Introduction - CAPITAL Software (XHarbour)

WillNitschke · Post by **WillNitschke** » Thu Sep 22, 2022 10:15 pm

Sorry Wolfgang for the (all) newbie questions. I assume XIDE is some kind of alternate editor which I can still use to compile X# code?

If I wanted to get my head around the VS IDE as my primary objective, should I bite the bullet and dive into VS or can I achieve same or similar with XIDE which might be less of a hurdle to get my head around?

wriedmann · Post by **wriedmann** » Fri Sep 23, 2022 3:25 am

Hi Will,
XIDE is a complete IDE to write and compile X# code, and the best: it is written entirely in X# by Chris Pyrgas, a member of the X# development team (and yes, it is Chris, wo does most of the support here).
Personally I like XIDE because I fell much more productive with it. It also comes with some samples (a few of them contributed by myself), and despite the fact that it does not supports XAML, I'm writing all my WPF programs with it (using a code approach).
Chris has done a really great job with it, and continues to develop it further on users request.
Another important thing: I'm a bit older than you (59), and it was very hard for me to get started in .NET (Vulcan.NET first and X# later), simply because I felt an expert in VO, but then a complete newbie in .NET. IMHO the main problem for an experienced developer to learn a new platform is that we cannot accept to write and copy code without understanding whats going on like not experienced developers do, but we need time to understand. It may sound hard, but it has taken several years and a lot of frustations until I was finally able to understand what I'm writing and how to earn the advantages of .NET over VO.
Wolfgang

WillNitschke · Post by **WillNitschke** » Fri Sep 23, 2022 5:49 am

Thanks again for the information Wolfgang. Would you have a link to XIDE as a Neeva search produced lots of hits for XIDE Chris Pyrgas, but not what I was looking for...? It sounds like it is definitely worth looking into, especially if I can compile and run code straight from the editor.

I think the challenge for a developer to switch platforms is you get set in your ways when it comes to doing certain things you don't even really think about any more, such as navigating your source code editor. Compiler switches were set-up years ago and long since forgotten about, and so on. The thing I find potentially exciting about .NET is that with XHarbour there are so many barriers to connecting to the rest of the ecosystem. (Connecting a DLL library to an XHarbour app is a non-trivial project in itself.) Even though XHarbour has an amazing compiler and set of libraries, there is so much you can't do easily without having to build everything you need from the ground up.

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Fri Sep 23, 2022 6:06 am

Hi Will,

It's in your X# installation folder

Btw, many years ago, another xHarbour developer had asked me to add some specific language support, so he could use it for his xHarbour development, too. I don't know how well it is really suited for this (I wouldn't expect it to be sufficient, but he was actually pleased with it), but you could have a look if you'd like, just create a new project, then create a new app in the project, open the application properties and in the General page, set the "Compiler Language" option to "Harbour". This should enable language specific colorization and also provide some limited intellisense.

.

Kees Bouw · Post by **Kees Bouw** » Fri Sep 23, 2022 6:51 am

WillNitschke post=23984 userid=6882 wrote:Sorry Wolfgang for the (all) newbie questions. I assume XIDE is some kind of alternate editor which I can still use to compile X# code?
If I wanted to get my head around the VS IDE as my primary objective, should I bite the bullet and dive into VS or can I achieve same or similar with XIDE which might be less of a hurdle to get my head around?

Please be aware that VS only has a very basic search option. You can't even see in which function or method the text is found.

FFF · Post by **FFF** » Fri Sep 23, 2022 6:55 am

You could have added, that XIDE does search very good...

wriedmann · Post by **wriedmann** » Fri Sep 23, 2022 7:12 am

Hi,
this is the extended search window:

: 23-09-2022_09-10-03.png (13.78 KiB) Viewed 1802 times

and this the (resizeable) result window:

: 23-09-2022_09-10-35.png (262.51 KiB) Viewed 1802 times

Wolfgang

ic2 · Post by **ic2** » Fri Sep 23, 2022 9:45 am

Hello Wolfgang, Will,

Your search overview shows much more info than in VS. If I see it correctly, also XIDE doesn't show which method or function the search result was in. I think this is crucial information. Lately I had >100 search results and I wanted to count how many functions had the search result in it (most results where in methods). Without the method/function name I have to open >100 search results. In VO I can count that in 10 seconds.

@Will: apart from that there's only 1 reason we don't use XIDE: we have multiple programs with WPF forms. You can use that (xaml) in Xide as well but there is no design view available, which we also consider crucial. If it were possible to open solution either in Xide or VS, we would most likely only work in VS when working on WPF forms. But now that it is not possible, we use VS which I personally hate.

If you don't have plans to use WPF, I think XIDE will be the best choice.

Dick

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Fri Sep 23, 2022 9:48 am

Dick,

Please don't turn this into another VS bashing thread though...

wriedmann · Post by **wriedmann** » Fri Sep 23, 2022 9:53 am

Hi Dick,
XIDE shows the method in the column "Entity".
Wolfgang
P.S. I don't consider XIDE a tool that is superior to VS, it fits only my needs much better, and I like it more.

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