I installed MySQL 5.0.x Community Edition the other day to test something out and I have to admit that I’m impressed with where the database has come since the last time I looked at it (which was around version 3!). Read More...

HTMLViewer for REALbasic has some pretty nasty flaws. In conversations with many people over the past year, I think it’s safe to say that HTMLViewer was introduced to satisfy some particular need for Real Software. Perhaps that’s the new Language Reference. However, I also think it’s safe to say that we, as developers, are using it in ways that RS didn’t intend (though why the heck they thought we would use it this way is beyond me).

Read More...

Real Software engineer, Nathan, posted an item on the NUG list today that I find most interesting and heartening. They asked people who use RBScript to take a survey. That's pretty interesting.
Read More...

I ran across an issue the other day where I was testing throwing an exception. Yes! I was actually throwing an exception on purpose and testing it in Mac OS X and in Windows XP and checking to make sure my error reporting tools were working properly. On Windows the err.stack array contained the function where the exception occurred without fail. On Mac OS X, however, the stack array only showed the functions before the exception occurred.
Read More...

Real Software scares me sometimes. This week they told us they were switching to FogBugz as their new bug tracking system. I think that's awesome! But then they said that the old feedback system was being shutdown and no longer available and oh, by the way, the new system isn't searchable. Talk about a sh**storm. I have to file this one under the "What the Hell Were They Thinking!?" category.

Read More...

In the grand scheme of things, a name doesn't mean much but as we've seen with Apple and Microsoft operating systems, a name gives 'meaning' to a product. There are a lot of people that, when hearing the word 'basic' in reference to programming, think of the bad old days where you numbered each line of code and it was interpreted (i.e. slow). They think of QBasic or GW-basic! Didn't they die with DOS?
Read More...

Mars, THE compiler guy is leaving Real Software. The official announcement is here. Read More...

It was a busy week at Real World. The density of REALbasic developers is never higher than at Real World so it's natural that all conversations revolve around REALbasic. So here are some of my observations. Read More...

Real World is next week! I'm excited about all the things that are going on, learning some new things about REALbasic and exchanging ideas and information. That's in addition to renewing old friendships and starting some new ones. All-in-all, I think I'll be lucky to have my voice by the end of the week. Read More...

I'd like to welcome BKeeney Software engineer Seth Verrinder to the BKeeney Briefs blog. Seth recently discovered a few issues relating to StyledText class in REALbasic. Here are his observations....
Read More...

I've been pondering why the 3rd party plugin and controls market isn't bigger for REALbasic. Certainly part of the barrier to entry is the size of the market. Part of it is RS' reluctance to actively promote the 3rd party solutions. Another barrier to entry is that the existing plugins are so inexpensive that it's tough for a new competitor to enter the space dominated by MonkeyBread and Einhugur (both of which we own and use and highly recommend). Read More...

By this point everyone knows that REALbasic is deprecating a lot of "lesser used" technologies. I don't have any issue with this whatsoever but it has become increasingly apparent that RS isn't doing a good job of telling us about these changes. Does anyone bother to read the release notes? It doesn't really matter in my opinion. The compiler should be warning us because that's the job of the compiler. Read More...

I ran across this blog entry dated November, 2005 from a supposed Microsoft Employee talking about Visual Studio 2005. Read More...

Let's play CEO for a minute and pretend that we're Steve Jobs who takes (and probably deserves) the credit for a successful Apple turnaround. In a minute we'll also pretend that we're Steve Ballmer who is at the helm of the most dominate software company in the history of computing. Do you really think either one of them cares about REALbasic and REAL Software? Read More...

It seems that the idea of having a professional association for REALbasic has some legs. Many people have left messages and contacted me privately offering their support and giving us some ideas...

Read More...

An interesting conversation started on Norman Palardy's blog the other day. Norman was taking about he wished there was better mechanism in place to help prioritize bugs and enhancement requests. It started off with a general rant (my words not his) about the feedback system not being exceptionally useful with some suggestions on how to make it better. It then wandered off (my fault - my bad) about how it would be nice to survey the beta participants to let RS know what we feel which enhancements are more important.
Read More...

