Firstly, the MVPs work as your advocates, drawing attention to issues that they feel are important to the community. Their passion comes through in all interactions with the Xojo team, from justifiably reminding us of bugs we need to address or features that would be appreciated by many.

Since the MVPs all use Xojo in different ways, this helps to make sure we get a wide variety of feedback. Sometimes we get direct, specific suggestions such as the Set class, which (due to the provided code), we were able to add as a feature to Xojo relatively quickly. Some especially valuable MVP insights regarding stack checking helped us to pinpoint areas where we could make changes to the Xojo framework that resulted in dramatic performance improvements to Xojo itself along with all your projects. MVP tips and testing have also helped us nail down some issues that helped improve debugger stabilization. MVPs have even created a supplemental unit testing suite to help test the Android framework!

Speaking of testing, the MVPs certainly do more than their fair share of testing. They have helped with an enormous amount of testing for many parts of Xojo, most recently including PDF, Barcode, Charts and Android. When they find bugs, MVPs always create thorough, well-explained Issues, usually with sample projects, allowing us to fix things faster for everyone’s benefit. At times MVPs even review your own submitted Issues and may offer suggestions or advice for you to try.

In addition to testing and providing feedback on the product as you see it today, MVPs get to see stuff early, sometimes even before designs or implementations are finalized. This may be in the form of demos or test builds. Their tips, comments and suggestions can help provide direction to how we end up actually implementing a feature or change.

The Xojo documentation is also continuously improved by MVP feedback and suggestions. MVPs were first to see the new documentation site before it was unveiled to everyone and their keen eyes have helped us improve search, sample code and continue to polish things.

From inception to documentation, this group of dedicated Xojo experts has helped us shape Xojo. If you are pleased with what Xojo is today, you should thank a Xojo MVP.

To Anthony, Christian, Gavin, Jeremie, Kem, Martin and Wayne we at Xojo offer a heartfelt “Thank You!” and have made donations on your behalf to several open-source projects that also help make Xojo possible: LLVM Foundation, Bootstrap and Ubuntu.

A set is a group of items, not unlike a Dictionary. You can add or remove items from the set, as you might expect, but some of its more unique capabilities let you do a difference, intersection and union of two sets.

• Difference returns a new Set with members that are unique to each Set. This is essentially the items in the first set that are not in the second set.

• Intersection returns a new Set with members that are common to both Sets.

• Union returns a new Set that contain the members of both Sets.

There are also methods to populate a set from an array or a Dictionary. Learn more about using the Set class in the Xojo Programming Documentation.

Set is based on code written by Xojo MVP Kem Tekinay and works on all platforms.

Kem Tekinay is a consultant and developer based in Connecticut. A Xojo MVP, Kem has been an avid Xojo user since the early days and is a world-renowned thinker and philosopher, at least in his own mind. You can find him and his work at MacTechnologies Consulting.

Paul learned to program in BASIC at age 13 and has programmed in more languages than he remembers, with Xojo being an obvious favorite. When not working on Xojo, you can find him talking about retrocomputing at Goto 10 and on Mastodon @lefebvre@hachyderm.io.

Recently an MVP brought up that they don’t like the policy of automatically closing Issues when there is no action for 2 years; they explained that if a case was verified it should stay open. All of the other MVPs agreed and threw out possible solutions, which led to a productive discussion. The ideal solution was that Xojo would re-verify the case and close it if it is no longer relevant. We continued evaluating the matter internally and going forward – at the suggestion of the MVPs – cases will no longer auto-close. Instead they will get the “Needs Review” label, we will review them and close them if they are no longer reproducible.

We appreciate the time everyone puts in to let us know if they encounter issues in Xojo, this helps us continue to improve Xojo. If you ever have anything you want to discuss or offer feedback on please reach out to any of us, including the Xojo staff or the MVPs, via PM on the Xojo Forum.

