Have you lost focus while working on one thing because you can’t stop thinking about something else? Feeling overwhelmed? There are several types of clutter: physical, technology, and mental. And that clutter is likely affecting you negatively. 

Physical Clutter

Physical clutter is the stuff surrounding you. Symptoms of a clutter problem are:

• You can’t find things.
• You’re embarrassed for people to come over to your home or office because of the mess.
• There are stacks everywhere.
• If everything caught on fire, you’d be in trouble.

This ‘stuff’ is what Marie Kondo addresses when she is “tidying up.” A professional organizer can help you with those types of challenges. But, there are ‘things’ that you can’t find joy in that keep coming into your home or work no matter what. Like, for example, the mail.

The key to solving a challenge like incoming mail is to put structure in place to manage it, along with processes to help maintain it.

The National Association of Professional Organizers says that 80% of clutter is due to disorganization and not due to a lack of space. So, let’s start by putting some structure in place to reduce as much incoming paper as possible. The initial steps will take a little work, but you can do it in small bits, daily, as the mail comes in. Put a little time on your schedule during that first month to daily perform these steps:

• Cancel subscriptions to magazines you aren’t reading.
• Get off mailing lists – yes, including all those catalogs.
• Convert to digital bills/invoices/notices for everything possible.

Process and Structure

Then, set up a process to make sure the remaining mail is addressed as it comes in to forever stay on track:

• Never put the mail down. (Touch things only once!)
• Sort your incoming mail directly over the recycling bin.
• Shred anything that has private information on it. (We don’t want any identity theft!)
• Keep/read/share what’s important (maybe 2 things/week?). This mail should have specific places to go in your home – one reading pile that you never let get more than 1 week old, for example.

The important part is to have a process. You can customize it to be whatever works best for you, your family and your particular circumstance.

Technology Clutter

Technology clutter is all the online and digital “stuff.” Symptoms of a technology clutter problem are:

• You miss important meetings.
• You don’t know your schedule.
• You’re unable to commit.
• You waste time (usually on social media).
• You can’t figure out where to find important information, because you have too many places to look for it.

My favorite example of technology clutter is email. We all get it. It’s a requirement for pretty much anyone with a job. But, is anyone actually at the infamous Inbox Zero? I am. And you can be too.

Just like dealing with the paper mail above, we’ll tackle this with process and structure. 

First, if you are really, really behind, declare bankruptcy on your inbox and archive everything. If it is important, they’ll get back to you. But, let’s face it, you aren’t going to read it all. And you likely aren’t going to find what you need if you have to go back to it.

Process and Structure

Now that that’s out of the way, schedule specific times of the day to go through your email. Do not leave it open all day long! If you believe that someone can’t wait more than 2-3 hours for an email response, set up an autoresponder that lets the sender know when you’ll be back in touch.

Decision making is key when you do review it. For each email, make one of five decisions:

respond (because you can answer it in less than 1-2 minutes)

• file it (because it is simply for history)
• mark it as junk – or better yet, unsubscribe
• delete it because it isn’t important at all, or
• flag it for a time when you can come back and think about it. If it is a big enough deal, block some time on your calendar to review it. (FYI, I’m a big believer in calendar blocking, and we’ll get to that next.)

The goal is to be at inbox zero after each review so that the thought of looking at it isn’t overwhelming.

Another suggestion in regard to email is to schedule outgoing emails so that they go out during regular business hours. It helps to set boundaries with your clients. Plus, who wants a paid consultant working on their business at midnight… they want the best of you, not the tired you. Products like Boomerang (for Google mail) or AirMail for Mac allow you to schedule when to send out emails.

And here’s a bonus tip. Social media is a time suck. Schedule times to look at it as well. If you feel addicted, there are apps that will block your access for certain amounts of time or during specific time windows. Take back your time!

Once again, we see that the important part is to have a process. You can customize it to be whatever works best for you and your clients. Technology should be of benefit to you, not command your time.

Mental Clutter

Mental clutter includes those thoughts that distract you from your focus. Symptoms of a mental clutter problem are:

• You are easily sidetracked or find yourself procrastinating
• You feel overwhelmed
• You can’t focus on a project for any length of time
• You lie awake at night or can’t go back to sleep because you are thinking of all the things you don’t want to forget.

All of these symptoms are reflective of the same issue. There is no process and structure in place for getting your thoughts out of your brain and into a tool that you can put to work for you.

Everyone needs at least 2 organizational tools: a calendar and a to-do list. You can use the ones that come with your smartphone or specialty apps. You can even use analog (i.e., paper), but I prefer not having to keep up with something else and I like to have these tools at my command no matter where I am.

Just like any tool, it isn’t magic. A hammer won’t put a nail through a 2×4 if you just lay it down next to the nail and the board. So, empty your brain into those 2 tools.

Calendar Blocking

I’m a firm believer in calendaring your day to ensure that you block out time to do the important things. So, start your calendar by putting the things in it that keep you going. Block the priorities first. In my opinion, that is time for God, time for you and your health, and time for your family.

If you expect to pray or meditate, block that time. If you want to be healthy to care for your family and clients, block time for exercise and healthy eating. If you don’t want to miss Katie’s soccer game, then it best be on the calendar. 

Next block any appointments and/or meetings – along with the travel time to get there if it is required. And then, start blocking time with yourself to focus on certain tasks. For example, I have a calendar block to do household chores. The chores themselves are on my to-do list, and I do them during that block. So, I’m not blocking time to “make the bed”. I’m blocking time to knock out 5 little things like that at once.

To-do List

That brings me to the to-do/task list. Use that to identify the tasks. If you do big projects, I recommend more of a project management tool where you can create a personal project to keep track of your own personal tasks too. But, otherwise, a simple to-do list will work. Tasks are not “rebuild my website”. That’s a project and will entail a LOT of little tasks. So, make sure the tasks are granular enough… or start looking into Teamwork (my recommended favorite), Basecamp, Asana, Trello, or another project management tool to build more detailed lists.

