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Issue 24.2 ('Xojo Sonar')
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Xojo Talk

Xojo thoughts, news and tips

Issue: 24.2 (March/April 2026)
Author: Paul Lefebvre
Author Bio: Paul Lefebvre is a Xojo Software Engineer. He has been using Xojo and its prior versions since 2001.
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 7,868
Starting Page Number: 60
Article Number: 24206
Related Link(s): None

Excerpt of article text...

April this year marks 30 years of Xojo, the company. I thought it might be interesting to look back at its history.

Early Years

Founded by Geoff Perlman as FYI Software, it started off as a consulting company. Eventually, Geoff stumbled across a shareware product called CrossBasic and thought it could be turned into a more serious product. A deal was worked out, and CrossBasic was acquired. The company would change its name to REAL Software, and CrossBasic would become REALbasic.

REALbasic

First released at Macworld Expo New York in 1998, REALbasic proved to be rather popular. The first versions only ran on Mac OS (7 and 8 were the versions back then) and could only create Mac apps.

This version of the IDE looked like most Mac apps of the time, with separate windows for the code editor and layout editors and palettes for the controls. Not being a Mac person, I always thought this type of design was rather busy, making it hard to keep track of everything.

...End of Excerpt. Please purchase the magazine to read the full article.