Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Livecode expired, Xojo becomes top tool.

My Livecode License has expired and for the first time in a decade I not renewing it.

Have I just out grown Livecode? Well that is part of the reason. The other part of the reason is kind of sad. I say sad because Runrev the company be hide Livecode was once a very honest and trustworthy company. However since 2013 this changed rate around the time the made millions on Kickstarter to make a open source version of Livecode.

The Open Source version does not allow apps to be deployed to the Mac or iOS app stores. 70% of our business today is within those stores. That makes using this open source version not possible. So we have to pay for a commercial version. And to pay for a commercial version we need certain things fixed that have been broken for years. I supported there kickstarter effort and while they did release a open source version. None of the issues we needed fixed since 2012 where fixed since. Almost 2 full years.(there are even other bugs as old as 5 years still unfixed)

In the fall of 2013 I received over 30 emails from runrev that several bug reports of mine (with show stopping bugs) have been removed from the bug database. No reason was given. After review with the most recent build they where not fixed either. Then they came out and said they never removed any bug reports, even if I still have all 30 email from them saying they did. Making software for me is a profession, not a silly game. They send us emails saying xyz then,  say they never did such. Well I keep emails, and have proof of it.

I not sure what going on with Runrev anymore. Runrev once was a very helpful company that delivered a decent but somewhat outdated product. At least we knew where we stood using Livecode. Runrev before 2013 had the best customer support I ever seen by any company and was the major reason why I kept using there product.

With no certain future in sight. No way to talk with anyone from the company without them becoming very hostile to a fair report of issues (specially issues that will not pass app review for the app store) There not much one can do. There really only one thing to do, stop using Livecode. 

Well I started using Real Studio/ Xojo in 2011 for a one off product for a corporate client, and since have moved about 90% of my work to it. Enter Xojo,while it may not support all the same platforms as Livecode, what Xojo does do is just awesome. I can trust Xojo as a company way more than Runrev today because there honest with us. If Xojo can not delivery something, they tell you. If a company is honest, willing to listen to all customers and deliveries as they say like Xojo does 99.8% then why wouldn’t we use there tool over a company that does none of those things anymore.

Xojo supports things I dreamed Livecode could have done a decade ago. Xojo is a more true and more easy to use programming language with dot syntax, real arrays, dictionaries, more controllable drawing code, access to everything on a platform with declares and plugins. It has a real IDE with a great code editor, and best of all a community full of many professional developers. Whom are professional in answer questions and talking about Xojo. There no hostile fanboys with Xojo like with other tools. 

Best of all Xojo makes our final products work and look professional. It fits rate into the platform It is deployed on. 

The biggest improvement moving from Livecode to Xojo is Native UI. The reason this is so much of a impact is we do not have to think twice about any control. The layout of the interface is fast, easy and works as if built with the default OS development tool. That save days if not weeks of work. It also allows us to focus on the code and workflow of the app. Where Livecode needs a custom UI and takes days if not weeks to make and look right. Plus it does not fit the platform what so ever as its not using anything native at all.

Pay to play; with Xojo you pay full price once, that one time is for a year of updates. If you do not renew you still can use what you paid for (with Livecode it just expires). When you renew the cost is only 1/2 of what you first paid for for another year of updates.

Since 2012 (the last time I could deploy a Livecode built app, because of these unfixed bugs) I spent $1500 and got nothing from it. Runrev still owes us two years of updates that we never got for the money we paid. I would only renew livecode if it was free. because I already paid for 2 years for a broken un-useable product. This makes my stomach drop because for a small business like mine $1,500.00 is a lot of money to get nothing in return. I actual upset about this so much that I really not willing to forget.

Xojo has made me basically forget about Livecode now. It has access to everything and that is wonderful. Xojo for iOS is near release. What I find the most amazing with Xojo is there staff is 1/4 the size of Livecode's and they actual delivery more stuff in a shorter timeframe. Isn't that just amazing? I think so.


I wish all the great Livecode users we meet and became friends with over the last decade, the best of luck using Livecode. It was once my first choice and I hope they actual fix stuff for you soon, like Xojo does for me today.

This blog has many old helpful tips for Livecode, I keep them here for a reference to help others. I will however no longer answer questions about Livecode as I now do not really consider myself a full time user anymore. Maybe I even move some old Livecode built libs I made to Github as I have made many of useful add ons for that tool, that I not going to use anymore.