Process and Structure

Lastly, set aside time at the end of every day to look at your list and your calendar for tomorrow and make sure it is going to work for you. If not, rearrange so you can start the day strong. If something needs to be pushed, it is easier to do it the day before than at the last minute.

I would also recommend setting aside time at the end of each week to look at the following week… and then, also at the end of the month, the quarter and the year to keep your big picture on track.

Now that you are set up, if you start to feel overwhelmed, you need to go back to your list and calendar! Is it up-to-date? Are you following what you laid out for yourself? You know… the process and structure?

If you can’t stop thinking about your newest brilliant idea in the midst of another thing you’re supposed to be doing (often this is during sleep, right?), stop and write it down (digital or analog) and block time on your calendar when you can come back and think about it.

A thousand little things that keep distracting you? Are they on your to-do list? Make sure you get them there. Worried you’ll miss an appointment? Is it on your calendar with a reminder set?

You get the drift. Empty your brain and it will free it to focus on what you want it to focus on. Take charge of your thoughts through process and structure. You control your focus. Don’t let other things take you off track.

Hopefully the topic of removing clutter has helped you see the value of process and structure to control your environment, your digital world and even your thoughts.

If you are struggling with any of these things and want a little specific help to bring process and structure to your operational or project management clutter, please reach out to Susan.

Susan Fennema is the Chaos Eradicating Officer (CEO) of Beyond the Chaos, a consultancy helping small business owners gain control of their lives through better processes, organization, and structure of their projects and business operations. As a graduate of Texas A&M University with a BA in journalism from Texas A&M University, she has over 30 years’ experience in the software development, creative, marketing, and advertising industries. In 2016 and 2018, she spoke at XDC and enjoys being part of the Xojo community.

Over the last several decades, computer technology has exploded. The smartphone I carry around in my pocket is far more powerful than the fastest computers of my youth. As a teenager, I rarely encountered anything where a computer had played a part. Today the rare encounter would be with things where computers had played no part.  Computers handle so many tasks now that, as a natural consequence, there are thousands of programming languages with more appearing every year.

With so many languages, it can be difficult to choose one. What is important in a programming language?

I frequently come across articles that try to declare the top 5 most important languages for <insert current year here>. Others will declare a set of programming languages as “modern”. And occasionally, someone will go out on a limb to declare a particular (usually shiny and new) language the one language to rule them all. Long ago I wondered why a lingua franca of programming languages did not exist. It seemed like it made sense to learn one rather than many.

The reality is that programming languages come about for specific purposes. First, all programming languages will have the basics. They will all have the ability to assign values to variables. They will all have some mathematical operators. They will all have conditional expressions, control flow, value types, etc. Some will be object-oriented, some will not. Some will be appropriate for solving wide range of problems while others will be more narrow. Ultimately, what is important in a programming language is that you as the programmer can be productive with it. The language that allows you to quickly and easily solve the problems you’re facing is probably just fine, perhaps even the best one.

Despite their names both being at the same station of the alphabet, C and COBOL could not be more different. Yet one is not better than the other. I wouldn’t want to write banking applications in C or device drivers in COBOL. I wouldn’t choose Java for creating desktop applications or Swift for server software. Choose the right language for the right purpose. Of course, that’s easier said than done.

If you’re a professional, full-time software developer you could use ten or more programming languages during your career. Most languages have so much in common that, having learned a few, picking up a new one isn’t difficult. However, if you are learning programming for the first time, a hobbyist or a citizen developer, then focusing on one programming language, at least initially, is sensible.

To make things more complex, the programming language is only one component in creating software. There will usually be some kind of code editor, usually (but not always) a debugger, compiler and linker. Sometimes there will be a visual user interface editor and possibly one or more frameworks which are libraries of code for a very specific purpose that abstract you from the nitty-gritty details so you can focus on coding faster. That’s potentially a lot of moving parts.

My company provides a programming language called Xojo (‘zōjō). It’s actually more than just a programming language. It’s the combination of all the things I mentioned above: code editor, debugger, compiler, linker, interface builder and frameworks. Usually this is referred to as an Integrated Development Environment or IDE for short. We focus on making Xojo easy and free to learn, but powerful enough to use as your development needs become more sophisticated. For example, with Xojo you can build apps for many different platforms and targets without learning all the details that make them different. You can build applications for macOS, Linux, Windows, the web, iOS and Raspberry Pi, sharing most of your code between all of them.

Xojo also has features you’d expect in more modern languages. Xojo is object-oriented, uses a standard dot notation syntax, has exception handling, and manages memory via referencing counting for you. Should your needs require them, it has powerful features such as overloading, delegates, declares and more. Xojo is arguably as modern as just about any other programming language. Every language has its differences of course and there will always be those who argue that their language of choice is the best. Like golf clubs, there’s no one that is perfect for every possible problem. Sometimes you need a putter and sometimes you need a driver.

That a language is new or modern might sound great but if it’s not well-suited for you or your intended purpose then new and modern won’t matter. What’s important in a programming language is that you are productive with it. The best programming language for you is one where you can quickly and easily:

1. Learn it.
2. Create your app.
3. Deploy your app successfully.
4. Observe your app doing what it’s supposed to do.
5. Debug and update your app when it doesn’t behave.

You might have wondered (as I did for many years) why there hasn’t been one language to rule them all. That programming languages all have so much in common makes this even more of a mystery. The answer is really twofold. First, as mentioned earlier languages are often designed for a specific purpose and second, that sometimes software developers will think they can do better and create a new language. Once in a while, they’re right.

If a language that is easy to learn and use and makes it easy to create apps for many different devices/operating systems is what you’re looking for, Xojo may be it. The best part is that it costs nothing to find out. You can download and use Xojo for free. You only buy a license when you want to distribute your app.

Encouraging and even educating your employees to become citizen developers doesn’t mean eliminating the IT department, it means improving productivity and efficiency with collaboration and innovation. After all, who better to say exactly what the marketing or sales department needs in an app, tool or automation than the department members who will utilize it the most?

This is where Xojo comes in.  Our long history (over 20 years) as an easy-to-use, rapid application development tool makes Xojo an ideal choice for would-be citizen developers.

