The first significant change in R4 is that it no longer compiles for PowerPC (PPC) which means that Universal Binaries can no longer be built.  Mac OS X versions 10.5 (Leopard) and better are now supported.  I have not tested this premise but your app might run on older versions of Mac OSX, please let us know your experience.

The R4 release sports a huge number of Cocoa fixes.  Cocoa is now mostly usable but there are still bugs and oddities in this version.  Drawers, StyledTextPrinter and MoviePlayers do not work in this release.  Drawers are not used (much) in Mac OS X any more and not many use StyledTextPrinter but the MovePlayer could be a significant problem for quite a few RB developers.  However, if your app makes use of these controls and classes you will not be able to upgrade and will have to wait for a future release of Real Studio.

You REALLY need to start testing your apps in Cocoa (if you haven’t started already).  You are bound to find something that RS hasn’t fixed yet, or, at a minimum, requires some additional optimization.  One bug that has hit us particularly hard in trying to port one of our apps to Cocoa happens when trying to access a toolbar with a separator.  When accessing it an un-trapped exception occurs which means your application goes “poof” and there is nothing you can do to catch it.  <feedback://showreport?report_id=18971>

Another Cocoa bug that’s affecting some of our projects is the graphics object.  If you use FillRect or ClearRect on a picture that ISN’T new it is extremely slow.  So, for example if you have an overall picture and you’re just updating a section of it, it will be very slow.  <feedback://showreport?report_id=18915>

Cocoa really is different than carbon and some things that appear to be bugs aren’t necessarily so.  For example, all fonts in carbon apps can be made italic.  In Cocoa not all fonts have an italic version so it won’t render it in italic’s regardless of the setting.  Carbon just happened to force an italic version regardless of the font whereas Cocoa won’t.

Web Edition has changes too.  The first is that all Web Edition projects now require the app.ApplicationIdentifier to have a value.  The IDE will no longer allow it to be blank and if it’s not filled in when opening an older project one is added for you (so be aware of it).  This is important because the each Web App running on the server must have a unique identifier.

The WebListbox received some much needed attention in this release.  Column widths now work properly (yay!) and no longer shows an extra column.  A new boolean property, called Multiline, was added to match desktop listboxes more closely and when set to true, each row will expand automatically to fit all the text.  If false, text is truncated to one line with ellipses if it’s larger than one line.

The WebToolbar has some new style options available.  These are not documented but You have control over the WebToolbar background, button, disabled button, item, toggled style and toggled disabled styles.  You can make some interesting combinations with these new style options.

Dynamic Constants in Web Edition can now be retrieved by language.  The WebPicture class now has 3 new constructors.  Unfortunately, you still can’t use dynamic constants like you can in the desktop editions so you have to code this manually.

Lest our Windows brethren feel left out there are a number of significant bug fixes in store for them as well in this release.  A number of memory leaks were fixed.  Drawing of primitives (rects, ovals, etc) are no longer off by a pixel (yay!).  When GDIPlus is enabled, Windows apps can now draw anti-aliased.

One of the biggest changes in R4 is that pictures and colors now support alpha channels and allow you to set their translucency.  This is a big deal for any plugin authors that deal with pictures as they will have to rewrite their plugins to check for the alpha channel or lack thereof.  It promises to be a nightmare for them since older versions or Real Studio won’t support it but newer ones will.  Be aware of this change if you rely upon 3rd party plugins that use, return, or otherwise manipulate graphics.

Be aware that the database plugins included in R4 are NOT backwards compatible.  Like many Mac developers I have multiple versions of Real Studio in the same folder so I can have the same plugin set across versions.  If you try to run an older version of Real Studio using the R4 database plugins Real Studio will fail silently.  I expect numerous reports of older versions of Real Studio to suddenly start ‘failing’ because of the change to the plugin format.

I’ve been using R4 since practically the first alpha.  I am converting my training videos to work in Web Edition and I’m fast approaching release.  It wasn’t until this weekend that I found a bug when saving using the version control format.  If you use the WebToolbar and assign icons to a button the changes will not get written out properly <feedback://showreport?report_id=19231>.  This really sucks because I have to go back to binary format – again.  Sadly, Web Edition has been rife with version control format bugs since the very first release and these woes continue.  It is obvious that the RS developers do not use version control format when testing Web Edition features.

Unlike many Real Studio releases, Release 4 is a huge bug fix release (well over 200).  The number of Cocoa changes is significant and developers should start porting and testing their apps in Cocoa.  It is really important for you to do so.  As with many releases there are some changes you might not be able to live with and some changes have been made in the background for future changes.

At the Real Studio Database Days training in Frankfurt Germany in early November, Geoff Perlman, CEO of Real Software, said that 2012 Release 1 would probably be the first release where Cocoa would be enabled by default.  What went unasked was whether or not the IDE itself will be a Cocoa application or not, but I would presume that it will be.  Regardless, the march to full Cocoa support goes on and you should be preparing for it sooner rather than later.

Happy coding!