William Yu grew up in Canada learning to program BASIC on a Vic-20. He is Xojo’s resident Windows and Linux engineer, among his many other skills. Some may say he has joined the dark side here in the USA, but he will always be a Canadian at heart.

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The Xojo MVPs give us regular feedback on issues affecting the community at large – sometimes that is about a new feature, early testing of a release or more general matters. Recently the MVPs emphasized to us that bugs that don’t affect a lot of users, but can be really annoying to a small group of users, don’t get much attention. We talked about how to best address some of these issues and since we haven’t done a Bug Bash in a while, we decided it was time to do one.

Nominating a Bug for the Bug Bash

Starting now, each user can nominate up to 10 bugs to be fixed during the Bug Bash. You don’t have to nominate them all at once, we will accept nominations through August 31st. To nominate a bug, post this exact language as a comment on the case(s) you wish to nominate in Issues: [BugBash2022Nominee]. Starting in August, our system will add a Bug Bash label to make it easy to find them.

If you find that a case is already nominated with the Bug Bash label, do not add it again. Per usual, if the case affects you, add a “thumbs up” so we have some idea of how many users are affected by a particular bug. Please note that Feature Requests will not be considered for the Bug Bash.

Not every case that is nominated will be fixed. There are a multitude of reasons for this, but each case nominated will be evaluated and we’ll let you know the outcome.

We hope you’ll participate in the Bug Bash. No case is too old, too small or too esoteric! Submit your nominations today!

What We Do

Xojo’s MVP page spells it out pretty well. We try to facilitate communication between Xojo the company and Xojo the community, and we advise Xojo on new features that will be coming to the language. Sometimes that’s a lot of work, sometimes not.

Facilitate Communication

Personally, I hear from a fair few members of the community about concerns they have. I spend time with these users and try to determine what they need that they aren’t getting, or how Xojo might take steps to ease whatever suffering the user is experiencing. I then distill that down, hopefully into a paragraph or two, and discuss it with the Xojo team. There are a few different ways I handle that information:

• By opening a Feedback Case — if it’s a bug or feature request, this is usually the best way forward
• By messaging an engineer to clarify how something is supposed to function — knowing which team member(s) generally work on which part(s) of Xojo, I can usually get a quick answer when there’s a question like this by sending them a direct real-time message
• By forwarding the concern on to Geoff Perlman, Dana Brown, or Alyssa Foley — when it’s major, having direct access is great
• Or by posting it in our MVP chat channel — when there’s some finer points to work out, this can be incredibly helpful as all of us MVPs are long-time users, and there are a few members of the Xojo staff constantly monitoring this as well

I’m sure I get on their nerves sometimes with all of my questions, originating both from other users and myself, but it’s a decent system that lets me help out both the company and my fellow users.

In many cases, we’ll take a forum discussion and open the topic in our MVP channel to see if there’s some way we can help or Xojo can improve. We’ve had some very long and drawn-out conversations based on forums posts.

Informal Advisory Committee

Sometimes we get to see new things before they hit the public Testers group. We tested Web 2.0 for a while, Worker, and a bunch of other features. Some things we get to see long before they’re ready to roll out in any meaningful capacity. We have video calls every once in a while where Xojo presents the early stages of new features and asks for our input. We can make suggestions for changes that might make that new feature better, or help to alter the course of a new feature simply by asking the right questions that lead to the right realizations.

For a couple of examples: Workers were added as a Desktop (rather than Pro-only) feature after much discussion in the MVP group, and we’ve been talking over details of the forthcoming Web Feedback status messages and abilities.

This is an important task, and even though things aren’t released bug-free, we help Xojo understand and account for many things they might not have otherwise considered simply by providing our point of view early in the process.

What We Don’t Do

There’s a lot that we don’t do, and maybe some things we probably should do, but we do what we can with the best intentions for Xojo’s users. We represent you, the user, not Xojo in this capacity.