Because Xojo is a single tool and language that makes a wide variety of apps, it’s easier for business and its citizen developers to learn and use. Does your organization need web apps, mobile apps, or desktop apps? Xojo can do all that. What about databases? Sure, Xojo can connect to most database servers including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server to work with your existing data. Plus Xojo also supports SQLite, one of the most popular databases in the world, and you can even use ODBC to connect to most anything else.

Employees that understand the business and can make their own apps as needed are tremendously valuable, which is why there is so much traction in the citizen developer space. In fact, most Xojo customers consider themselves to be citizen developers, often referring to Xojo as their secret weapon.

How can you upskill your employees to get them on the path to becoming citizen developers? First, identify those interested in learning more. Have them download Xojo for free and start looking at the many free resources that are available.

• Getting Started
• Tutorials
• Videos
• Introduction to Programming book
• User Guide

But maybe you want to jump right in. When I started programming that is exactly how I learned. I tried things to see what worked and what didn’t work. I also looked at and modified other programs I found.

You can learn to code if you just code.

So let’s kick off this summer’s Just Code challenge. The idea is that you try to make one app a week throughout the next 14 weeks of the summer. These apps don’t need to do anything fancy, although they should do something. Any type of Xojo-made app counts — desktop, iOS or web. No need to compile, you are only required to submit your project to complete the challenge.

This contest is a great way to show people new to coding what it takes to make an app, and to show how much fun coding is. Even if you already know how to code, you’ll find that this contest is a great way to bring some fun back to coding kinda like Gavin Smith did just last week in his personal 14 day iOS app challenge.

The Just Code challenge starts today, June 18 and ends Friday, September 21. Submit a project on at least 10 out of 14 Fridays to complete the Just Code challenge! Complete the challenge and you’ll get one of our super soft, new Xojo shirts (while supplies last) and you’ll be entered to win a Xojo Pro license plus $100! UPDATE: Because of growing interest, we’ll also be giving away a limited number of Xojo Lite licenses!

I’ve started a forum conversation called Just Code challenge. Go there for ideas, to ask questions and post your projects on Fridays. Of course, I’ll be doing the Just Code challenge too. Each week I will post my project to start the Friday forum thread.

Each Friday add your new project to the forum thread I started with that week’s app. Share a description of your project, a screenshot and a download link. Talk about your app and how much fun it is to #JustCode!

So what are you waiting for? Go on, just code.

• Week 1 project: Color Picker
• Week 2 Project: Password Generator
• Week 3 Project: Dogs Up!
• Week 4 Project: Mini-Golf ScoreKeeper
• Week 5 Project: Math Quiz
• Week 6 Project: Bubble Popper
• Week 7 Project: Pitch Tracker
• Week 8 Project: JumpStart App Launcher
• Week 9 Project: Quote Web Service
• Week 10 Project: NetTank
• Week 11 Project: Xojo Dojo
• Week 12 Project: MultiTemp
• Week 13 Project: Xojo Speed
• Week 14 Project: Marching Band ScoreKeeper

Check out this forum post for a list of 100+ projects submitted by Xojo customers:

Just Code Challenge Submissions

And find out the winners here:

Just Code Challenge Winners

Here are five questions to guide your decision:

1. What type of app are you creating?
Do you want to make a web app, a desktop app or a mobile app?

To help decide what you need, ask yourself who will use the app? Is it just for your use or do you plan to distribute it? It may turn out that a desktop app is better than a web app because the app will be used offline. Maybe a web app is better because it will be much easier to deploy and update to all your users. Maybe the app needs to be used “in the field” and mobile is the way to go.

2. Do you need cross-platform support?
Does your app need to run on your Mac and an iPad? Do you need to share it with a co-worker who uses Linux?

These days people often use multiple devices, so it can be a competitive advantage to have an app that runs on more than one device type. If so, consider a tool that makes it easy to create apps for multiple platforms. Using a cross-platform tool can be a lot simpler than learning to develop with multiple tools to create all the apps for all the platforms you need to support.

Also consider the platform you want to use while developing. Some tools will let you develop from any platform, but not all do.

3. Are you already familiar with a development environment or tool?
Perhaps you did some development many years ago or took a class back in college. Also, if you are tackling this project for your job, find out why current tools are being used at your workplace. Is it because of cost, inertia, standardization?

Although you may find you have to use a specific development tool in the office, many companies simply prefer that problems get solved quickly. In that case, look around at tools that can help you create rapid (RAD) solutions while still being compatible and supportive of the required development tools.

4. How experienced are you?
Have you created apps before? Consider your skills when picking your tool. Some tools can be amazingly complex. Perhaps you are creating a simple app for yourself or just your department, you may not have the time to master all the intricacies of Java and its related tools.

5. What resources and learning materials are available?
Does the tool you want to use have the resources in place to help you build your app? Review the documentation, look around for videos, articles, books and forums that can offer support. Webinars can also be a great way to quickly learn about a tool.

Of course, we think Xojo is a great fit for a wide variety of apps. With Xojo you can quickly build apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi, web and iOS – with Android support currently in development too. Xojo may not be as well known as the other tools you are considering, but we’ve stood the test of time; and Xojo is consistently updated and supported.

Just as people have varying levels of skill and interest in video games, the same is true of app development. There are those that are happy to devote enormous amounts of time to learning everything they possibly can. They don’t care how long it takes. They want to have control over everything and are willing to do whatever is necessary to make that happen. I’m so glad those people exist because there’s a lot of great software that might not otherwise have been created without them. I’m not one of those people. I really want to focus mostly on what makes my application unique, abstracted from the nitty-gritty of app development.

That’s why I have always been attracted to tools like Xojo. I am a citizen developer. Of all the job titles I have had over the years, all of them in tech,  none have ever included words like programmer or engineer. I do some software development but it’s just a part of my job. It’s something I do to help me in my work or to help my co-workers.

When I founded Xojo, Inc., tools like Xojo were called RAD (Rapid Application Development) tools. Now the term du jour is Low-Code. Put simply, it means that a development tool provides a lot of built-in functionality so you don’t have to write too much code compared to more traditional languages and tools. That’s Xojo. You can build your user interface visually via drag and drop.

