With each new release, Microsoft has made the life of an Access Developer easier and putting together prototypes or finished products has become faster. But there is one thing that I’ve always wanted to be able to do that Access doesn’t allow, and that is the ability to quickly develop desktop applications for not only Windows but Mac and Linux as well.
Microsoft Access 2016
Well, all this changed a few months ago when I chanced upon a development language called XOJO (previously known as Real Basic or Real Studio). It provided me with a rapid application development environment not that different than Access, with a BASIC-like language similar but more powerful than VBA and the ability to compile the end product from Windows, Mac, and Linux (plus iOS devices, Web, and Raspberry Pi).
Learning XOJO and getting started has been extremely easy, with a wealth of training videos, manuals and examples that makes getting to grips with the syntax has been a lot easier than I could have expected.
I’ve already converted some old VB6 and Access code over and was completely surprised just how easy it was. The IDE is clean, and intelligence of the autocomplete makes coding VBA feel so primitive.
So if you’re looking for a Rapid Development system I’d strongly suggest you take a look at XOJO.