Dear members of the X# community,

This year we celebrate the 10^th anniversary of X#, which has been very successful in providing a path for a lot of companies and developers to extend the life of their Visual Objects (VO) applications, by transitioning them to the .Net ecosystem. We are very proud that many of you have also developed entirely new applications in X#, some even joining us from other xBase dialects than VO! It has been a success so far, but now we need to think and prepare for the future, together with all of you.

Today, we have released a public installer for XSharp Cahors 2.24.

The "What's New" document, describing all the changes, can be found here:

The public installer can be downloaded here:

This new installer is several Mb bigger than the previous installer, because we have now also included documentation in Chinese!

Please remember: we need your financial support to keep this product alive.

X# 2.24 is the last X# 2 build. From now on, we will be working on X# 3 only, with the focus on supporting the latest .Net versions. Of course, X# 3 will also still support .Net Framework.

More information about what's in X# 3 can be found here: https://www.xsharp.eu/articles/blog/what-s-coming-in-x-3-modern-net-features-and-net-8-compatibility

Today, we have released the installer for the FOX subscriber version of XSharp Cahors 2.24.

The "What's New" document, describing all the changes, can be found here:

A public version of X# 2.24 will be released next week.

If you're not a subscriber, and you want access to this build immediately, then now is the time to start your subscription.

Please remember: we need your financial support to keep this product alive.

X# 2.24 is the last X# 2 build. From now on, we will be working on X# 3 only, with the focus on supporting the latest .Net versions. Of course, X# 3 will also still support .Net Framework.

More information about what's in X# 3 can be found here: https://www.xsharp.eu/articles/blog/what-s-coming-in-x-3-modern-net-features-and-net-8-compatibility

SAP has announced several years ago that their product Advantage Database Server (ADS) was "End of Life".
However, through a special "OEM-Distributor" we have been able to buy licenses and sell these to our customers as service.

Unfortunately, SAP has now announced that new licenses will no longer be sold after August 31, 2025.
This means that we will also no longer be able to sell ADS licenses in our webshop.
We will have a few items in stock, but when these are sold, then we will no longer be able to sell licenses to customers.
And these stock items will only be full - new licenses. After August 31 we will no longer be able to sell additional users for existing licenses or license upgrades.

So, if your software depends on ADS licenses, then you should act now and order licenses now:
https://www.xsharp.eu/store/shop/ADS-c82914449

If you have any questions about this, please contact us at robert at xsharp.eu

As we approach the release of X# 3, we’re excited to share some insights into what’s coming next for the X# language and development platform.

While X# 2.24 will mark the final version in the 2.x series—with continued support in the form of critical bug fixes—our focus is now shifting toward modernization and .NET 8+ support. X# 3 is designed to bridge the gap between traditional X# development and the evolving .NET ecosystem.

Let’s take a closer look at the modern .Net features that X# 3 will bring to the table.

We are nearing the release of X# 2.23, which is currently in beta. Initial feedback is positive, and we plan to publish a subscriber build and also a public build of this version shortly.
X# 2.23 will be the final release in the X# 2 series.

X# 3

Looking ahead, we are actively working on X# 3. This next major version introduces several key improvements and changes:

• Multi Targeting: X# 3 supports both .NET Framework (4.x) and the latest .NET versions (6, 7, 8, etc.).

• Enhanced Language Support: It is aligned with the latest C# compiler and includes new language features such as file-scoped namespaces and global using directives.

• Modern Project Format: X# 3 adopts the new SDK-style project format in Visual Studio, enabling multi-targeting. You’ll be able to compile your applications and libraries for .NET Framework 4.x and .NET 8 or 9 simultaneously, with separate output directories for each target. This format is also much simpler, and requires fewer updates when code is added to a project. Thus makes it easier to work with this format in team environments.

• NuGet Distribution: The X# runtime will be delivered via NuGet packages. For instance, referencing the XSharp.VO package will automatically include all necessary assemblies (XSharp.Core, XSharp.RT, XSharp.RDD, XSharp.VO, and XSharp.MacroCompiler). An additional package, XSharp.VOSDK, will provide the Visual Objects SDK classes (System Classes, RDD Classes, GUI Classes, etc.). These NuGet packages will be updated independently of the compiler and tools, streamlining the distribution of patches and runtime updates. They will also support multiple target frameworks.

While development of X# 3 is slightly behind schedule, we are aiming to release the first version before the summer.

Looking Ahead: A Milestone Year

This September marks the 10th anniversary of X#. It’s been an incredible journey since our initial announcement in the UK back in September 2015.
We plan to celebrate this milestone in a meaningful way—and we have some exciting announcements lined up for later this year.
Stay tuned!