The set of built-in commands (the framework) provides you with everything you’ll likely need to handle the things that do require some coding. Xojo is a cross-platform tool making it easy to create apps for different platforms such as MacOS, Windows, Linux, the web, iOS and even Raspberry Pi, without having to learn all the details of each one. Unlike some cross-platform solutions, Xojo builds complete native apps which means your apps have the look, feel and performance of those written in the more complicated tools that require so much more code.

It’s not all upside. There are sometimes very specific features for which Xojo has no built-in support. An example of this is notifications. The good news is that should you find yourself needing functions like this, there’s a vibrant Xojo community of users who have likely already created that functionality and you can just add it to your project. And Xojo is updated multiple times per year so new functionality is always appearing.

If you’re like me and you want to be able to quickly and easily build applications that make life easier for you and perhaps your co-workers, Xojo is something you should seriously consider. Xojo is also free to use and learn. You only need buy a license if you decide you want to deploy your application. We provide lots of free resources including a video library with over 250 videos, tutorials, and documentation as well as a textbook designed to help you learn app development.

It’s tremendously empowering to be able to build even a simple app that helps you accomplish tasks more quickly and efficiently. A low-code development tool like Xojo is a great place to start.

Binary is the type of numbering system that is native to computers. It is base-2. Numbers that normal people work with are called decimal or base-10.

For normal base-10 numbers you use the digits 0 through 9 to describe a number. Here’s how you would count out 10 things:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

And now you’ve run out out digits. So you put a “1” in the tens place and a “0” in the ones place to get:

10

To try counting the same quantity in binary your first realization should be that you only have two digits (base-2) to work with: 0 and 1. So the counting would look like this:

1

And now you’ve immediately run out of digits. So you put a “1” in the twos place and a “0” in the ones place and start counting again:

10
11

And you’ve run out of digits again. This happens a lot with binary, which is why it’s not a great numbering system for people. Just continue the pattern to keep counting:

100
101
110
111

1000
1001
1010

We’ll stop here since we have now counted up to “10” in decimal.

Another way you can parse this number is to think of how each position represents a component of the number.

With binary 1010 the components are as follows:

1 * 23 = 8
0 * 22 = 0
1 * 21 = 2
0 * 20 = 0

Adding 8 + 2 gets you to 10 decimal.

You’ve probably heard the term “8-bit” so what is an 8-bit number? Because bits are either 0 or 1 they are represented as binary. So an 8-bit binary number with all values set to one is this:

11111111

That is the largest number you can fit into 8 bits. And converted to decimal it is:

1 * 2^7 + 1 * 2^6 + 1 * 2^5 + 1 * 2^4 + 1 * 2^3 + 1 * 2^2 + 1 * 2^1 + 1 * 2^0

That breaks down to:

128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 1

Which sums to 255, a number I’m sure you’ve seen around before. It is the maximum value you get with the UInt8 data type in Xojo.

Conversely, you can convert a decimal number to binary by repeatedly dividing it by 2 and noting the remainder. When the remainder is even you write a 0, when it is odd you write a 1. And then you read the number from the bottom up.

So to convert decimal 10 to binary:

10 / 2 = 5, with a remainder of 0. 0 is even so write a “0”:

0

Now divide 5 / 2 to get 2 with a remainder of 1, which is odd:

0
1

Now divide 2 /2 to get 1, with a remainder of 0:

0
1
0

Lastly, divide 1 / 2 to get 0 with a remainder of 1 which is odd. So you end up with this:

0
1
0
1

Reading that from the bottom up gives you: 1010

I hope you now consider yourself part of the group that understands binary!

As more of us are working from home more often, it’s important to set some basic guidelines for your job and your sanity.

Here are 5 tips to help you set up your home office right, along with a peek into the Xojo team’s own offices.

1. Make a dedicated work space.
You don’t work in the cafeteria or the waiting room when you go into the office. In that same light, you need a dedicated workspace at home. Don’t work at the kitchen table or in a temporary area; there are too many potential distractions and interruptions. A dedicated space will make it easier for you to stay focused as well, as to “log off” and walk away from work. (This is so important!)

To keep your home and work lives from overlapping too much, work in your work space and live in your living space.

  

2. Create rules, it’s still an office.
It’s still an office and you have work to do. If there are other people (kids…I’m looking at you) at home while you are working it can be easy for them to forget you are working and inadvertently interrupt you. Have rules in place for your office hours such as “when the door is closed, do not interrupt” and “when it is open but I’m talking and you see my boss on the screen, quietly close the door and go away.” My 4 year-olds can abide by these rules so I’m sure you can get your “officemates” to do the same.

  

3. Stick to a routine.
Get up at a scheduled time each day and get yourself ready to go to work, mentally and physically. Shower, dress, work out, eat breakfast – whatever it is you do, do it daily. Let your routine further exemplify the lines between your work and home.

Remember to take breaks. It’s far too easy to work too many hours without moving when you are not distracted by the comings and goings of general office commotion, which is not healthy. Leave your desk everyday, more than once even! Go eat lunch, walk the dog, do some laundry, water your tomatoes. Paul never eats lunch at his desk, Geoff walks his dog every morning, and I like to prep dinner when I make my lunch. The perks of working from home are many and varied!

4. Interact with others.Working from home can be lonely and that can wear down even the most introverted of employees. Mitigate this by taking advantage of the many ways to remotely communicate. Video and audio conferencing software like Skype, Google Hangouts and Zoom are free and incredibly easy to use. IM via Messages, Slack and others are another great way to chat. Social networks can be nice to interact with others, but be careful to not let them distract you from getting your actual work done.

If at times you truly need to be in the same space with actual humans and the local coffee shop isn’t cutting it, look into coworking offices. A coworking office is a community office that people can share while working. Or consider making your own; I meet regularly at my home (office) with another working mom.

5. Enjoy the flexibility.
Working from home is incredibly convenient, which can make it far too easy to work far too many hours. Enjoy the flexibility you have: eat lunch outside on nice days, attend family activities, get something in the crock-pot, tidy a room. Don’t let work consume your entire life just because it shares space with it – ironically that’s the best way to end up being inefficient at both your job and your life.