[Update:  The WebToolbar styles are now in the online Wiki]

My first exposure to an Apple computer was my friend Mike.  His parents owned a machining company and were using an Apple II for a bunch of business things.  We used it for games – and my, oh my, what fun those games were.  Of course they’re pitiful compared to todays games but they were outstanding for their time.

Because I couldn’t live and his parents business (though I mightily tried) I found other sources.  Even though I was in high school, I got permission to use the one (!) Apple II at the elementary school (my school was small – it was all one building) where I did my first programming by creating a Dungeons and Dragons character creator using Apple BASIC.

Then I went to college where I was surrounded by DOS machines.  It was an engineering school and these things were everywhere.  When I got drafted to publish a parents newsletter for my fraternity I discovered the two little dinky Macintosh Plus computers in the corner of the computer lab, a LaserWriter printer, and a piece of software called PageMaker.  My love affair with the Macintosh began.

And it continued to grow.  I learned PageMaker, FreeHand, and Persuasion like the back of my hand.  I worked for a company called MacTemps and made good money using those skills and worked my way through college.  While my engineering contemporaries were doing their reports and graphs by hand I was turning them in on laser printed paper.  What took them hours to prepare took me one.

I remember vividly my first Mac Plus and my first Mac SE.  I was passionate about those Mac’s.  I have no doubt my fraternity brothers were bored of me extolling the virtues of using a Mac.  Well, I was right, wasn’t I?

I went to a Mac users group conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan (circa 1988) where I saw my first 1 GB hard drive the size of a suitcase.  We were all wondering how we’d fill up a hard drive that size.  This is also the same conference where I shook Bill Gates’ hand just before he walked on stage to deliver the keynote speech (at a Mac conference remember).  Microsoft wasn’t always the anti-Apple company – MS Word and Excel were pretty slick back in those days.

Since college I’ve owned many Mac’s.  A Mac II LC (the pizza box Mac), probably something from the Performa line, a G3, a G4, a G5, several of the all-in-one iMac’s, a PowerBook laptop, a G3 laptop, a MacBook Pro, and a MacBook Air.  These machines helped convert me from an engineer to a programmer.

In my early consulting days I had a crappy Dell in the corner simply so I could use Visual Basic and Access.  Now days I simply fire up VMWare or Parallels (depending upon computer) and use Vista, Win7, XP or any number of Linux distro’s.

I resisted the iPod, at first, thinking it was a crappy name and Apple wasn’t an electronics company.  But when the iTunes music store showed up it changed my mind and how I bought music.  I now buy more music without ever leaving home.

I had resisted using a cell phone for years but finally gave in when I got married.  My cousin gave me an old HandSpring Palm phone which lasted for years.  When the iPhone came out I willingly jumped in because I figured it had to be better than the Handspring phone.  My oh my, was it ever.  I think we’ve owned every generation of phone since and I don’t leave the house without checking to see if I have keys, wallet and iPhone.

Like the iPod before it, the iPhone changed the way I purchased software.  No longer did I need to go to a store to browse software boxes.  Now, I go to an app, browse the selections, read reviews and then purchase and download it practically instantaneously.  What a game changer.

When the iPad came out there was never any question of getting it.  We were already big iPhone users and to start with several hundred apps without buying anything?  It was a no brainer.  No reason not to get it.  It’s now used daily.  It goes with us on trips (of any type) and like the iPod before it, it’s changed the way I consume books.  I now purchase books without ever going to a brick and mortar store and I read more than I did before.

So this is a big thank you to the man I consider to be the biggest tech visionary of my time.  He started from humble beginnings and created, several times, new markets where others followed.

I could certainly argue that Microsoft would not be the company it is today without the Macintosh influencing how it did Windows.  The music industry resisted online sales until Apple proved they could make money on it.  The entire cell phone industry is undergoing a complete transformation now because of the iPhone.  The tablet market is undergoing a radical shift because of the iPad.

And that’s just Apple.  Steve bought a little company called Pixar that did computer animation.  It had a string of blockbuster movies that weren’t just about the animation it was about telling the story.  Many imitators have followed.

Even before that, when he got pushed out of Apple, he never stopped trying to think outside the box.  He helped found NEXT computer.  It was an awesome computer for it’s time but too expensive and it never took off.  But it was a NEXT Computer that was the first web server.  And it was the NEXT operating system that Apple used to reinvent itself after Steve came back.

Steve Jobs unique.  He was an a**hole to some and inspired intense loyalty to others.  His leadership style was unique and he was a consummate salesman showing us not what we asked for but what we were really looking for.

He died too young.  Or, he died after accomplishing much more than most.  He did ‘insanely great things.’  And we will miss him.

I’ve had Lion installed for about 3 weeks now.  There are some things I like about Lion and more that I don’t like.

Things That I Like About Lion

Versions:  Being able to see edits in time has already saved me some grief when it comes to editing documents in Pages.  I accidentally opened the wrong document (similar but not the same) for a course outline and started typing away.  I realized after about 30 minutes of editing that this was the wrong one and looked at the old versions and quickly reverted.  See below why I don’t like Auto Save though.

