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Author: Paul Lefebvre

Xojo Programming Language: 6 Fascinating Facts

Published April 18, 2016 by Paul Lefebvre

Xojo is similar to VB, Java and C#

The Xojo programming language is fully object-oriented and uses an object model that is quite similar to VB, Java and C#. If you are used those languages at all, you’ll be right at home with Xojo.

Available since 1998, Xojo was one of the first languages to use Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), something that other languages such as Swift and Objective-C now use. Xojo is type-safe and fully object-oriented making it easy to learn and use, but it also has advanced features such as namespaces, extension methods, exception handling, introspection, delegates and more.

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Easy as Pi: GPIO updates

Published April 13, 2016 by Paul Lefebvre

We are always keen to see apps and projects that Xojo developers have made for their Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3 single-board computers. Especially since Xojo 2019r1 when building for Pi Desktop and Console is free with Xojo Pi!

I am pleased to announce some updates to our GPIO project to make it even easier to use more types of hardware in your Raspberry Pi projects.

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The Chinook Sample Database

Published April 13, 2016 by Paul Lefebvre

Have you ever needed or wanted a populated sample database with several related tables to play around with? Perhaps you are learning about databases and database design or perhaps you want to try out a new tool such as Xojo but want a pre-build database to start with.

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Code Refactoring Tools

Published April 11, 2016 by Paul Lefebvre

Wikipedia defines Code Refactoring as:

the process of restructuring existing computer code – changing the factoring – without changing its external behavior. Refactoring improves nonfunctional attributes of the software.

Did you know that Xojo has a bunch of refactoring features that can help make this process more efficient?

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Headless Pi: Using Xojo and Raspberry Pi Without a Display

Published March 30, 2016 by Paul Lefebvre

You don’t need to hook up your Pi to a physical display, keyboard and mouse. You can set up VNC on the Pi so you can remotely connect to it.

My Raspberry Pi 2 sits on my desk next to one of my speakers. It’s not hooked up to any display. I use a combination of SSH, SFTP and VNC when I need to work with it.

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Let’s Talk Office Ergonomics

Published March 16, 2016 by Paul Lefebvre

If you work at a desk all day, you should be thinking about your ergonomics.

Being comfortable while you work is important. It enables you to concentrate better, but more critically, it prevents you from injuring yourself. From Musculoskeletal to vision and hearing problems, yes, it is quite possible to injure yourself while working at a desk!

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Easily Sorting Arrays of Classes

Published March 9, 2016 by Paul Lefebvre

Sometimes you’re going to need a data structure that is an array of classes and you’re going to want to sort them. The standard array Sort method can only sort simple types (Text, Integer, etc), so what do you do?

The traditional technique has been to use SortWith. You create a separate array of a simple type, populate it and then sort the temporary array using SortWith to sort the class array.

But there is an even slicker way to sort that was added in 2015 Release 3. You can now create your own custom comparison method and use that to sort the class. This custom method returns 0 if the values to compare are equal, a positive if the first value is greater than the second, and a negative value if the first value is less than the second.

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