We are proud that we can announce a new Alpha build of X# which has been uploaded to the download area for our Fox subscribers.

This new build (0.1.6) is the first build that comes with a Setup and it also includes the first version of our Visual Studio integration.

This Visual Studio integration is still work in progress. Source code Edit/Compile/Debug is supported, but Intellisense (apart from keyword highlighting), Form Editor, XAML editor and other subsystems are not supported yet.

There are quite some changes in the compiler too. For example the "az" and "vo2" compiler options from Vulcan.NET are now supported as well.

Chris has been able to almost completely recompile XIDE with this new XSharp build. Only some small portions that depend on DBF support are not working yet.

This new XIDE 0.1.6 is available for download from the subscriber area as well!

We are pleased to announce that Alpha build 0.1.5 has been uploaded to the downloads area on this website.
Most of the issues reported by our FOX subscribers have been fixed in this build.

Some of the changes in this build:

  • When an error occurs in the parsing stage, X# no longer enters the following stages of the compiler to prevent crashes. In addition to the errors from the parser also an error 9002 is displayed.
  • Parser errors now also include the source file name in the error message and have the same format as other error messages. Please note that we are not finished yet with handling these error messages. There will be improvements in the format of these error messages in the upcoming builds.
  • The compiler will display a “feature not available” (8022) error when a program uses one of the Xbase types (ARRAY, DATE, FLOAT, PSZ, SYMBOL, USUAL).
  • Fixed an error with VOSTRUCT and UNION types
  • Fixed a problem with the exclamation mark (!) NOT operator
,

We are pleased to announce that Alpha build 0.1.4 has been uploaded to the downloads area on this website.
Most of the issues reported by our FOX subscribers have been fixed in this build.

Some of the changes in this build:

  • Several changes to allow calculations with integers and enums
  • Several changes to allow VO compatible _OR, _AND, _NOT an _XOR operations
  • Fix interface/abstract VO properties
  • Insert an implicit “USING System” only if not explicitly declared
  • Error 542 turned to warning (members cannot have the same name as their enclosing type)
  • Changes in the .XOR. expression definition
  • Fix double quote in CHAR_CONST lexer rule
  • Allow namespace declaration in class/struct/etc. name (CLASS Foo.Bar)
  • Fix access/assign crash where identifier name was a (positional) keyword: ACCESS Value
  • Preprocessor keywords were not recognized after spaces, but only at the start of the line. This has been fixed.

In this message I would like to share with you some of the progress that we have made with the X# project, and especially the progress with the new compiler.

We have planned to release the first public version of the compiler in the first quarter of 2016 and we are very much on schedule. In fact I think we are a little ahead of schedule.

Most of the new language features that we have on our list for the X# Core dialect are working, and the code generation has proven to be of excellent quality. Our choice to build the new compiler on top of the Roslyn architecture has proven to be an excellent choice. It has taken some effort, but we are getting there. At this moment almost all “valid code” compiles and runs perfectly. We are now focussing on the level of handling incorrect code and producing meaningfull error messages. We are also focussing on some of the areas where the Xbase language is quite different from the C# and VB languages where the Roslyn architecture was written for.

As proof that the compiler is working we have uploaded a few examples (both source, EXE and PDB) that you can test on your own machine.

We are pleased to announce that the Friends Of XSharp (FOX) program has started.

You can now register for this program through the Store link on this website.

The introductionary price for the FOX program is EUR 495,- as has been announced before. There is also a discounting system for companies that want to subscribe with multiple users.

The FOX program includes support for the X# language as well as for Visual Objects and Vulcan.NET.

At this moment we offer support through our online forum only. The Internet Newsgroups are being setup, and we will let you know a.s.a.p. when these are available.

For our subscribers we have also uploaded the first Alpha version of the X# compiler.

A while ago we have officially launched the new XSharp project and announced that we are working on a new XBase for .Net platform called X#.

We have received many positive reactions from the community, especially about the fact that we will be releasing the product under an Open Source License. Some people have asked us under which Open Source License model we will release the source code and others have asked us how we plan to finance development of X#. Some of the highlights in these reactions were words like Share, Together, Communication, Generous and Family. We consider the VO and Vulcan.Net community as our family!

And that sort of describes perfectly why we have started to do this:

The community and the future of the XBase Language are our first priority and not the money!

We realize that some of you (or your companies) have invested many man years and many hundreds of thousands of Euros, Dollars or Pounds in the development of your products. Others have invested less, but are just as dependent on the future of their xBase development language.

And now you are confronted with the fact that the product owner of VO and Vulcan.Net (Grafx) is no longer able (and does not want) to execute future development on these products. Also the development of several other XBase alternatives has come to a stop. 

We’ve built it – we can make it better!

Epe: September 28 2015.

We have just returned from a VERY successful DevShare Conference in the UK. Many thanks go to Phil Hepburn, Mike Bertenshaw, Dai Darkin and their spouses Sue and Sue for organizing this great event.

Our new XSharp initiative has received as very warm welcome at the conference, but also raised many questions. We would like to take the opportunity to repeat and answer the most common and most important question over here:

Why do you want to introduce a new compiler / competitor for a small market as Vulcan.NET?

  1. Additional Information about our plans
  2. Introducing the XSharp Devteam
  3. XSharp is announced at DevShare 2015

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