Airdrop:  It’s simple and to the point.  This is how file transfers between occasional machines should work.  It’s not quite as convenient for computers that are already on the network though as it you have to be running AirDrop and approve all transfers.  I did have a problem with two Lion computers transferring zero length files but I don’t know if it’s been fixed in the update that came out this week.

Mail:  The 3 pane interface works for me.  It also keeps track of my conversations and organizes them effectively and reduces the redundant information.  This should have been done a long time ago.

The Price:  At $29 a computer it’s cheap.  The fact that all your computers on your network (using the same Apple ID of course) can get it too is just icing on the cake.

iChat:  Conversations are now unified into a tabbed window rather than each conversation being in a separate window.  For video chats it’s using FaceTime whether you realize it or not.

Preview:  Being able to add a signature to a PDF document has caused me no end of grief in the past several years even though I have a utility to do it.  Now, I don’t have to worry about it.

Auto Correct:  I know some people are bagging on it, but for the most part it works for me.  It’s not perfect but it warns you, visually, when it makes a correction.

Things That Don’t Bug Me But I Don’t Care About Either:

Natural Scrolling:  It took me maybe two days to get used to it.  Sure, I still go the opposite direction at times – get over it – it’s just the flick of a finger.

Full Screen Apps:  Meh.  For the few times that I want the app to take over my entire screen it’s okay but this feature seems to be aimed at 13″ laptop users.

Things I Hate About Lion

The UI elements:  Disabled controls are gray.  Enabled controls are gray.  Sure, they’re different shades of gray, but really?  Is black such a bad thing?  I think this is my number one pet peeve in Lion.

Mail Enabled Buttons:

Mail Disabled Buttons:

Overlay Scrollbars:  Again, another UI element that I think should visible all the time on my big assed 27″ monitor.  There is a preferences setting for it, by the way, but it seems out of place and not like the rest of Mac OS X.

Resume (i.e. Auto Open):  I’ve tried this a few times but I hate it more than I like it.  What I really want is to set this PER application – not system wide.  I don’t want this on Text Edit but I DO want it on Pages.  I don’t want it on my database editor, but I do want it on my development software.

Auto Save:  The apps that are actively using it (Text Edit, Pages, Numbers, etc) I find that I really don’t like it.  Why?  Because I create temporary documents all the time and when I quit the app I want them gone.  Isn’t that what the Save Prompt is for?  This is in direct contrast to Versions above.

iCal:  Really, Apple?  Faux Leather?  Otherwise it’s functional.  The changes to how to create an event on your calendar uses natural language (like Lunch with Carol at 12 PM automatically adds it to the calendar with the appropriate time).

Hiding of Library Directories:  I understand why they did this – most people really shouldn’t be mucking around in Library folders – but it’s more hassle than it’s worth, in my opinion.  Getting into the preferences folder is pretty common (and that happens to be in the Libraries directory).  It’s relatively easy to work around, but now I have to figure out if my users are smart enough to figure it out for themselves or if I have to handhold them through that process too.

Things That I Find Useless:

Launchpad:  Played with it and found that I already have the apps organized in the way I want either in the doc or in Stacks on the right side of my dock.  I suspect that people coming from iOS love this feature.

Things That Are in Snow Leopard and Lion that I Love:

Mac App Store:  If you’re not using it yet you should.  This is the most convenient way to find and purchase apps for your Mac.  The fact that you can then install it on all machines in your house (using the same Apple ID) is VERY convenient.  No more hassling with serial numbers or if, for whatever reason, you need to install old apps again, the Mac App Store can install them all at one time.

Conclusion:

There’s a lot of other changes in Lion too.  I recommend taking a look at the 250+ features page at Apple at http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/features.html.

I find myself torn between the past and the future.  I’m a long-time Mac user so I’m no newbie and perhaps that’s why I’m not thrilled with Lion.  Despite some big improvements I find most of the major changes to be a dumbing down of the OS for people that are coming from iOS.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing but I’m not sure it’s a good thing either.

What’s most disturbing is the horrible User Interface changes in Lion.  For a company that prides itself in making great UI I think most of it fails on multiple levels.  Visual cues are the first thing that need to be clear and obvious and for that they’ve failed in my book.

Should you upgrade?  If you find Leopard or Snow Leopard useful then keep using it – you’ll get Lion when you purchase a new computer.

What do you like or dislike in Lion?

EDIT:  Updated with images from Mail to show difference between enabled and disabled toolbar buttons.

More information the Apple sandboxing can be found at http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Security/Conceptual/CodeSigningGuide/ApplicationSandboxing/ApplicationSandboxing.html and I highly recommend you read it.

At the very bottom is a caveats section: apps can’t send AppleEvents from the sandboxed app (though they can receive them).  This seems rather extreme.  If your Mac app can’t send AppleEvents does this mean that Apple is killing AppleScript?  I doubt it, but it does seem to limit the usefulness of the service and I suspect that there will be a workaround.

Apps cannot work with non-bundled projects that reference other files.  Does this mean that services like Kagi and eSellerate will no longer work?

So what does this mean for a vast majority of Real Studio developers?  Not much really – unless you happen to be selling your apps in the Mac App Store.  For you, the changes are important and you’ll need to start compiling for Cocoa.  Cocoa is much improved in Real Studio 2011 R2 than any previous Real Studio release but unfortunately it still not complete.

