We have just released XSharp 1.2.1 to our FOX subscribers.
This is an interim release that adds some small features to the compiler and has some enhancements in the Visual Studio integration that should mostly benefit users with large solutions.

Build 1.2.1 will most likely be the last XSharp 1 build.

Next week, at the conference in Cologne, we will show a beta version of XSharp 2 which will include the XSharp runtime.

More details about the planning for the release of XSharp 2.0 will be revealed at the conference and will be shared at this website after the conference.

We hope to see you all in Cologne. You can still register !

 

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GrafX Database Systems, the company from Brian Feldman, has closed shop. Many of you have already seen that and commented on that.

On the former GrafX website an accusing finger is pointed to us and accusations are made that we have "stolen" products from GrafX.
That is a blatant lie and very far from the truth.  We did not respond on this website before because we tried to solve this the political way by talking with GrafX but we failed to do so.

If you want read our version of the story, click here for more information.

Finally, now that GrafX Database Systems no longer exists, there is no company anymore that sells ReportPro. We have decided to add ReportPro to our product offerings. The story above contains more details. Our sales page and online shop will be updated shortly.

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GrafX Database Systems, the company from Brian Feldman, has closed shop. Many of you have already seen that and commented on that.

On the former GrafX website an accusing finger is pointed to us and accusations are made that we have "stolen" products from GrafX.
That is a blatant lie and very far from the truth.  We did not respond on this website before because we tried to solve this the political way by talking with GrafX but we failed to do so.

Let's look back at why the X# project was started:

We started the X# project out of frustration about the way that GrafX / Brian was managing the development of Visual Objects and Vulcan and about the free fall these products were in due to lack of interest, communication and vision from the product owner.
For this reason Robert had already left the GrafX development team and Nikos, Fabrice and Chris were about to do the same in 2015.

We joined our forces and started this project together. Of course, we were helped a lot by the fact that Microsoft had released the Roslyn source code, and of course it helped a lot that we had done this before. Our motto was "we did it before, we can do it again".

At the start of our project we have approached Brian/GrafX and offered to buy what was left of Vulcan and we also offered him a share in our annual revenues for the FOX program. At first Brian agreed, but later he declined for reasons not known to us. This was short after we asked for proof of the ownership of the source code and for proof of the sales figures (due diligence).
We have speculated about the reasons for his change of mind. Some ideas we had were:

• He could not proof ownership of the product most likely for one of the following reasons:
  
  
  • some source code in Vulcan is most likely still copyright CA,
    
    
  • he has never asked his developers to sign anything to transfer their intellectual property to him
    
    
• The sales figures that he told us about were made up

Whatever his real reasons, we did not have a deal and we went our own way. GrafX did not like that because we were now both competing in the same market. And we all know how that competition went: GrafX had no development team and did not make any progress. The number of VOPS subscribers went downhill where our team created new versions, integrated into a new version of Visual Studio etc. and we got more and more FOX subscribers.

And yes, we told you, our customers, that you could use your version of the Vulcan Runtime with our product. There is nothing illegal in that. In fact, the Vulcan documentation describes exactly how you can use Vulcan assemblies in other .Net development languages.  So, this is a scenario that GrafX was already prepared for.

Anyway, like we said before, after the announcement that GrafX has closed shop, we have approached Brian Feldman again and asked him to remove the lies from his website and to bury the hatchet and to work together in the interest of the community.
We also offered him money for some of the runtime source code that we are still interested in. Unfortunately, Brian did not even bother to reply to our email and has not changed his website. He has chosen to ignore us.

This leaves our community in an awkward position. GrafX has closed and was the only company selling Visual Objects and ReportPro.

We have been in contact with the original developers and owners of ReportPro and they have expressed to us that they want you, the customers, to be supported as good as possible. Due to obligations at their current jobs they cannot do that themselves.

Now that GrafX is no longer in business there is no longer a company where you can buy ReportPro and get ReportPro support. Brian is still selling it on his website but is very unclear who is behind this website and we have been told that customers will not get an invoice or support.

A few months ago, we have started ReportPro support on our website for FOX subscribers. We have decided that we will now also include support for other VO and Vulcan developers and that you can now also buy the product from us. The sales infrastructure is not ready yet, but if you are interested, please send us a message. We will add ReportPro 2 and ReportPro 3  to our online shop but you can also buy it with a normal Invoice and pay with a bank wire.

The pricing for ReportPro will be:

ReportPro 2 or ReportPro 3 for VO 2.8, binary version. This includes the linkable designer	Γé¼ 99
ReportPro 2 or ReportPro 3 for .Net, binary version. This includes the linkable designer	Γé¼ 99
ReportPro 2 or ReportPro 3 for VO 2.8, source code version	Γé¼ 299
ReportPro 2 or ReportPro 3 for .Net, source code version	Γé¼ 299

    

Support will be given through our webforums.

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We have released XSharp 1.2 today. This release fixes some compiler issues and has many improvements in the Visual Studio integration.
There is both a new public release as well as a new release for our FOX subscribers. Both releases have the same functionality. The compiler in the release for FOX subscribers is somewhat faster. Some highlights of this build:

Compiler

• We have made some optizations in the Lexer which make the compiler somewhat faster
• Fixed a problem with /vo2 (initialize strings with "") so parent class constructors will no longer overwrite fields that are already assigned in subclasses. We still recomment that you call the parent constructor first before assigning field values
• Fixed a problem with /vo16 (automatic clipper constuctor generation). This was not working for classes that inherit directly from classes defined in referenced assemblies.
• Improved the debugger breakpoint generation. The compiler no longer generates 'hidden' breakpoint information for startup and closedown code in the VO/Vulcan dialects, and for expression statements no longer a double step is necessary.
• The compiler now generates a warning when you use the #pragma command.
• In some situations (partial classes where access and assign are not both in the same source file) the compiler would generate error messages without proper file name and line number. This has been fixed.

We are changing the system where our support tickets are managed.
This used to be a project on the plan.io website (xsharp.plan.io) but has been replaced by a system integrated with our website.

Registered users can access this system from the Contact - Manage Support Tickets  menu option, or by clicking on the [Tickets] button on the top right of the window.

Registered users can also email their tickets to us by sending an email to bugreports@xsharp.eu.
Please send from the email address that is linked to your website account. Your tickets will then be automatically linked to your user profile on this website. Emails from "unknown" accounts will not be processed by the system.

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Like the last two years we are also attending the XBase.Future conferenced, organized by our Partner Fischer and Consultants from Germany.

We hope to meet you all there.

There is an "early bird" discount for people that register before the end of this month, so register now.

We are working very hard to show you some exciting new things at this conference. 

We will also present the new development roadmap for 2018 and beyond at this conference.

And yes, Robert will also show some picture there from his awesome trip to Antarctica

 

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