Xojo moved to a virtual office model in 2009 and we’ve only looked back to revel in the metrics. This policy allows us to hire the right person for the right job, and then keep them on the Xojo team. Our employee turn-over rate is low, really low – and that reflects well on our employes’ happiness. Going virtual enabled me to keep my job at Xojo when my husband got a great offer in another state 8 years ago – next year is my 10th anniversary with Xojo.

If you set up your office right, working from home can have so many benefits, for you and your job.

We receive a lot of submissions for XDC sessions. Most good, some needing further development. We review every submission, and take into consideration the topic, abstract, and the speaker background. Here are 13 guidelines to help you craft your best possible submission, from topic to title, abstract and speaker biography.

1. Your title and abstract should really sell your session. Make sure the title is useful to the reader, while also conveying the benefits of the main topic. Attendees want a session that shows them something interesting and new. Promising benefits, provoking curiosity and putting a number in front are excellent strategies to make your session title attractive. Here are some examples:

[BAD] Learn How To Use Databases with Xojo

[GOOD] The Mistakes I’ve Made With Databases & What You Can Learn From Them

2. A unique approach to problem solving is always a good topic to explore. Especially if the problem is common or familiar.

3. Session content that can fill the entire time-slot assigned (most slots are 50-minutes), including 5-10 minutes for a Question & Answer session.

4. Use present tense in the abstract. And please don’t start your abstract with “In this session.”

5. Avoid overly-broad sessions. “Introduction to Xojo” or “Windows is Great!” might be interesting, but generally speaking they’re way too broad to get much value out of in a 50-minute session. Draw the focus down to something specific.

6. Make it clear what your attendees will learn during your session. For example, “You’ll leave this session with a handle on some of the more common database design patterns that can be used for OLTP (on line transaction processing) and front end application database designs”.

10. Give examples of what is discussed to let attendees know what you’ll be talking about. “This highly interactive session will show you three specific tips: 1, 2, and 3.” This helps potential attendees see they should be skipping that other session to attend yours!

11. Write a concise abstract. The one paragraph of your abstract is like the one spoon tasters get at a BBQ sauce competition. This is hard to do. You need to work really hard on making the one paragraph highly impactful. Set a hook with a great opening. Follow that with the value propositions to attendees and examples, and finish with a great closing that will make your attendees want more.

12. Edit and re-edit. Write the draft, step away from it, come back and edit it later. Several times.

13. Your speaker biography is every bit as important as your abstract, particularly if you’re not well-known by the content selection committee.

I look forward to seeing what new topics get submitted this year. The Call for Speakers will open soon. And remember, if you have a rough idea feel free to contact me first if you want to talk it over and develop it some before you decide and submit it. There is no limit to your submissions, so go ahead and write up all your ideas. See you in Denver!

Earlier this year, Microsoft acquired the mobile development tools company Xamarin who had their own IDE which runs on Mac and Windows. Microsoft is going to be shipping that IDE branded as Visual Studio for Mac. So while there will be a product from Microsoft called Visual Studio for Mac, it’s not really Visual Studio.

Visual Studio for Mac (formerly Xamarin) is focused mostly on mobile development. For example, there’s no cross-platform drag and drop support for desktop user interface nor do I expect there will be as Microsoft has no shortage of software available for Windows. It uses C# and F# and is aimed at the professional developer, not the citizen developer for whom Xojo is primarily designed. Xojo, on the other hand, is for much more than mobile development. Xojo gives users an easy to use drag and drop interface designer with a simple, modernized BASIC syntax that builds applications for macOS, Windows, Linux, the web, iOS, Raspberry Pi and many other ARMv7-based devices. The web is one platform Xojo supports that is worth calling out since unlike ASP from Microsoft, building web applications with Xojo requires no knowledge of HTML, CSS, Javascript, AJAX, and PHP. With Xojo, building web apps is nearly identical to building desktop or mobile apps.

Why would Microsoft want to convert Xamarin into Visual Basic for Mac? While Microsoft is the 800-pound gorilla in terms of desktop market share, they are in a very distant third place on mobile. Their goal in buying Xamarin and marketing the Xamarin IDE as Visual Studio for Mac is to get developers building their mobile apps for iOS and Android in C# to make it as easy as possible to then port those apps to Windows 10 Mobile.  Their ultimate goal is to make more apps available for the relatively anemic Microsoft mobile platform.

For Xojo users, this doesn’t really mean much. While 25% of our users are full-time professional developers, most started as citizen developers and they are our primary focus as they make up 50% of our users. Having said that, our goal has always been to make Xojo easy for those learning programming for the first time, hobbyists, citizen developer and professionals. We will continue in our quest to make Xojo a tool that someone can use at any stage of their interest in software development.

Lastly, reporters enjoy hearing  from those that use a particular product or service they write about. If you read stories about Visual Studio for Mac, please write to the reporter and let them know about Xojo. The more people who talk about Xojo, the more likely we are to grow the Xojo community.

Join the discussion on the Xojo Forum here.

I think the same thing can be said about coding. In fact, there is research that found students with computer programming skills scored higher on cognitive ability tests than students without any programming skills. Coding teaches you skills that are valuable even if you don’t plan on being a professional software developer. Being able to code means utilizing incredible attention to detail and thinking about problems abstractly, useful skills for anyone – student or professional.

Remember, Summertime isn’t just an opportunity for the kids to learn new things. You’ve still got a month of Summer left, plenty of time to expand your own skill set. While the kids are at band camp or swim camp send yourself to programming camp from the comfort of your air-conditioned home.

Why not end your Summer with Xojo?

It can be pretty empowering to create your own apps and tools that help you be more productive. In fact, many people who use Xojo do exactly that. These people are referred to as “citizen developers” and they are a growing part of the workforce.

I know many of you are probably thinking: “I don’t have time to learn to code.” Well, here’s the thing. Learning Java is definitely lots of work, and not much fun, at least in my opinion. But learning Xojo? Now that is fun and you really can do it before this Summer is gone!

