo until they renew their license.

Xojo Cloud

On March 11, 2014 Xojo launched Xojo Cloud, their cloud hosting service for Xojo web applications.^[30] Xojo Cloud includes several layers of security. Xojo Cloud has a smart firewall that watches the traffic coming in to the Xojo Cloud server and looks for patterns that indicate a cracker is attempting to gain access. It can then lock the cracker out before they get in. Xojo Cloud also employs an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) that looks for cracking activities. When a cracker is detected, the IDS locks them out. If the cracker gets past these first two layers, Xojo can see which files were changed. This allows them to improve the firewall and intrusion detection and aids in restoring from a backup. Xojo Cloud uses Security-Enhanced Linux—employing United States Department of Defense-style Mandatory Access Controls (MAC) which helps protect the OS itself from being cracked.^[31] A Xojo Pro or Web license is required to use Xojo Cloud.

See also

• Visual Basic
• Gambas
• Comparison of programming languages

References

External links

• Xojo, Inc., makers of Xojo
• Xojo Dev Center
• XojoNews, unofficial Xojo and cross-platform development news