Newbie Question about VO-xPorter

[Kuno Egger]

There is some "getting started" info I have not been able to find.

Does anyone know where I can read about the pros & cons of working in XIDE or VS?

I also need to know about the pros & cons of generating Windows Forms out of WED binaries?

These two xPorter options do not seem to be explained anywhere.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Kuno

[wriedmann]

Hi Kuno,
I would split my answer in two to make it more readable.
Visual Studio vs XIDE is a difficult choice and there are several pros and cons. As a longtime XIDE user I think I can list some of these, but at the end it is a personal, or better, company decision what to select.
If you like the VO IDE, the XIDE is more for you as it uses a similar approach.
VS is much more designer oriented than XIDE - and if you are working in a source code oriented manner, XIDE may be better as it concentrates more on source code editing.
IMHO XIDE helps you to keep your projects in a more organized way than Visual Studio, as projects are normally in the "Projects" subfolder of the XIDE folder. Then you have all the options to export and import projects and applications like VO.
XIDE is written entirely by Chris Pyrgas, so it is under full control of the X# development team and does not depends on the Microsoft APIs for Visual Studio.
For XIDE you have a plugin API, and if you need something for your work, Chris has an open ear for them, and I have know several cases beside mine where Chris has worked with someone to implement something he needed to do the work better.
One of the most important advantages for me is that XIDE is really fast and also suited for smaller monitors.
XIDE settings IMHO are organized in a much better way and easier to find and to change.
VS on the other side has a powerful source code editor with many of the small helpers Microsoft has invented, but is a ressource hog and needs a big monitor.
If you need a WPF editor or support for working with webservices or other platform support, you have no choice than Visual Studio. The same is true for Nuget support than XIDE does not have.
For several things Visual Studio makes your life easier than XIDE.
At the moment I have two big questions open for XIDE: support for .NET (not the .NET Framework) and support for Github Copilot. Specially the latter could be an issue that makes me reflect on our XIDE decision.
I hope to have given you some points, and if you have specific questions, please ask, and I am pretty sure that others will also step in and explain their standpoints.
Wolfgang

[wriedmann]

Hi Kuno,
now the easy answer about the creation of Windows Forms by XIDE.
If you have a VO application that needs to be moved over to Windows Forms, this feature is for you as it creates Windows Forms entities out of your VO windows.
There is a big BUT: this function creates only the windows entities, but all the logic behind and around the windows and data handling has to be created manually by you. So it does something, but only a small part of the migration. Basically, it saves you the time to redesign your windows. That may be important if you have big and complicated windows to move over to Windows Forms.
The way to use this possibility is to let create these windows by the Xporter and use them in a newly build Windows Forms application.
For my session in Memmingen about GUI choices I have used this option to create a Windows Forms application from my base VO sample, so I know a bit about it. AFAIK it was created for someone that needed it, but I do not think it makes sense for most people (but it may make sense for you - that is a decision you have to make).
IMHO the much better choice are the new XGUI classes: classes that put a VO GUI compatible API behind Windows Forms. So you have a much faster and easier migration for your VO applications. This will be the way most of our own applications will be migrated to X#.
Again: if you have more questions, please ask and I'm sure others (for example Chris, the author behind XIDE and the XPorter) will also step in.
And try it yourself.... You will find a sample here: https://riedmann.it/download/GUI_Choices_Material.zip
Wolfgang

[Kuno Egger]

Thanks Wolfgang, that's very helpful. Your Powerpoint slides also clear things up for me.

My VO app relies extensively on Reportpro and bBrowser. Do you think they will be available in XGUI in the future?

Regards, Kuno

[wriedmann]

Hi Kuno,
in Memmingen there was also a discussion about ReportPro and bBrowser for XGUI.
Since the X# development team now also maintains ReportPro, you can expect them to deliver a version for it.
About bBrowser I had a contact with Joachim Bieler, and he assured that he will give it a look, and he can also count on the help by the X# development team.
So I would expect that both products will be available in the near future (I need bBrowser also for my own migrations).
Wolfgang

[Kuno Egger]

"So I would expect that both products will be available in the near future..."

Excellent news Wolfgang, thank you.

Kuno

[Kuno Egger]

How can I get my hands on the new XGUI classes. I have the X# 2.18.4

Do I need to subscribe now?

Regards,

Kuno

[wriedmann]

Hi Kuno,
yes, XGUI is part of the subscriber version only.
Wolfgang