If you don’t have coding experience or are still a beginner, the best way to learn to code is to start with the free Introduction to Programming with Xojo book. This book teaches you how to code as you work through creating many small, fun example apps.

This book is also available in the iTunes Book Store, if that fits how you read better.

If you spend an hour a night on the book, you’ll finish it before this month is over. And the best part about learning to code? Once you learn how to code in one language, you can more easily learn other languages because the concepts behind most programming languages are incredibly similar. So whether you are a student or a professional, improve your skill set and learn to code before this Summer is gone!

But I don’€™t say Xojo is the best way to create cross-platform software because I work here. I work here because Xojo is the best way to create cross-platform software. As a Xojo user for more than 10 years before joining the Xojo team, I really appreciate how easily it lets me make apps.

I know many of you reading this blog agree. After all, we have the best customers in the world, which anyone can see by visiting our wonderful forum.

But not everyone is using Xojo yet. So what can we as a community do to help other software developers realize that Xojo can help them create their apps faster and easier? One great way is for you to write blog posts about how you use Xojo. Nearly everyone is an expert on something that another person wants to learn about! I realize not everyone has their own blog, but these days that doesn’t have to stop you. There are lots of great, free ways to write your own blog posts, such as WordPress.com or Medium.

I’ve used Medium a bit and I really like it. Writing with it is super-easy. The editor gets out of your way, making it easy for you to write, unlike some other blogging systems I’ve used. The most useful tip for writing programming-related posts is to use Opt+Cmd+6 (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt+6 (Windows) to format a code snippet. You can read other tips and tricks for writing with Medium here: Tips and Tricks for Medium Writers.

When you Publish your post, just type “Xojo” as a tag to make it easy for people to find what you’ve written and for us to promote it. Here is the link to posts tagged for Xojo on Medium:

https://medium.com/tag/xojo

I encourage the talented, good-looking men and women of the Xojo community to take a moment and share a blog post about how Xojo helps you make apps.

You can find my posts on Medium here: https://medium.com/@lefebvre

You can read more about how Xojo can help software developers in the post below:

One of my favorites was from someone whose company, after spending 10 months with a vendor to get software made for their project, had nothing to show for it and the project deadline was fast approaching. They turned to Xojo and were able to put together an app in just 2 months to meet the deadline- now that’s rapid application development!

Another user recounted how they use Xojo to display graphics on the broadcasts for the TV station they work at and they continue to use Xojo to create small apps when needed.

There were also lots of other stories of people that needed to build an app for some purpose but were unable to get the IT department to allocate any time to it. So they turned to Xojo and created the apps themselves, becoming citizen developers and enabling them to finish a project or be more productive. And in several cases, the Xojo-made rogue app ended up getting officially sanctioned and used for other things.

Additionally, I’ve heard stories from consultants and others that own their own business that have said “without Xojo, I wouldn’t have a business”.

Of course, I did hear from a few people that were aghast that I would recommend “going rogue”. They feared it would get them fired. I guess all I can say is that you have to use your own judgment with where you work. If you work at a place that has strict policies against this sort of thing, then going rogue is obviously not for you.

But many, many more companies do not have such draconian (but perhaps valid) rules and just want you to get your job done quickly and in the most efficient manner possible. We think Xojo can help with that.

Since that Going Rogue post was published, Xojo has added many new features, including iOS support, the new framework, 64-bit and Raspberry Pi. We are all really proud of how Xojo is able to allow people to more easily create the software they need. And now you have even more ways you can “go rogue”!

If you have stories to share, I’d love to hear them. And if you are trying to get Xojo in your organization, get in touch with us. We can help.

In particular, a recent article at ZDNet, “The advent of the citizen developer” talks about how non-programmers can help create the apps needed by an enterprise company:

So the business-side has long had to place their fate in the hands of those with the requisite skills but often with little sympathy for or first-hand knowledge of the business itself. Or they just ended-up acquiring pre-existing software that was a close enough fit, and then had it configured to their needs. Neither path has typically produced tech solutions that fit business needs very well, and ‘good enough’ has usually been the mantra of the day.

These articles explain how “citizen developers”, sometimes referred to as a business analysts (or maybe even power-users), are using rapid application development tools to create apps that helps the business solve a problem more quickly than going through a more formal and lengthy IT process.

I’ve written about related topics in Rapid Application Development and Going Rogue because we have lots of Xojo customers that consider themselves citizen developers. Xojo is a full-featured, powerful professional development tool, but one of its great strengths is that, unlike other professional tools such as Visual Studio, Xojo is also accessible to those that are not professional developers.

• Want an easy-to-use standalone desktop app to distribute to your co-workers? Xojo has you covered. And Xojo can make the app for Windows, OS X and Linux without you having to learn anything else.

• Need to create an app to talk to a database so you can monitor data that is specific to your department? No problem. Xojo can communicate with just about any database your company may be using.

• Need an internal web app for use by all employees? WIth Xojo you can easily create a slick web app that you can deploy to any computer (not just a fancy web server). And you don’t have to learn the technology soup of CSS, JavaScript and HTML5!

• And let’s not forget mobile apps. Not everyone works in the office and more and more people are using mobile devices (phones, tablets) as their only computer. With Xojo you can create iOS apps for iPhone and iPad much faster than with other more complicated tools.

According to an IBM survey, 80% of Enterprises Turn to Citizen Developers. With our Dev Center, hundred of examples, videos and training, Xojo makes it easy for Citizen Developers to quickly become productive.

Don’t let your organization fall behind creating the software it needs. Empower your Citizen Developers with Xojo.

There are three possible solutions to this problem:

1. Find a way to decrease the demand of mobile apps. (Good luck with that one.)
2. Increase the number of mobile developers.
3. Decrease the time it takes to build mobile apps.

Solutions 2 and 3 are not mutually exclusive. You could potentially do both. Adrian Leow even points to the solution when he suggests that developers use rapid mobile app development tools. These tools can provide solution 3, but they don’t create necessarily create more developers.

