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FEATURE
The Last XDC?
Xojo Android Support is Finally Here and AI Is Coming For Us All
Issue: 21.3 (May/June 2023)
Author: Marc Zeedar
Author Bio: Marc taught himself programming in high school when he bought his first computer but had no money for software. He's had fun learning ever since.
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 7,805
Starting Page Number: 12
Article Number: 21302
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Excerpt of article text...
During his Keynote address on April 26 to kick off the London 2023 Xojo Developer Conference, Xojo CEO Geoff Perlman talked about change. He recapped how much Xojo has changed since it first launched in the late 1990s—going from running on a single platform and supporting processors that aren't even in use today (68K and PowerPC), to a system that runs on many desktop platforms and compiles for half a dozen platforms and CPUs.
Internally, the development environment is wildly different, with the IDE moved from C++ to being written in Xojo itself, now using LLVM as its compiler, and its syntax upgraded to API 2.0.
Xojo today is almost unrecognizable from the product 25 years ago in more ways than just the language and interface. Back then, there were actual printed manuals and the software was distributed on CDs and even in a retail box. Even external aspects have changed, such as bug tracking handled via the custom Realbugs, then FogBugz, Feedback, and now Issues. Geoff said not having to maintain their own bug tracking system, as long as it does what the company needs, is a load off their engineers.
Change is inevitable, and with the demand for in-person conferences dwindling, there's a question of what form future Xojo Conferences will take. I certainly hope they can continue, but for now, Geoff announced there will be no XDC in 2024.
That means a higher emphasis on video training materials and web events, which is welcome, but as many attendees commented, there are limits to such tech and it doesn't replace the value of in-person impromptu discussions and simply socializing at dinners.
In that vein, Xojo is releasing all the video recordings of XDC 2023 for free on their YouTube channel (
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPoq910Q9jXimWZv2c_KzATfmCvxrtTMX
).
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