So the bottom-line is that if you are developing Mac apps and hope to put it in the Mac App Store then you’d better start testing your builds in Cocoa.  While your app may not ship using Cocoa yet, Real Software needs the feedback on what’s not perfect so they can fix it.

It’s a good idea to start using Cocoa now because in November you’ll need it.  Long Live Cocoa!

Visual Basic 6 is 20 years old.  It’s stood the test of time and it while it’s showing its age it still functions and apps written on it still run in Vista and Windows 7.  To its credit, Microsoft has made sure that this venerable product still runs on modern computers.

But the question of Windows 8 compatibility has hit the fan, so to say, in the past month or so with Microsoft saying that apps can be written in html and javascript.  That threw many developers into a tizzy.

I don’t believe for a second that Microsoft is abandoning .NET, Win32 or COM simply because those are the foundation for nearly everything ever written at Microsoft.  It simply doesn’t make sense for Microsoft to move to another set of API’s even if you believe that Microsoft moves to a new technology every now and then to make themselves a moving target.  If anything, I believe that this might simply be a new way to develop apps but not replace anything.

While doing research for this post I ran across an unattributed quote supposedly from a person in Microsoft Support:

“We can’t make an official comment on our Windows 8 plans yet but it would be a likely outcome that VB6 applications will continue to work. “

I believe that statement but it’s not exactly a definitive statement.  The real question, I think, is how bad will it suck?  VB6 apps work in Windows 7 but without some work they look like they’re from the 90′s.  Most app developers I know don’t want their apps to look that dated.

Microsoft has stated that the Visual Basic 6 runtimes will not ship after Window 7.  This presumably means Windows 8 and beyond.  I have heard that Windows 8 will be 64 bit only and that means that the VB6 runtimes will either not work at all or will have to be run in some sort of compatibility layer.  So this means that existing apps MAY work, but only after jumping through hoops to install the runtime libraries and making sure the compatibility is set.

Let’s face it.  VB6 is an old, old development environment.  It was written in an age where computers didn’t have much memory and only one processor.  Threading isn’t impossible, but the few times I tried to get it working in a VB6 app the result was instability and crashes.  Threading is such an important thing in modern applications.

VB6 is object oriented – somewhat.  For the time it was state of the art but since subclassing controls is impossible it makes for interesting workarounds and wrappers.  Frankly it makes life more complicated than it needs to be.

Twenty years ago, VB6 was the cats-meow.  The Macintosh was around but it was considered a toy (I disagree but that’s not the argument) and few cared about it.  Microsoft was pretty much the only game in town.  Linux hadn’t been invented yet and the internet was for a few hard core geeks.

This is where Real Studio starts to look more attractive.  It works the same on Mac, Windows, and Linux.  Web Edition brings some of the same ease of developing desktop apps to the web.  In Real Studio I can subclass controls and objects (for the most part) all day long.  It’s a modern object oriented programming language.  Is it without foibles and inconsistencies?  Certainly not, but it’s way more powerful than VB6 in many ways.  Threading isn’t perfect, but it’s still light years ahead of VB6.

We’ve seen an uptick recently with people asking us to convert their VB6 application to Real Studio.  Our VB6 Analyzer utility (found at http://www.bkeeney.com/consulting/vb2rbconversion) has been downloaded a lot recently.  It allows users to scan their VB6 project and sends us a simple report detailing the number of forms, classes, libraries and OCX’s in use and lines of code and some other simple metrics.  It’s no substitute for seeing the whole project but it gives us a nice way to guestimate the costs of rewriting the app in Real Studio.

Notice that I said rewrite the application.  The only thing that Visual Basic and RealBasic have in common is that they have ‘basic’ in the name.  It’s like comparing a computer from twenty years ago to a modern computer.  Real Studio does things so much easier, better, and faster than Visual Basic that it’s really not worth trying to convert it line by line or even form by form.  Believe me we’ve tried – the end result is that you end up spending as much time fixing VB6 code that has a better equivalent in RB than it would be to just rewrite it from scratch.

Is Real Studio a suitable replacement for every app?  The answer is simple:  no.  Real Studio makes a really good cross-platform app, but that doesn’t always mean it will have all of the buzzers and bells available in development environments meant for each platform (grids in Windows come come to mind).

We are Real Studio consultants.  That’s what we do and we’ve been doing it for ten years.  Most of us spent a fair amount of time in Visual Basic before moving to Real Studio.  If you decide to do the transition yourself you will hate it at first because Real Studio is different than VB.  We all went through it and for a while you want Real Studio to be just like Visual Basic – trust me it’s not – and after you stop trying make Real Studio function like VB6 you’ll start to like it and get it.  Transitions are never easy.  For training videos, we have over 30 hours available at http://www.bkeeney.com/realbasic-training-section plus you could always hire us to come on site for training.

If you have VB6 project you want to transition please drop us a line and we can talk.  If you want to get multiple Real Studio developers looking at your project, make a post at http://www.realsoftware.com/support/consultants.php which gets sent out to the Real Studio developers network.