At Xojo, we have been building rapid application development tools for more than a decade so we know how to do it. Plus, we know how to make it easy enough that citizen developers (those that build apps but don’t have “developer” in their job title) can build the apps they need themselves. Xojo supports the ability to build native iPhone and iPad apps along with the ability to build web and desktop apps from a single IDE and language. Xojo is ideal for citizen developers as they often need desktop or web counterparts to their mobile apps. Anyone with experience in Visual Basic will find it quite easy to adapt to Xojo.

Xojo provides the combined solution that creates more developers by enabling citizen developers taking some of the burden off of IT and dramatically decreasing the development time of mobile applications.

Geoff Perlman opened XDC by announcing that, for the first time ever, we are recording the entire conference- that includes Geoff’s keynote, all 35 sessions plus bonus material! Recordings will be available for sale by early June. XDC attendees will get a copy free.

xDev Magazine’s Marc Zeedar Checking in with Passbook on his Apple Watch

After a review of this #XDC2015 attendees- representing 12 countries, with 24% of attendees being first time attendees- Geoff moved on to talk about what’s coming up in future releases of Xojo.

Xojo Cloud Upgrades
Starting in June, all Xojo Cloud servers will get upgraded to 2x the RAM, 2x the throughput and full SSD storage at no additional cost! That means in June: Small Xojo Cloud Servers will offer 1GB RAM, 20GB SSD Storage and 200Mb/s throughput; Medium Xojo Cloud Servers will offer 2GB RAM, 40GB SSD, 2 vCPUs and 400Mb/s throughput; and Large Xojo Cloud Servers will offer 4 GB RAM, 80GB SSD, 4 vCPUs and 800Mb/s throughput. All at no additional cost per month, plus the extensive Xojo Cloud Security and 1-click deployment of your Xojo web apps! With this upgrade even Small Xojo Cloud servers will be have database support for MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Cookie Break at the Radisson in Downtown Austin, Day 1

Xojo Web Drag & Drop
Geoff gave us a demo of touch-enabled drag and drop, coming to Xojo Web. This feature gives you client-side (browser) ability to handle drag and drop. You’ll be able to specify controls that can be dragged, those that can accept drops and get notified when drops occur.

Geoff Perlman being interrogated by the Austin Police…at the Dinner Detective evening event.

64-bit Schedule
As you know, we’re working hard updating all platform frameworks to be fully 64-bit capable. It’s huge project with hundreds of thousands of lines of code and we’ve made great progress to date, Geoff announced that we have already built a 64-bit release of Feedback for OS X and Windows. Xojo iOS is already 64-bit. We’ll be adding an optimizing 64-bit capable compiler & linker and few if any changes will be required in your projects.

Bob Keeney and Scott Boss on the Lone Star River Boat awaiting Austin’s Bats

Raspberry Pi
Probably the most talked about announcement is that Xojo will be adding support for Raspberry Pi later this year! Xojo Pro users will get Raspberry Pi included in their existing licenses at no additional cost. Separate Xojo Raspberry Pi licenses will also be available.

Plugins in Xojo
Get ready to build your plugins in Xojo! We’re developing a new plugin format that lets you build your Xojo plugins in Xojo- no more C/C++! No Plugin SDK, so no waiting for features to get added to the SDK, use features as soon as they are available. These plugins are compiled down to LLVM bit code. Existing C/C++ plugins will continue to be supported long term on existing platforms & 64 bit desktop/console/web platforms.

Xojo developers ready for a good dinner and a good mystery.

Retina Support
Retina support will be coming in 2015 Q4 with support for both the Xojo IDE and the framework, so you can support it more easily in your own apps.

Geoff also announced that we’ll be dropping Windows XP build support in Xojo 2015r3. We’ve blogged about this many times since 2013. Leaving XP behind is necessary and doing so will allow us to move forward and adopt new technologies on the Windows platform.

As always, XDC’s 3 days went by incredibly quickly. XDC 2015 wrapped up with a brand new coding contest- it was totally retro, dude! Bruno’s spaceship trumped even Joe’s bot, and he won a new Apple Watch!

Bruno, conquerer of Xojo Space and winner of #XDC2015’s Coding Contest

If you missed #XDC2015, don’t make the same mistake in 2016. In addition to the 35 sessions and other perks of being an attendee, there was the time Christian Schmitz’s brother full-body tackled the “murderer” at our Dinner Detective event and a gorgeous cruise down Lady Bird Lake ending in an amazing view of thousands of bats taking flight! The benefits of the conference are many and the memories…well, those can’t be quantified and some should probably not be recorded. As one attendee wrote me yesterday “Words can’t express the time that I had, people I met, and what I learned. I wish that I had attended the earlier ones. I will be at the next one…”

The Lone Star Riverboat, Docked After Taking XDC Attendees on a City Tour and Bat Viewing

For additional information, you can watch Paul’s XDC recap webinar. Also, check out the many threads on the Forum from some of the Xojo Forum’s most active members. If you have any questions feel free to post here or ask me on Twitter @Xojo. If you were at XDC, tweet us a pic of you wearing your #XDC2015 shirt in your hometown for a RT!

Read this post in German or Italian.

Xojo is the modern alternative to Microsoft Visual Basic. Xojo is a single language to build apps for Mac, Windows and Linux desktop, plus web, mobile and Raspberry Pi. Cross-compile desktop apps and use the same powerful language to develop for web and mobile too.

Develop Faster with Xojo

Xojo is more powerful than VB6 while at the same time more approachable than VB.NET. With Xojo, a single project can create desktop apps that work on Windows, macOS, Linux and Raspberry Pi. Unlike VB and Visual Studio, Xojo allows you to develop on your platform of choice- Windows, Mac or Linux.

Modernize Legacy Desktop Apps with Web and Mobile

Because Xojo can create apps for so many platforms, it is a great way to modernize and update your legacy desktop apps to web or mobile apps.

With Xojo, web apps are as easy to make as desktop apps. Use Xojo’s powerful language to create your web app instead of HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, and AJAX and save tons of development time. Xojo web apps can be deployed to any server (Linux, macOS or Windows) and can also use the industry standard Apache web server.

