Cross-Platform Development

Q: Can I use Elements to write a single application for all platforms?

A: No. We believe that tools that encourage you to do this are promising something that can only fail in real life. "Write once, run everywhere" is an elusive dream that has often been promised over the past few decades, and never been properly delivered.

Think of Elements not as a tool to create an app for all platforms, but one that lets you create apps for all platforms. Elements is a state-of-the-art development tool for each of the four platforms — .NET, Java, Cocoa and Island — on their own.

Of course Elements does allow you to share the same language(s) and expertise, and – with Sugar – a lot of the underlying back-end and business-logic code that makes up your apps. But ultimately, if you are serious about creating quality apps for multiple platforms, you will need to create individual apps designed for each platform - there is no way around it.

Anyone promising something different would probably also try to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, if they could get away with it.

Q: What Visual Designers are available for Elements?

A: In line with the answer above, Elements uses each platform's own UI libraries for each target, and with that the platforms' own visual designers.

For .NET, visual designers are provided for Windows Forms (Oxygene only), XAML (as used in WPF, Silverlight, Windows Phone and WinRT/Metro) and ASP.NET Forms, all integrated into Visual Studio. These designers are provided by Microsoft as part of Visual Studio, and Elements integrates fully with them, in the same fashion that Visual C# or Visual Basic do. The Visual Designers for Windows are currently not supported from within Fire.

For Cocoa, Elements leverages the native XIB and Storyboard formats, and developers will use the visual designer provided by Apple and integrated into Xcode to design their UI and Storyboards. It is important to understand that the link between UI and code on the Apple platforms works differently than on our other supported platforms; rather than dropped controls automatically showing up in code (as they do in one form or another in all of .NET's and in Android's UI frameworks), in Cocoa user code explicitly declares properties and methods that are then connected to UI controls to access them or receive events. Rather than fight this, Elements embraces this concept, and integrates with the .xib and .storyboard formats so that applicable properties ("outlets") and methods ("actions") defined in the developer's code will automatically show up in Xcode's designer and can be connected there — an experience similar to that seen by Objective-C developers working right in Xcode.

For Android, Elements uses the platform's native XML Layout format for UI design and layout. Elements does not provide its own designers, but since the file format (and the way your code interacts with it) is standard, you can use any of the variety of third party designers that are available to simply open and edit the files. Both Fire and Visual Studio integrate deeply with the visual designer in Android Studio.

Q: Will Elements for Cocoa always use the "Interface Builder" designer in Xcode?

A: Yes, it will. Using the native designer is an advantage, not a disadvantage, and a deliberate design choice, not a compromise. It allows Elements to stay up to date with the platform and always give you full access to all the native controls. If we created our own designer, we (and you) would constantly be playing catch-up and rushing to add the latest new features that Apple ships with new versions of the OS.

The way Elements for Cocoa is designed, when Apple ships a new version of the OS and its tools, you will be ready to use all the great new stuff right away — this applies to the designer and all other aspects, such as new classes, controls or frameworks they introduce.

Database Access

Q: Does Elements come with support for database access, or is a license of Data Abstract required?

A: Elements gives the developer complete access to the full range of libraries available on the target platforms, including all the database technologies. For example, on .NET, the framework-provided ADO.NET infrastructure is the go-to technology for data access, with other database technologies built on top of it; on Java there is the JDBC API; on Cocoa and Android there are technologies such as the standard SQLite3 libraries.

Data Abstract is a separate and unrelated product also available from RemObjects, which provides sophisticated multi-tier data access. Data Abstract is not required for working with data in Elements apps, nor is Elements required to work with Data Abstract — it can be used with Visual C# and Visual Basic, Java, Objective-C, Swift, Delphi and other languages as well.

Of course Data Abstract does support Elements on all three platforms, and it does provide a lot of advanced functionality in the area of multi-tier database access, so if you are planning on building database-driven applications, it is worth a look.

Academic Licenses

Q: I'm a student, teacher, professor or academic researcher. Do you have academic pricing for me?

A: Yes, we have an academic license for Elements available at $199 (including all three platforms and all three languages). You can purchase your copy here.

Q: What proof do I need to awkwardly fax to you in order to qualify for an academic license?

A: None. We trust you; just go ahead and order a copy in our online store. But do make sure to read the next question and answer:

Q: What are the limitations of the academic license?

A: There are no technical limitations or restrictions on the academic license, you receive the exact same product as you do with the regular purchase. However, there are moral/legal restrictions: You are not allowed to use the academic license for commercial purposes, including selling your software, or building software for in-house use at a commercial company or government institution. This extends to developing software for a separate entity (e.g. for hire, or as a contractor or employee).

Once again, there are no technical restrictions in the product that would prevent you from doing any of the above, but if you are planning to, you might as well save yourself the $199 bucks and get a pirated copy to begin with.

You may use the academic license solely for academic purposes: learning programming, teaching programming, or building personal projects related to your academic endeavors.

Q: What is the renewal price for an Elements Academic License?

A: There currently is no separate renewal SKU available for Elements Academic licenses. To extend your Elements Academic subscription another year, you can simply purchase a fresh copy at $199.  

Elements Languages

Q: What's the relationship between Oxygene, RemObjects C# and Silver?

A: Oxygene, RemObjects C# and Silver are three different languages – Oxygene is a language of our own design, based on Object Pascal, RemObjects C# is, obviously, an implementation of the C# language, and Silver is our take on Apple's new Swift language.

All three languages are implemented on the same technology stack – they share the same back-end compiler, IDE integration, build tools for the different platforms, same debugging engine, and so on.

Oxygene is the oldest of the three, and has been around since late 2004. It has had a lot of time to evolve, grow and mature, and the ten years + of experience from Oxygene have helped make RemObjects C# and Silver stable and robust additional languages from day one.

This is also the reason why all three languages share the same version tag, even though RemObjects C# is a newer product, and Silver even more so.