Be Self-Serving

It’s tempting to harass the engineers or Geoff for a particular new feature or bug fix that would help my business, but what would that really accomplish? In the end, I probably wouldn’t be an MVP for very long, and I’d feel pretty cheap to leverage my position this way.

Be Single-Minded

As a representative of the community, I try to see multiple angles for any situation. I know that I have very different experiences and projects than others, so I try to put myself in the shoes of other users when we’re discussing. It’s not always easy — and it’s not always fruitful — but it’s what I feel is incumbent upon me to do.

Be Confrontational

I get heated about things Xojo is doing at times, just like anyone else, but I certainly endeavor to keep my cool (yeah, Geoff, I know…trying also means failing occasionally). I try to offer alternatives and constructive criticism, as do my fellow MVPs. We often come up with good stuff that users don’t realize would otherwise be missing or point out things that I’m sure Xojo would rather we didn’t. don’t think for a second that we just pat them on the back and say “good job” in our private discussion venues.

Ignore the Big Stuff

If Xojo is working on something major and they’re giving us a chance to see it first, you can bet we’re all-hands-on-deck. Web 2.0 and Android, being the biggest new features released since the inception of the MVP program, pulled us all in for days or weeks on end. Testing, offering ideas, opening Feedback Cases, you name it. We try to help Xojo get it as close to right as they can, within reason and the allotted timeframe, before the Testers get their hands on these builds.

Get Paid

We’re not Xojo employees. We don’t get paid for doing this. I know some of you are thinking “Then why would you do it?!” and the answer to that is “Because we’re morons!” Seriously, though, we see a way to help Xojo and its users, and that’s enticing enough.

What it’s Like

It’s fun most of the time. I get along well with most of the Xojo team and the other MVPs, and I like discussing and testing new stuff with them. They’re a good bunch of folks, and I’m thankful to be part of the program. There’s a massive amount of knowledge and capability in a room filled with these people.

Users who contact me as an MVP are generally thankful when I can help them, either with my own knowledge or by passing along their concerns. I get thank you notes every once in a while, and it feels good to be doing something to help out.

But not everyone is thankful. There are those who deride the program and its members, send their diatribes via email and private message, or feel obliged to call us out publicly. These are people who have no idea what we do for them and Xojo — NDAs, anyone? — and they’re just looking for a reason to tear us down. I can say for certain that Xojo would look different than it does today without the presence of the MVP program. Knowing that some people want to vilify you when you’re trying to help them requires a thick skin, but it comes with the territory.

In the end, I try to do right by Xojo users, and I’m positive my fellow MVPs feel the same way. It’s not about us, it’s about you.

Thanks for reading!

Anthony G. Cyphers is the Lead Developer and Sole Proprietor of GraffitiSuite Solutions and a Xojo MVP. He has been providing custom Xojo components and contract development since 2003.

We chose to create the MVP program for 3 reasons:

1. To recognize the contributions of some members of the community. Our MVPs all have been positive forces in the Xojo community for many years.
2. To facilitate communication with the Xojo community. The MVPs are there to help us get the word out about things going on at Xojo and also to help the community make sure we are hearing what’s going on with them.
3. To act as an informal advisory committee. As we develop Xojo, we often appreciate getting feedback in the early stages of a particular change we might be making. That’s manageable with a small group such as the MVPs. We are discussing our product planning with them and are giving them very early access to features in development to get their feedback.

We selected the MVPs by asking each member of the Xojo team to choose five people they felt contributed positively to the community and would be good at communicating both with us and the community. We asked team members not to share their choices with each other to avoid influencing the process. Our five MVPs were the result and they are all excellent choices in my humble opinion.

The MVPs are our objective and impartial ambassadors to the Xojo community. They are there to help the community better understand what’s going on with us and to help us better understand the wants and needs of all Xojo users. In this day and age of instant global communications, anything that promotes open, honest and productive communication is a good thing. We hope that each of you will take advantage of the MVPs by both listening to what they have to say and giving them your thoughts, feelings and feedback.