Does this change with Windows 8?  I don’t know, but I’m already seeing an uptick in developers that are looking to convert from Visual Basic 6 to Real Studio.  Uncertainty is a bad thing and even the full-time Windows developers I know don’t seem to know what’s going on.  Some of them are even worried that .NET and Silverlight support is up in the air.

The only thing that’s been mentioned for Win8 is JavaScript and HTML5.  No mention of .NET, Silverlight, or even Win32.  It’s very uncharacteristic of Microsoft to be so secretive and up-in-the-air over a future product.  Are they trying to be more Apple-like?  Perhaps that’s why people are freaking out.

Do I think MS is going to drop support for .NET, Silverlight, or even Win32?  Not a chance.  They have way too much invested in each of those to abandon them.  From a corporate standpoint there would be a revolt since almost everyone has invested, heavily, in one or more of those technologies/platforms.

But are Visual Basic 6 apps still safe?  That is a very good question and from the research I’ve done it appears that the VB6 runtime will not be shipped with Win8 though some in the community suspect that a hack will be found before release.  Other comments I’ve seen indicate that Win8 will ship as only 64 bit.  The VB6 runtime is 32bit only so that will mean running in compatibility mode which adds to the possibility of it not working properly for all applications.

Microsoft, at some point, has to kill compatibility.  Visual Basic is an old development environment that doesn’t take advantage of many new technologies.  It’s also not a very good object oriented language – it just wasn’t designed to be that way.  If the MS dev tools of the future are Silverlight, .NET, and JavaScript/HTML5 (does anyone really believe that!?), then it sure seems that VB6 might be on its way out.

So while VB6 apps might work with Win8 using hacks and compatibility mode, I believe developers have every right to be worried.  They’ve invested heavily in VB6 tools and controls and now the (long) honeymoon is over and it’s time to look at alternatives.

If you are only interested in Microsoft then the options are easy with .NET or Silverlight (assuming they aren’t going away).  If you’re thinking of a Mac or Linux version than the options are limited.  You could do Java, but as a long-time Mac user I’m not a big Java fan and try to avoid them because their UI generally isn’t native (I’m a Mac snob, but then most of us are).  Qt is a possibility but it’s not a RAD option either.

I am a little biased but I think Real Studio is a good choice for those coming from Visual Basic.  They are very much alike in how they work though REALbasic is MUCH better at object oriented programming than VB ever was.  It’s newer and is on a regular update schedule.  And, with just a little work, you can easily make apps for Mac, Windows, and Linux that look the same on all three platforms.  And now that Real Studio can make Web Apps there’s a fourth platform that you could potential support (though making a web app involves different controls, editors, etc so it’s not as easy as clicking a checkbox).

Is it a quick and easy conversion?  No.  Don’t trust any conversion program and, from experience, any converter will be just as time consuming (if not slightly worse) as rewriting from scratch.  We’ve found that taking a look at the UI and making it a bit more object oriented to take advantage of the strengths of REALbasic is always worth the investment.  We like to say you’re writing the apps for the next ten years and not only for right now.  So doing the extra work now will pay off for years.

Is Real Studio perfect?  Absolutely not.  It currently is not 64 bit compatible either though I know of many developers that have no issues with running in Windows 7 64 bit.  I do know that 64 bit compatibility is the next big upgrade for Windows after Real Software finishes up on Cocoa builds for the Macintosh side.  If memory serves they are on track for late 2011 64 bit compatibility (though that’s always subject to change).

With Win8 on schedule to be released next year (does anyone really believe that either?), you might need to be proactive and start thinking about the alternatives now.  Waiting until Win8 is released might be too late for your product.  Do you really want to be under the gun from management to get something that works on the CEO’s new shiny Win8 laptop?

If you would like to get a rough estimate on cost to convert from VB6 to Real Studio, we (BKeeney Software) have a VB6 Analyzer Tool for you to download (written in RB of course) that analyzes your project and gives us some metrics on lines of code, controls used, numbers of classes, etc, that help us give you an estimate.  More information can be found at http://www.bkeeney.com/consulting/vb2rbconversion.

Yesterday I ran across a problem where my app was crashing immediately upon startup.  The crash log gave a very odd error message:

Dyld Error Message:  Library not loaded: /System/Library/Frameworks/user32.framework/user32

Wha?  User32?  That sounds like a Windows library and certainly nothing I’ve ever seen on Mac OS X.  I actually wrote the ‘bug’ up and sent it in via Feedback and then did some more research.  The answer wasn’t really all that surprising.

I have a lot of old code that I’ve developed, bought, and found over the years that make it into most of my projects.  It’s there and I don’t even think about it.  One of the pieces of code that I bought from someone works cross-platform Mac/Windows and so it has a ton of #if statements.  Things like this:

#if targetcarbon then

//Do Mac stuff

#else

//Do Windows stuff

#endif

See the problem?  If I wasn’t making a Carbon application, which Cocoa most definitely is not, it attempts to run the Windows code.  So now the crash log makes total sense.  I suspect that a lot of people will have a similar problem.

