Category Archives: Tech

By popular request, the Omegabundle has been extended until Valentine’s Day! (You’re welcome!)

Omegabundle 2011 for REAL Studio Extended to Valentine’s Day

The vendors behind the extraordinary Omegabundle 2011 for REAL Studio bundle of professional tools for REAL Studio developers announce that their special bundle through February 14, 2011. The vendors include MonkeyBread Software, Pariahware, True North Software, Paradigma Software, DesignWrite, IconPeople and the Componentman Group.

Omegabundle 2011 for REAL Studio includes over $3200 worth of high value development tools for users of REAL Software’s REAL Studio (formerly REALbasic) cross platform development tool set. The Omegabundle includes:

* Formatted Text Control:  Instantly add word processor capabilities to REAL Studio based applications. Sold separately for $150.00.

* Elastic Window. Provides elegant window resizing in your applications. Sold separately for $195.00.

* Mask-R-Aid. A developer’s tool to generate masks for photo realistic icons. Sold separately for $19.95.

* RB Code Reports. Generates reports on software metrics for your REAL Studio based applications. Sold separately for $24.95.

* REAL Studio Developer Magazine. All previously published issues plus one-year subscription, from publisher DesignWrite. Sold separately for $261.00.

* Aspen Icon Set. 80 professionally designed, cross platform compatible icons for your applications. Sold separately for $179.00.

* Valentina Office Server Unlimited. Advanced database and reports server based on the ultra fast columnar database engine Valentina. Sold separately for $1499.

* Franklin 3D Game Engine. Easy to use, multi-platform cross-platform 3D engine for games, simulations and 3D apps. Sold Separately for $299.

MBS Complete. Thousands of new functions that transcend REAL Studio limitations. Sold separately for $259.00.

* Valentina ADK+ for REAL Studio. Embedded local ultra fast database for REAL Studio on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Sold separately for $399.00.

REAL Studio is the modern, cross-platform, integrated development environment for building object oriented BASIC applications on Windows, Linux and MacOS X and available separately from Austin, Texas based REAL Software.

Also of interest to bundle purchasers, Paradigma Software has released iValentina for iOS (iPhone and iPad), a pair of apps for the Apple mobile devices that allow remote database users to work with Valentina Office Server, which is included with the Omegabundle 2011 for REAL Studio.

More information is available on http://www.omegabundle.com

The Omega Bundle 2011

Developers using REAL Studio, you can rejoice! In the first of its kind that I know of, there is a bundle of 3rd party add-ons that you can buy, for 80% off of the standard price.  If you were to buy all of these products separately, they would cost you $3200, but for a limited time, you can get the entire package for $399! Even if you only want a few of the tools, you are saving money!

Pariahware is proud to be a part of this original concept for the REALbasic community. Check it out! Go! Now!

Omega Bundle 2011

Omega Bundle 2011

Omega Bundle 2011 for REAL Studio Released

10 Essential Tools for All REAL Studio Developers

(January 07, 2011) — Paradigma Software has joined with a group of professional development tool vendors to produce and release Omega Bundle 2011 for the REAL Studio environment. This limited time package contains $3200 worth of tools but available in this set for $399 – over 80% savings.

Omega Bundle 2011 for REAL Studio brings together 10 essential plugins, add-ons and more, including:

- Formatted Text Control:  Instantly add word processor capabilities to REAL Studio based applications. Sold separately for $150.00.

- Elastic Window. Provides elegant window resizing in your applications. Sold separately for $195.00.

- Mask-R-Aid. A developer’s tool to generate masks for photo realistic icons. Sold separately for $19.95.

- RB Code Reports. Generates reports on software metrics for your REAL Studio based applications. Sold separately for $24.95.

- REAL Studio Developer Magazine. All previously published issues plus one-year subscription. Sold separately for $261.00.

- Aspen Icon Set. 80 professionally designed, cross platform compatible icons for your applications. Sold separately for $179.00.

- Valentina Office Server Unlimited. Advanced database and reports server based on the ultra fast columnar database engine Valentina. Sold separately for $1499.

- Franklin 3D Game Engine. Easy to use, multi-platform cross-platform 3D engine for games, simulations and 3D apps. Sold Separately for $299.