For the past couple of weeks I've been talking about things I'd like to see in REALbasic and what, I think we, as users, can do for REALbasic. The comments have been great - I appreciate all the time and effort all of you have put into them. I think I've settled upon one thing that I'd like to see changed in REALbasic.

The Language Reference in RB is, depending upon who you ask, is either barely adequate or downright horrible. I tend to leans towards the former because I think it's lacking depth to be very useful. For every object, property, method and event there's information needed but not in the LR. Sometimes this includes bugs but more often than not, just clarification on what's changed.
Read More...

I have my wish list for what RB can do for us. Now, to be campy, what can we do to help REALbasic? Read More...

There's been an interesting discussion going on over at Norman Palardy's blog. It started innocently enough by Norman complaining that he's been getting support and change requests for some of his free and unsupported code that he has on his site. The discussion has morphed into a life of its own so I figured I'd start the "My Wish List For REALbasic in 2008" thread and get some additional feedback.
Read More...

REALbasic is wonderful at cross-platform programming. With a little elbow-grease it's possible to make very nice Windows and Mac OS X applications. That's the bread and butter of my business.

I have one client, however, that has had me working on a commercial VB6 application for five years. Since we know that someday VB6 will not be adequate for our needs we're looking for the 'next' development environment. .NET is the easy answer but since I have a lot invested in RB so I thought that if I can get them halfway to cross-platform that would be a win-win for everyone. Read More...

Visual Basic 6 is arguably the most common development language on the planet. It's low barrier to entry and easy-of-use and its extensibility make it ideal for many non-programmers to make a 'working' application that does exactly what they want.

VB6 is no longer supported by Microsoft. This is forcing many developers into the .NET environment which is not as easy to use and many would argue that the language is no longer 'basic'. So what are companies that have dozens of VB6 applications to do? Read More...

Every three months or so, usually after a new REALbasic release, the forum will inevitably have an “RB Sucks Because of <<insert some bug or missing feature here>>” thread. The poster will be outraged that the engineers have allowed this bug to occur and berate the beta testers for not having caught it in beta.

What ensues in the thread usually boils down to this by follow-up posters: Read More...

Wow. REAL Software does a good thing and people do nothing but give them grief over it. In their monthly newsletter, REAL said they spent a whole week in September doing bug fixes. A post in the NUG list then proceeds to give them crap about it. Is REAL Software the Rodney Dangerfield of the software industry getting, "No respect"?
Read More...

Our new developer is starting soon and I'm in the let's hurry up and gather as much information stage. I've purchased the relevant books and gathered up the old issues of RB Developer magazine. I've even put together the care package of essential plugins and tools. So now what? Read More...

REALbasic engineers have said on the NUG that they are deprecating bindings and wish to open source RB3D. I think this is good for RB in the long run. Read More...

There has been considerable talk on the REALbasic forums (link) about the possibilities of an RB Wiki. I think it has loads of possibilities but people have to look at the drawbacks and from REAL Software's perspective. First, a little history.

There was a wiki, appropriately named 'RBwiki' a while back. I believe it was created just before REAL World 2006 and started with much fanfare and a lot of promises by volunteers to keep it up-to-date. A large contributor of the wiki was Thomas Templeton who used it to distribute the RBProjectTool that allowed people to use source code and version control systems with RB (before the rbvcp format was introduced). It was a tool that allowed RB users to read and write between RB binary source code files and text files for use with Subversion and CVS and the like. REAL World 2006 was where REAL Software announced the version control format and Thomas and the REAL engineers sat down and compared notes. I think it safe to say that todays rbvcp format is a direct result of the collaboration. That also meant that the interest in the RBProjectTool died rather quickly. In about a year, the wiki was dead - no one wanted to keep it up to date. Read More...

Greetings and salutations! My name is Bob Keeney and I'm the Vice-President of BKeeney Software Inc. This blog was started after RBDeveloper magazine agreed to publish a BKeeney Brief's column on a regular basis. This is a very cool thing and I'm happy to do it. I've always enjoyed writing and did a lot of writing for various Mac user groups back in the day. On a regular basis we'll talk about being a developer and what it's like to make a living as a developer. Read More...