Check your projects for compiler switches like this.  If you’re developing cross-platform applications you’ll probably have this problem.  In the long run all I did was do a simple global search for #if targetcarbon and replaced it with the target for Mac OS.  That won’t work for all cases, but it should get you close.

Ideally I would love for the Real Studio compiler to give me a warning for this case but I don’t think that’s even possible.  Really, how many libraries are there in the world to know about for each platform?  Impossible I say.  At a minimum, however, I would think that it would be possible to get a better runtime error.  Sort of like how you get error messages if you don’t have the plugin libraries where the executable expects them (much more of a problem in Windows if you move the Libs directory).

What say you my fellow REALbasic geeks?  Have you tried Cocoa yet with 2011 R1.1?  Any major problems?

Real Studio is a cross-platform development tool.  It runs on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.  In the Professional/Enterprise versions you can build for other platforms and debug on the other platforms as well while staying your native environment (using remote debugging).  It’s really an awesome experience running Real Studio on the Mac and running the executable via VMare (or even on another machine in the office) running Linux or Windows.

We see it time and time again (and we’ve been guilty of it ourselves a time or two) where someone does all their development on Mac OS X and tests on Mac OS X but their app looks awful once they get it into Windows.  Text backgrounds looks like crap and the flickering is atrocious whenever they resize the window or move controls around at runtime.

The reason?  Mac OS X and Linux have double buffered windows while Microsoft Windows does not.  Mac OS X and Linux always draw to a buffer first and then draw to the screen.  Windows does not which is the cause of much flickering.  Real Studio has some easy workarounds for a bulk of the flickering and some simple rules of thumb to reduce, if not eliminate, Windows flickering issues.  Among them:

• Canvas objects should have Double Buffering turned on
• Do not erase the background of Canvas and Container Controls
• Be wary of using Refresh – perhaps Invalidate is a better choice
• Layering of controls will almost always get you into trouble.  Putting anything over a Canvas control (that draws anything) is almost a sure way of getting into trouble

So the lesson is that you really should be testing your app in all of the environments you plan on supporting early in your development process.  If you wait until you’re about ready to ship it’s too late.  You might have some fundamental assumptions in the project that’s hard to fix now that you’re almost done.

Cross platform development is easy using Real Studio, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t differences.  You need to test for those differences early and on a regular basis.

Since I spend most of my time on the Mac side I’m assuming Windows and Linux RB developers have the same issues going to the other platforms.  What are some of the issues you see?  Did I miss any reasons for Windows flickering?

For many people, using Real Studio is a Love-Hate relationship.  Mine is no different.  I’ve been using it for over ten years and while I find it easy to use and very powerful, there are times I feel like putting my fist through the monitor due to frustration.

Real Software releases a new version of Real Studio roughly every ninety days as part of their Rapid Release Model.  From one aspect it’s nice since I know when a new version is going to get released and plan for it.  I know that there will be some new features and a whole bunch of bug fixes.

Unfortunately getting a new version is often an exercise in futility because new releases can sometimes break existing functionality.  Since I work on so many projects I’m often waiting on a particular bug fix in the next version so I’m forced to upgrade.  The frustration of finding yet another bug upon trying the new release is sometimes too much.  If you find me grousing about Real Studio (see last summers Windows rants) it’s generally after one of these types of upgrades.

I’ve been very critical of RS in past because of new features that just plain don’t work.  Rightly so, in my opinion.  New features don’t get tested in the beta process because there’s usually no documentation and usually no example projects showing how it’s used.  Either case is bad and it has to get better.  The perception that Real Studio is buggy, wether right or wrong, has to improve.

Look, I know that every release has significant bug fixes and only a few new features.  I know because I’m part of the beta program and have been for a long time.  But as a beta member I don’t feel like the program lets me help Real Software very much.  I can’t tell you how many times I report a bug, it’s gets marked as fixed and then I have to scour the release notes looking for bug reports that look like mine.

The feedback system and releases aren’t designed to help me verify the fix.  I feel that a bug isn’t fixed until the bug reporter has verified the fix.  From my aspect it’s very inefficient and I wish it was better.  But since it’s not my system I can’t do much about other than offer suggestions.

The future on Mac OS X is Cocoa.  I expect that in the next release or two, the Mac OS X IDE will be built for Cocoa.  When that happens, you’ll know that Cocoa is really ready.  Building for Cocoa will give RB users the ability to harness some of the Cocoa goodies that Mac users come to expect from their applications.

Unfortunately, Cocoa isn’t going to help Windows or Linux as it just makes the platforms that much more different.  However, I do know that much of the work that has gone into Cocoa has involved rewriting major portions of Windows and Linux to fit the newer event models rather than the old Carbon/Classic model.  I don’t know the specifics but it wouldn’t surprise me if almost all of the frameworks was rewritten accomplish this.

I’m not sure where Windows is heading in the future.  Real Software is a Mac heavy company and it’s hard to know how serious they are about Windows.  Last summer there were some very easy and very serious Windows bugs that bit me very hard (because of the upgrade cycle) that very nearly cost me a big project.  I just don’t see much going on for advanced Windows support but perhaps that is just a byproduct of the march to Cocoa.  After ten years they still don’t have full COM support and without it there’s just a bunch of stuff that Real Studio won’t be able to do.  It’s also unknown when 64bit support is coming and when Microsoft will switch over to a full 64 bit OS.  I think this is as every bit as important as the switch to Cocoa on the Mac side.