- MBS Complete. Thousands of new functions that transcend REAL Studio limitations. Sold separately for $259.00.

- Valentina ADK+ for REAL Studio. Embedded local ultra fast database for REAL Studio on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Sold separately for $399.00.

This package will elevate your REAL Studio programming to a whole new level that will allow you to produce more polished applications, or applications with features not possible using REAL Studio by itself. REAL Studio is the modern, cross-platform, integrated development environment for building object oriented BASIC applications on Windows, Linux and MacOS X and available separately from Austin, Texas based REAL Software.

For more information and immediate purchase visit http://www.omegabundle.com.

Why PayPal isn’t as bad as you, er they, say.

I hear, not as frequently as I used to, how horrible PayPal is and that some people won’t use them.  That is fine with me; to each his own.  Here is just one more reason why I plan to continue using them:

I have a PayPal business account.  Attached to that account is a PayPal debit card.  Whenever a PayPal transaction takes place, I am immediately e-mailed.  Pretty nice, huh?  Now, to today… I was sitting in my wife’s hospital room, when an e-mail from PayPal came in for $.17 (seventeen cents).  How odd, I thought.  I logged into my PayPal account and did not see the transaction.  I went back to the e-mail, now suspecting it to be a phishing scam and hovered over the link.  Nope, it was a PayPal link; click!  The $.17 transaction showed up.  I called PayPal, who said (once I could get to a person!), that the transaction was placed & immediately canceled.  He said that the transaction was placed at a “bar & casino” in South Dakota.  We both thought that it sounded fishy, so I was refunded the $.17 that was still on hold, and my card canceled.  I then requested a new card via the PayPal web site.  Who knows how many hours or even days could have passed before I realized this transaction from my “regular” bank?  Perhaps not until my account was cleaned out.  And now you know why PayPal isn’t as bad as “they” say.

The Auto Video Playlist

I have a playlist for my tv that allows me to play all of my downloaded video podcasts together.  I thought it would be useful for you so I thought I’d share.  Oh, it will also work for other iTunes devices, not just the tv.  Happy watching!

The Auto Video Playlist

Click the image to enlarge.

REAL Software, the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.

I am worried about REALbasic, or now, REAL Studio. I have been a fan since it was a Mac-only product, running on OS 9, maybe even OS 8. I have been a writer for REALbasic Developer Magazine, spoken at multiple REAL World conferences, was an adviser to the Association of REALbasic Professionals, and am now a board member of that organization. I have loved this product and have been sad and mad at both REAL Software and the community.  The stages of grief:

  • Denial: This can’t really be the state of the community.
  • Anger: Why are they going in that direction?
  • Bargaining: I have had debates with Geoff.
  • Depression: Saddened that I may have to move on from my favorite programming language.
  • Acceptance: This will be bad for REAL Software, as more people get to this stage. I am just about there.

In the past, I have written posts about the state of REALbasic and its community. The longer I observe the community, the more sad & angry I get. I have been using REALbasic since v2. In that time, I have seen REALbasic flourish and now stagnate. It has stagnated for years and is now settling for mediocrity instead of excellence. So, if anyone from REAL Software is reading this article, it is for your own edification. It is not to solely bash the product REALbasic.

I’ll get straight to the point of the problem:  REAL Software favors the hobbyist and allows the professional high-demand customers to flop around on the ground like fish gasping for breath out of water.  The problem with this thought pattern is when these “fish” die, it will be nearly impossible to bring them back.  The side affect of these dying fish is two-fold for those of us professionals still gasping.  The REALbasic ecosystem is unhealthy, and instead of a giving community, it is a black hole of novice questions that could easily be answered by opening the language reference in the REALbasic product itself. 3rd party vendors are ridiculed for trying to make a living by actually charging money for their work. It is no use trying to rationalize with the people in the community — the people there now want everything for free, and don’t want to put in an effort.  This is the class of people that REALbasic is attracting.  Perhaps you are reading this and are having trouble getting a grasp of what I’m saying.  For you, here is a real world example.  Go to your nearest Target store. Look around, study the people… how do they dress & how do they act?  Got it?  Good. Now, go to the nearest Walmart and see the difference.  REAL Software is attracting far too many Walmart class people to REALbasic.

