Saturday, January 3, 2009

KixTart is Not Dead!

I was really starting to worry about the future of KixTart.  After 4.60, it seemed that it went into somewhat of a hibernation.  There was (is) still plenty of activity on the forums, but there wasn't much discussion of a future version or road map.  There are a few bug fixes, but the only new function I see is Replace(), which is pretty close to the same function in VBScript and other languages.  It's a little confusing that there's no mention of 4.61 beta on the web site (I became aware of it from Rod Trent's post on MyItForum today - Thanks Rod!)

I was hoping to see a few more UDF features moved into the base language, but I'm also aware of the classic struggle to keep the "core" lean and mean; avoiding bloat and performance degradation.  I also realize what it's like to develop software and trying to keep up with the influx of wishlist requests and time limitations, so I'm not complaining.  KixTart is still one of THE most flexible, useful, powerful and easy-to-learn programming tools available.  Personally, I'd rather see some of the government "bail-out" funds directed to things like KixTart than to the auto makers or fat bankers.

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