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Issue 12.3 ('lJLaL')
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We Are Xojo

Who are Xojo developers?

Issue: 12.3 (May/June 2014)
Author: Markus Winter
Author Bio: Markus is a Molecular Biologist who taught himself REALbasic programming in 2003 to let the computer deal with some exceedingly tedious lab tasks. Some call it lazy, he thinks it smart. He still thinks of himself as an advanced beginner at best.
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 8,658
Starting Page Number: 66
Article Number: 12309
Related Link(s): None

Excerpt of article text...

How would you describe a typical Xojo user? It seems to me that you can't. Unlike many other programming languages, the language on which Xojo is built has always been a great leveller, enabling anyone to write useful apps. Last time we heard from two French Xojoans who taught themselves how to program. This time we hop across the pond for two more tales from the World of Xojo. I hope you enjoy them!

Dale Arends, age 64, from San Diego, California, USA

I am a retired software engineer specialized in Quality Assurance and Quality Systems Analysis. I have a background in hardware as well as software. I rate myself a level 6.5 (on a scale of 1 to 10) when it comes to writing code. My real strength is/was in code maintenance and testing (which is a good thing since I tend to write a lot of bugs for me to hunt down). I had a short time, about three years, as a professional developer, but my insistence on turning out solid code led my managers to complain that I took too long to write the code. Of course, they never commented on how reliable it was when I did release it but....

I don't recall just when I started with REALbasic, but the earliest project I can find was one I did back in 2001. At the time I just wanted to play around and keep the brain from ossifying and REALbasic just fit the ticket. I looked at Visual BASIC, several implementations of C and its derivatives, as well as several other available languages but REALbasic seemed the best combination of features, ease of use, and responsiveness by the company to its users.

Since I learn best by trying and seeing what errors I make, I just started writing small applications that really didn't do anything. My first "real" application was one to read and parse database files generated by ThinkDB running on a PalmPilot. Since the program had no decent desktop support, I wrote an application for my own use that filled my own need. Since then, I have focused mainly on database applications, including a couple of customer/order tracking applications for a company that decided not to use them in the long term. Go figure!

Being retired since 2010, I no longer write code for anything but my own enjoyment and for my own use... mostly. I have written and posted an application for maintenance of the configuration files for a model railroad simulator (Windows-only), but that is currently the only application I have released. For myself, I have programs for tracking my personal possessions (doesn't everyone write one of these?), maintaining my library of books, password tracking (encrypted, of course), and a few quick and dirty one-time applications for special purposes.

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