Yes, previously I blamed the community.  But after further thought, it is the company behind the community.  If REAL Software wanted to change the community they could. They have the power to change it, and heal the flailing REALbasic ecosystem.  Here is how they could do it:

  1. A 3-tier product is too complex.  It wreaks of Microsoft’s 7 OS SKUs. Offer the language and sell cross-platform development as an add-on.  Up-sell the the database server if you really must keep it.
  2. Consider dropping the database server. The licensing options are not attractive and there are too many open source alternatives.
  3. Allow developers to pre-compile code (libraries) that can be sold as REALbasic add-ons. This is a much better alternative to the half-baked “encryption” we now have, which has been broken in the past (2006!), and the broken option is the default!  A few years ago I mentioned the latter and watched as a developer made the “new” encryption option selected by default, and check in the change, but mysteriously it was removed by the next release of REALbasic.
  4. Allow an API for the IDE so that 3rd party software can extend it.   Allow tools to analyze the code, insert code snippets, drive the IDE, and extend it.  One of the best tools that I used in VB was from a third party.
  5. Work on reducing the size of the executable created.  When I release a shareware product, I am embarrassed by the size the binary.
  6. Speed up the launch of the IDE.  I have reduced my plugins to the bare minimum that I can. In the time it takes for REALbasic to start up, I can launch Xcode a number of times.
  7. Pre-compile plugins in the background as the developer is coding. When I want to make a build, I don’t want to wait for that.
  8. Plugins should be able to be added dynamically without needing to re-launch REALbasic.  (See 6 & 7 above.)
  9. Give the fanatics the ability to make REALbasic the best IDE & language possible.

And now the do not’s:

  1. We should not have had to wait for Apple’s removal of Carbon APIs before Cocoa APIs were taken seriously. Get it done!
  2. Stop canceling the REAL World developer conferences!  No, we don’t want mini-regional PR conferences. We want one big conference where we can gather with like minds.
  3. Customers do not want to hear about “small company” & “limited resources”; we want solutions. If REAL Software can not provide them, it would be nice to be able to point them to a 3rd party that had the ability because the IDE was able to be extended.
  4. You are not Apple! Stop trying to be everything to everybody.  Concentrate on the core of REALbasic & do it well. Let others build, say, a report writer.

If you are still reading this, you probably see a theme. The IDE needs to be opened up so that REAL Software can work on the language & IDE. Power users need more tools. Until then, I fear for the future of REALbasic as more of the fish die when the Acceptance stage is reached.  For years I thought that Xcode and Interface Builder were too complicated. That may have been the case at one time.  But it isn’t anymore and REAL Software should be concerned about their Mac-only customers.  After spending the past few months in Xcode, it is not nearly as bad nor as complicated as I had thought. It looks better and better every day.

This has been a loving warning letter to REAL Software…  from a long time customer, supporter, and evangelist who has been pushed out of his comfort zone due to your corporate decisions.  For your sake, I hope you take to heart what has been written.  If changes aren’t made soon, it will stop hurting me when I launch REALbasic, because I won’t be launching it anymore.

The state of the REALbasic community.

I’ve been using REALbasic for many years and I’ve spoken at multiple REAL World conferences.  I’ve partnered with REAL Software to sell my REALbasic add-ons via their store.  Before becoming an Association of REALbasic Professionals board member, I was an adviser to the board.  If you’re wondering, the board membership receives no monetary compensation.  I really like REALbasic and if one needs to develop cross-platform software, there is nothing better.  And that is what makes me concerned for the state of the community.  Let me explain:  Recently there was a thread on the REALbasic forums where people were complaining about the quality of the examples provided at the ARBP web site.  It was said that the examples were “unprofessional” or “beginner level”.

Granted, the person who complained about the examples being unprofessional was probably a kid who wanted ready-to-go, drop-in-place, “professional” code, with no effort of their own.  If that is what one wants, then go buy a license for the Einhugur plugins.  We’ll call this person the “pie-in-the-sky-everything-should-be-free-and-open-source-give-it-to-me-because-I-deserve-it-and-don’t-want-to-work-for-my-education”, or “type 1″.