I have reservations about Linux support.  I wonder if the time and effort is worth it in sales for Real Software.  As a consultant I get no one asking for Linux apps but perhaps that’s anecdotal evidence since I’m heavy into Mac and Windows development.  Also anecdotally my blog and website just have a few percentage points of Linux users that visit on a regular basis.

We know that a User Interface change is coming.  Geoff demoed it at the Atlanta Summit but no pictures have surfaced yet.  From what I can remember, it should reduce mouse clicks as the Project Tab will be easily accessible all the time.  Unused events will not show in the Events list until you add them (I believe the most common event(s) will automatically be added).  A new tool palette was revealed that reminded me very much of xCode/Interface Builder.

I would also expect a lot of the Web Edition editor features will make it into the new IDE.  The in-line editors are generally okay but I’m not a huge fan of them.  I really hate the new Tab Order Editor as it’s confusing once you get more than a dozen controls on the window.  I’m also not a big fan of the object handles (that allow you to resize controls) since they’re a major pain to use – they disappear when you’re resizing.  This means that controls have to have special visual modes to show their sizes unlike the current Window Editor where controls have a visible outline.

One feature that I do like is the pasteboard that is automatically populated at the bottom of the WE page editor when placing non-visual objects (like timers).  This probably means that Dialogs will be rewritten to act just like the new WebDialogs.  One can hope that they will retain the existing methods.  I also expect the Radio Button control to be replaced by the RadioGroup – again, similar to what Web Edition did.

Some of these changes make a lot of sense from a beginner perspective.  They are common questions from new users and are a solution to aid them.  From a power user perspective I’m trying to be as open as I can to the changes.  Some will grow on me I’m sure with usage.  Others, I’m just as sure, will make me pine for the ‘old days’.

We can only hope that Real Software has a feature complete IDE when it makes it into the beta program and lets hope that they’re not adding major functionality to it during the beta.  Otherwise I expect a chorus of very vocal naysayers and boo birds.  A User Interface change is a big deal and should not be taken lightly.  I hope they do their own (very strenuous) internal testing on it before foisting it on us.

Eventually, Real Software will switch the back-end compiler to LLVM.  RBScript is already using LLVM and while that was a significant step, it’s probably going to be a lot of work to switch over all of Real Studio to it.  If my sources are correct, they’re going to writing their own linker for Windows which I have no doubt is more work than they expect (Cocoa was only going to take 18 months remember?).

Will LLVM lead to Real Studio being able to compile for iPhone and other mobile devices?  My answer is a big maybe.  I have a hard time figuring out the marketing for including mobile devices in the current product other than to saying you can reuse much of the same code, but just like with Web Edition you really have a separate product with separate editors and separate compilers.  I have no problem with a mobile optimized IDE that leaves the cruft of desktop and web apps behind.  I think it could be brought to market faster that way too.  Like much of the rest of this post, it’s pure speculation on my part.

One thing I wish was improved was the Real Studio debugger.  Anyone that’s come from the Visual Basic and .NET world understands what I’m saying.  The Real Studio IDE debugger just isn’t easy to use.  No watchpoints and always having to refer to the listbox to view variable values is huge pain (wouldn’t it be nice to hover your mouse over a variable and get the value in a tooltip?).  Many Real Studio users don’t even realize that you can view the call stack since it’s a popup menu (poor UI choice, in my opinion).  Many also don’t get the whole breakpoint and exception handling either.

There is still a bunch of essential controls missing from the standard control list.  After ten years there’s still no date, time, or calendar control.  While the standard listbox is fairly powerful, it’s a beast and you just get to a certain point where it’s too slow and cumbersome to use.  For those needing them, they’re forced to use a 3rd party set of controls.

I think much of these limitations is all based on how Real Software uses the tool themselves.  The IDE has absolutely no need for grid, date, time, or calendar controls.  You could certainly argue that the reason why the TextArea RTF support is so weak is because the IDE has no need for it.  The same with the lackluster support for TextField masks.  Likewise, to the best of my knowledge, the IDE does not use the built-in reporting tool and, it too, suffers from having no strenuous use from the company that designed it.  Modern toolbars?  Need I say more?

I’ve argued for years that RS could really use a consulting group that bids and works on projects just like the rest of us consultants.  A lot of the projects I work on run into the same constraints time and time again and I’m forced into less that optimal solutions.  I can submit Feedback reports until my fingers bleed, but until RS has to fulfill a need for themselves it probably won’t happen.  Personally, I’d welcome them into the consulting business.  Sure, it means more competition for me personally, but I’m okay with that as it will make the product better.

Sorry for the rambling post as there are lot of things that I’d love to see RS do a better job at and improve in the product.  I really do appreciate the work they’ve done as it pays for my, and my employees, salaries.  As a professional user my needs are vastly different than a majority of Studio users but as someone who spends a considerable amount of money on yearly license updates and the referral program, and spend a lot of effort selling the product to clients I feel that my needs should be aired publicly.  My time with ARBP has shown that many of you agree to varying degrees.

