JEFF HENDRICKSON  I've been using REALbasic since version 5.4. It bothers me sometimes when I see it described as a "hobbyist's" tool. I use the pro version of this excellent development tool exclusively to develop my cross-platform commercial software products, including "Purify."

REALbasic offers a lot, and like anything else, you need to dig into it to discover its true capabilities. Technical support is great, and responsive. The online support community is great. The product has everything that you need to do real cross-platform product development. The only plugin that I've ever needed is the MySQL plugin for some of my Linux server based apps, which by the way works great. My primary development environment is OS X 10.4.11, on a dual PowerPC Mac with 1.5GB of RAM and a Cinema Display, and REALbasic is a pleasure to use in this environment.

My recommendation, if you're looking for a powerful cross-platform development tool, look no further than REALbasic Pro.  (Version R2)

SHOTGUNWEDDINGS  I love all the negative feed back from the nay sayers. The clueless never cease with their tripe.

RealBasic is fun to program with once you get the knack of it.

Its easier to learn and so what if a few bugs are in it still, very few programs are bug free these days.

Why spend months or years learning programming languages when you can create your own programs with RealBasic within hours!

Try the demo version and see if it works for your needs, what can you lose.  (Version R2)

ALEKSI STRANDBERG  REALbasic does take more memory than well designed C programs.

Now all Macs ship with 1GB of RAM

REALbasic does take more CPU time than well designed C programs.

Most user's CPU's are more or less idle all the time.

REALbasic does create bigger files than Xcode.

Most people nowdays have a fast DSL connection.

The most affordable MacBook comes with a 120GB hard drive.

With C/C++ the programmer's own resources are very much occupied.

There is a huge amount of information to remember and take care of.

With REALbasic, the user can use these spared resources in other areas.

You can't write a game like WOW with REALbasic, as such thing would require the absolutely optimal use of the computer, but this doesn't mean that you are limited to just writing stuff like database apps with REALbasic.

Features which are now crucial for me were just included a year ago.

And they are still developing it.

When it comes to bugs, in my own experience, the apps I have used extensively, they all have more or less bugs, except Reason.

Paying for bug fix releases?

REAL software is not a big company.

Usually the same code works for both Mac and Windows, which is just amazing.

REALbasic and C++ can work together too, you can hook your REALbasic application to C++ libraries easily.

The IDE itself is slow to operate.

How fast can you really write?

Isn't that what most of the work is about?

It is a Rapid Environment and you can accomplish good results with significantly smaller development teams and/or timelines.  (Version R1)

TEKSESTRO  I have accompanied the development of RealBasic since version 2. As the latest versions of RealBasic have now been developed with RealBasic itself (or so we're told), the developers seem to have become aware of the many bugs that have plagued the application for years - and have been systematically correcting them.

Unfortunately, RealBasic is still releasing what basically amounts to bug-fixes, and charging their users for it. The list of 'new features' for 2007 R5, as far as I can see, doesn't actually have any new features, except for bug and stability fixes.

I have found that the type of programs you develop with RealBasic are quite limited, on all platforms. They certainly do not look Mac-like, and I have been plagued with problems in Windows and Unix. The 'code once, deploy anywhere' slogan is a fallacy, as there are quite a lot of tweaks that have to be done for specific platforms.

In summation: if you are a hobbyist programmer, or you really want to try and develop for all 3 platforms at once, you'd be better served by something like "Runtime Revolution" (the successor to HyperCard). If you want to get slightly more serious about programming, then I suggest looking at one of the (many) languages supported by XCode, Eclipse, and other free programming tools.   (Version R5)