The other complaint was that the examples were too “beginner level”.  Beginner-level is completely relative.  While one may know how to use databases, perhaps they have never used the graphics object.  In one skill set this person is extremely proficient, and in the other, they are a “beginner”.  We’ll call this person “I-pick-nits-because-I-am-bored”, or “type 2″.

What do person Type 1 and person Type 2 have in common?  They are both willing to complain, but neither one is willing to help to make the existing ARBP examples better or provide new ones.  If the REALbasic community is to survive & prosper, then the community needs to start fending for itself.  We can not continue to wait for REAL Software to spoon feed us.  If there are examples from the REALbasic distribution or the ARBP repository, that are sub-par, “unprofessional”, or too “beginner level”, then feel free to make your own (or improve the originals) and upload them to the ARBP repository.  There is virtually 100% chance that your example will be available at the ARBP repository within days.

If you are a REALbasic fan, then just like a relationship the community needs to be nurtured.  If you do not give back, the relationship will die.  It is time to fend for yourself.  Get dressed on your own.  Learn to fly… whatever your metaphor.  The truth is this:

- REAL Software canceled REAL World.

- REAL Software announced and then canceled the “mini” REAL World events.

- REAL Software is busy getting REALbasic Cocoa ready.

- ARBP helped put on the REALbasic conference in Colorado.

- ARBP is part of your community.

- You need the community just as the community needs you.

Stop abusing the community:

- Try to solve your problem before you ask your question.

- Search the NUG Archives or the Forums before you ask your question.

- If you figured something out, create a quick example project and upload it to the ARBP repository.

- Support REALbasic 3rd party developers. They are a critical part of the community and represent the level of health for the REALbasic ecosystem.

One final note.  Do you want REALbasic to fail?  If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.  Let’s all be a part of the solution and support the language that we love.

The future of REALbasic is unknown

I have been a faithful REALbasic user for many years.  It is such a wonderful development environment that I have staked my business on it for the past seven years.  Recently REAL Software let go a couple of key employees.  Additionally, while they put a good spin on it by saying “mini conferences around the country”, they have canceled their upcoming annual conference.  The affects of the former are already evident in that the beta process has suffered.  If this continues, the recent rock solid releases will suffer as well.  The minds of its users will say that REALbasic is again buggy and it was due to the lack of man power.

However, I think that the affects of the decision to cancel REAL World 2009 is going to have larger repercussions than REAL Software expects.  Closing down the conference, which is pure marketing, also crushes the perception of a viable product and company.  Conferences are not meant to make money.  They are there for the users.  Us.  The people who purchase the product and support the company that helps us make a living.  This announcement will shatter the hopeful, if it hasn’t already.  The conference is the only time I am able to sit face to face with many of my friends; I see them once a year.  We get to take a week off of working in order to learn and have fellowship.  It is a working vacation of sorts.  I have already spoken to people who think the cancellation is just another nail in the coffin.

And finally, I have been waiting for years for the 3rd party add-on market for REALbasic to come into its own.  I have two projects already developed and two more project partially developed.  We recently ran a very disappointing 70% off sale (test) for one of our projects.  The problem is that nobody is buying; REALbasic still has the hobbyists, and not the professional in its market.  Hobbyists either want everything for free or cheap due to their limited funds (or mindset).  Free doesn’t work for business unless it is to make people pay for the hell known as support.  Cheap?  Yeah, well, I have to feed my family, too.

Due to REAL Software’s layoffs, it was obvious that waiting for REALbasic to compile for the iPhone was unreasonable.  We have to move on and continue to innovate.  Pariahware is starting to develop in XCode for the iPhone.  Dusting off the C files in our brains and getting up to speed with Objective-C is part of that plan.  I don’t think 100% web apps are the future, but some mixture of desktop and internet applications is what is ahead.  And the iPhone is part of that strategy.

I sure hope that REAL Software survives and that REALbasic lives on as a quality product.  For building cross-platform applications, nothing can beat it.  However putting all of one’s fruit in one basket in never a good idea so getting more familiar with XCode seems like the way to go.