Those are some of my wants, needs, future predictions, fears, worries and gripes.  What say you?

Let’s go back to the 2008.  That was the last year that Real Software held the REAL World conference in Austin, Texas.  I begged Real Software to let me have a meeting at 8:00 AM to hold an organizational meeting for a REALbasic users group of some sort.  I was surprised at the turnout and the Association of REALbasic Professionals (ARBP) was born.  http://www.arbp.org

Starting ARBP has been a job of persistence and overcoming inertia.  Since we started with nothing: no organization, no leaders, no website, no expectations, we really had no idea what we were going to be when we grew up.  Thankfully I was supported by an awesome group of dedicated individuals that really helped push the organization, and me, along.

In three years, ARBP has hosted two conferences.  The first was in Boulder, Colorado in 2009 and the second was in Atlanta, Georgia this past March.  Both of those conferences were recorded and are available for ARBP paid members.

Besides helping organize both events I’ve spoken at both of them.  So has my #1 employee, über programmer, Seth Verrinder.  Seth has been with us for three and a half years and has been an awesome addition to the team.  Without him, we wouldn’t be as successful as we are.  Between the two of us we’ve also written a fair number of the tutorials, newer projects in the source code repository, and articles.

Sharing code with the community is great way to contribute.  Many of us ‘old timers’ have a library of code just sitting around that would contribute to the community and help people just starting out with Real Studio.  Think about adding your source code to the ARBP Source Code Repository.

Speaking of training, in late 2009 I was contacted to do some video training for Real Studio.  They only wanted about eight hours of video and I felt that I couldn’t do the language or the IDE justice in that short amount of time.  But it did start my creative juices flowing and now I have over 30 hours of Real Studio video training material available at http://www.bkeeney.com.  That 30 hours comprises over 110 separate videos including most of the common Real Studio controls for both desktop and Web Edition.  Most videos come with a project file that you’re free to use in your own projects.  I have two complete series where I start at the beginning of a project and follow it through to the end.  Needless to say, I’ve been very happy with the results and the comments I get from users are very encouraging.

What sort of work do we do with Real Studio?  Well, it varies all the time since we’re a consulting firm.  In the past year we’ve done major updates to professional athletic training system (we did version 1 as well), updates to teleprompting software (we did the version 2 rewrite), major work a Web Edition project for an underwriting company, fixed some right-to-left language support in an existing Real Studio app, updates to a veterinary management app, and updates to credit repair software.

From-scratch projects include a PDF viewer/annotation/organizer app, a military strategy simulator, a family genealogy organizer, a front end user interface to a serial lightning detection device, a neurological test for patients with brain damage, a proof-of-concept app for a Mac OS X computer to talk to a electronic keyboard that uses a proprietary ethernet protocol, and a Web Edition app to share URL’s among registered users.  Most desktop projects are cross-platform.

On top of all that, we’ve created a number of smaller, proof-of-concept/training projects for folks that want to do something specific in RB but don’t have the time or inclination to learn it on their own.  These projects are actually kind of fun since they’re very specific and allow us to explore a control or API that we’ve not spent much time on without having to worry about the nit picky details of a full-blown application.

I’m very picky on how I organize documents (I am an engineer after all) so every now and then I go through the older directories as a refresher.  We’ve done a LOT of projects over the years and not one of them is similar to another one.

So how do I find the clients?  At this point we’ve been doing Real Studio consulting for a long time and a lot of long-term clients keep coming back for rewrites and major new additions.  I’m very happy about that as the relationship is already in place and they trust us.  It’s an awesome feeling.

Believe it or not, the video training has been a nice addition to our consulting business.  The progression is that people sign up for the videos and then after a couple of weeks (or months) they send us an email asking if we are available for work.  Because of the videos we already have a ‘relationship’ even if I’ve never talked to them before because they see how I work with Real Studio.

I’m also a member of the Real Studio Consulting Referral Program https://secure.realsoftware.com/store/consulting.php.  It currently costs $495 for twelve months and $295 for six months.  It’s worth it.  By the time a potential client sends in their information to the Find a Developer Page at https://secure.realsoftware.com/support/consultants.php they’ve already decided that Real Studio is what they’re looking for.

At one Real World I said being part of the Referral Program is “like shooting fish in a barrel”.  I still believe that.  The cost is insignificant.  One very small project and it pays for itself.  If you want to start working with Real Studio on a full-time basis, this is the place to start.

One last note on ARBP.  I’m happy, and a little sad, to say that today is my last official day as leader of the organization.  Tonight is our board meeting where a new board will take over and a new president will lead ARBP into the future.  I’m still on the board as Treasurer (assuming no one else wants it) but the day to day stuff will no longer be in my hands.  I urge you to volunteer as it’s a great organization that is always looking for help.  You don’t have to be a Real Studio expert (or professional) help out.

So those are the current chapters in the BKeeney Software Real Studio story.  What sort of projects are you working on?  How are you finding work?