Another year is behind us. From Apple Silicon support to Windows Dark Mode and Android, a lot happened!
Web
This year saw big strides in the progress of Web 2.0. I didn’t count up the bug fixes for Web over the course of the year, but it was a truly staggering amount. There’s never been a better time to write Web applications using Xojo, in my opinion, as the team has really started ironing out those bugs that caused so many problems for early adopters.
Speed of apps has improved, more controls feel complete, and some of the workarounds we were using have been negated. 2021 was definitely good for Web. A big thank you to Greg who worked tirelessly on Web this year and certainly has some battle scars to prove it.
Desktop
It’s tempting to only talk about Desktop API 2.0, as it’s such a huge shift in the language and took up a significant portion of my time. Whether you agree with the implementation of 2.0 or not, it’s here to stay and I hope the increased consistency across target platforms will help those new to Xojo now and in the future.
But…Windows Dark Mode. A major addition. I know just how major because I implemented it nearly four years ago for GraffitiSuite customers to leverage. It’s not a small task to get everything as close to right as you can for Win32, and really is a PITA. I know William put countless hours in to this, and it shows. That said, I’m really looking forward to the modern UI update for Windows that’s currently on the Roadmap.
The year started right with Apple Silicon compilation in 2021R1. For many of us, the quick addition of M1 support was astonishing. I really didn’t expect it to be ready until 2021R2, but the Xojo team really came through on implementing the LLVM support. Bravo!
iOS
I don’t work in iOS often. Mobile has just never really been my thing. That said, Xojo continues to amaze with worthwhile additions for iOS. From PDFDocument support (which I fully expected not to be supported) to UserAuthentication and beyond with Remote Notifications. Paul and the rest of the team really gave us some cool stuff to use this year.
Android
We’re finally seeing the long awaited Android target. I really don’t know how much I can talk about this without crossing a line that’ll have Geoff upset with me, so I’ll just say that it’s really cool and nice to have this, more or less, in the light of the day. Paul and Travis have done an excellent job on this so far, and I can’t wait to see it go public.
Community
The Xojo community has certainly been thriving. At least once per week I talk directly to a new Xojo user with questions. The forums show record levels of engagement among old and new customers alike with a high level of daily engaged users and hundreds of new forum posters.
While there were some bumps in the road, Xojo has a really helpful and healthy community. That’s something each of us should be proud of.
For bad news, XDC didn’t happen and COVID has already forced the cancellation of an in-person conference for 2022 as well. Many of us were really looking forward to this, but cancelling was the right call.
Conclusion
I obviously didn’t cover everything in this summary, but it was a big year for Xojo. 48 additions, 113 changes, and 546 bug fixes were released in three major and three minor releases. That’s nothing to sneeze at. With each release I’m reminded of why I love Xojo and why I’ve been using it for so long. I can’t imagine working in another language as much as I do this one.
As I usually do on these sorts of posts, I’d like to send a big thank you to every member of the Xojo team. You’re an amazing bunch of people, and I’m glad to know you.
- Alyssa Foley
- Dana Brown
- Geoff Perlman
- Greg O’Lone
- Jason Parsley
- Javier Menéndez
- Paul Lefebvre
- Robin Lauryssen-Mitchell
- Travis Hill
- and William Yu
And to my fellow MVPs who are right there in the trenches with me on a daily basis:
Thank you for taking the time to read another of my rambling posts!