It has now been 2 weeks since we have published our first public beta, so I think it is time for a progress report.
But first we want to thank you all for all the positive messages and compliments that you have sent us.
I must admit that we were also very content and proud ourselves with what we have achieved in the 5 months since we have announced X#.
The product is not perfect yet, but it is working quite good. Some of our pioneer users have already converted hundreds of thousands of source code lines to X# and are extremely pleased with it.
But of course we are not leaning back, since there is still a lot to do.
Progress
Some of the things we are working on at this moment:
- Compiler: The Beta 1 compiler was based on the Roslyn code from last summer. We have succesfully ported the compiler to the Roslyn code from Visual Studio Update 1
- Compiler: we are adding support for the preprocessor.
- Compiler: we are adding support for the XBase datatypes, functions, Clipper calling convention, Late Bound code etc.
- Compiler: we have created fixes for some of the issues that you have reported with the public beta. These issues mostly have to do with how the compiler handles missing types and other errors in the code. Some of the error message are still kind of rough and we are trying to make the compiler error messages more helpfull.
- Visual Studio: we are working on support for the Forms Editor, WPF editor and other editors. For these components we need to add support for Codedom and Code Generation. Of course code re-use is important here, so we are using the same components to parse the source code inside Visual Studio that we are also using when compiling your code.
- Tools: we have created a tool to help you convert your Visual Studio solution with Vulcan.NET projects to a Visual Studio solution with XSharp projects.
- Tools: we are working on an XPorter tool that will help you to extract your Visual Objects source code from your Visual Objects repository and create a X# solution in Visual Studio from that.
- Runtime: we are working on replacements for the Vulcan Runtime (classes, functions, RDDs) and we are preparing for the other runtimes (for example xHarbour ) as well.
A next beta version (for FOX subscribers only) can be expected in the coming 10 days. This version will include some of the improvements above.
Support
Of course we welcome all the support that you can give us. Sign up for the FOX program and help support the development of X#.
But we want to support you as well: we are aware that for many GrafX customers the VPS support license expires in the coming month.
Please know that you are more than welcome with us. Apart from the obvious support on X# we can also give you support on Visual Objects and Vulcan.NET.
Who knows these products better than the people that created them ? So if your VPS support contract expires and you are not happy with the GrafX support anymore: sign up for the FOX program and get support from the original authors of Visual Objects and Vulcan.NET!
Conference
Finally: we are preparing for the XBase.Future conference next month in Cologne. Please come and meet us there and let us know what you think is important for a succesfull future of your projects.