These days mobile apps are often a necessity. Design your Xojo iOS apps using drag and drop in the layout editor, add your code and publish. Access the iOS-features you’d expect, like sharing panel and your photo library, and also the iPhone’s hardware-based features, like motion, location and camera. Xojo makes iOS development familiar and fast. Xojo Android is currently in development and will be testing soon.

Similarities between Xojo and Visual Basic

Language

The Xojo programming language is very similar to Visual Basic. It has commands like If..Then..Else, For..Next, and While..Loop. You will also find the object-oriented capabilities of Xojo quite similar to VB.NET.

Data Types

Xojo shares many of the same data types with VB6 and VB.NET, including: Integer, Double, String/Text, Currency, Boolean, Variant.

Controls

Xojo has many common controls including: Buttons, Labels, TextFields, TextAreas, ListBoxes (grids), PopupMenus, ProgressBars, toolbars and more.

Differences between Xojo and Visual Basic

Compiler and Run-time

Xojo apps are compiled to native code. They do not contain byte-code that is run by a virtual machine (as with .NET). The run-time library is included with your applications so there is nothing additional that needs to be installed on users’ computers.

Language and Framework

Xojo is fully object-oriented. Unlike VB6, you can have classes that use inheritance and other object-oriented features. The Xojo framework is designed to be simple to use and support cross-platform applications; it provides access to many things you’ve come to expect such as file handling, databases, graphics and more.

File I/O

One of the biggest differences between VB6 and Xojo is file I/O. Xojo consolidates all its file processing into a few classes: FolderItem, TextInputStream, TextOutputStream and BinaryStream. VB6 uses hard-coded file paths and less flexible file access methods, primarily because it only needs to work with Windows-specific file paths.

Data Types

Xojo is strongly typed, just like VB.NET. VB6 allows you to do some things the old-school, BASIC way, the most significant of which is using variables without declaring them (the type is inferred by a suffix on the name). Xojo does not allow this. Use the OPTION EXPLICIT command in all your Visual Basic code to have VB enforce explicit variable declarations.

Improved Error Handling

Xojo has modern exception handling using Try/Catch, Exception and App.UnhandledException.

Shared Libraries

Xojo cannot create DLLs, ActiveX controls, .NET assemblies or any kind of shared libraries. Since these are all Windows-specific technologies, that is somewhat understandable. You’ll either need to rethink your design or just re-use these components from within Xojo (and limit yourself to deploying only on Windows).

Switching to Xojo

Xojo is free for learning and development. Take your time to see how Xojo can help with your next project. Develop, run and debug your application with the free IDE, only purchase a license when you are ready to compile. Learn more about Xojo, read the User Guide and visit the Xojo Docs.

If you find yourself frustrated with VB.NET or are looking for something to replace VB6, be sure to test out Xojo. It might be just right for you. Watch the Migrating from VB video to see how a simple app is migrated to Xojo and visit our Migrating from Visual Basic page at the Xojo Docs for more details.

Updated June 2020

It was the desktop computer revolution that changed that. By the mid-to-late 1980’s, there were more and more desktop computers and developers wanted to target all of them. Soon, however, Windows became so dominant that many developers chose to focus on that one OS. Some Mac developers, not wanting to miss out on the potentially enormous Windows market, either went to the trouble of writing two versions of their applications or used a tool/language that would allow them to target both Mac and Windows from a single code base. This was the beginning of cross-platform development.

Recently, I was asked by tech blogger Chris Pirillo if cross-platform was really important anymore. Cross-Platform is actually more important than ever. Why? First of all, while the Windows PC market is seeing flat or declining sales, Apple’s Mac marketshare is growing. We are seeing this at Xojo. More and more Windows developers are coming to us because they can no longer ignore the Mac market. Linux is the predominant server OS. If you want to write server software that can run on some combination of Linux, Windows and OS X, you’ll want to be writing cross-platform code.

What about the web? It’s just a single platform right? Well, not really. Web developers using what I call the assembly language of the web (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and AJAX) must deal with at least 4 different browsers (IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari). In theory, these browsers all interpret HTML, CSS and JavaScript the same way but anyone who’s ever created a web app knows that’s unfortunately not the case. Ideally, a cross-platform development tool greatly reduces these sorts of differences for you.

If you’re developing mobile applications there’s a good chance you’ll want to support iOS and Android. This is yet another place where cross-platform is important.

Finally, there’s a very good chance you’ll want your code to run on several of these types of platforms. You may need a desktop, web and mobile version of your app. And you might even want the core business logic of your app to run on a server somewhere and be accessed by client-side apps runing on these very different platforms. So being able to write code that is transportable across not just operating systems but from the desktop to the server, to the web and mobile, is arguably more important than ever before.

Our goal with Xojo has always been to abstract you from the details of these different operating systems, devices and computing platforms so you can focus on what makes your applications unique. Xojo provides you with a single programming language and tool that allows you to target them all. Why should you have to learn different languages and tools? With Xojo, you can build for OS X, Windows and Linux. And you can build for the desktop, the server, the web and coming soon, mobile with iOS (Xojo iOS was release in Xojo 2014r3 and Xojo Pi for Raspberry Pi was released in 2015). That’s cross-platform.

There are other tools that take short cuts with interpreted code, dependences on runtime libraries and by drawing all controls themselves. Xojo compiles to machine code, creates native apps and uses native controls so that your app takes on the look and feel of the target platform. That’s cross-platform.

Xojo started out supporting just the Mac. Not OS X but its predecessor, Mac OS. Xojo supported the Motorola 68000 and PowerPC processors back then. Next we added support for Windows and the x86 processor followed by Linux. Later, when Apple made the jump to OS X, we were right there as well. Now we support the web. Through all of these transitions, Xojo users have been, for the most part, shielded from these changes. Moving their projects from platform to platform, from processor to processor, has been relatively painless for Xojo users. We will be adding another OS and processor later this year with iOS and the ARM processor. ARM opens up some interesting additional possiblities.

There was a time when many would have said the world is standardizing and the future means fewer and fewer platforms. Look at what happened. Cross-platform is now more important than ever.