Just bought Basic4Android and I am very impressed. After using the demo and now the full version for a short while I have a few suggestions/enquires but before I get to that, a little background.
I have a lot of experience of VBA and VBScript, a reasonable experience in .Net and a few courses in C type languages. First of I have to say, I hate C syntax in all its many forms. I just can't get my head to understand it the way I can VB. Don't get me wrong, I've tried to learn Java and Eclipse but no matter how long or hard I've tried my brain just keeps complaining. So finding B4A was a blessing since app development was one of the reason I went for an Android device.
All that said I do have some ideas for additions to B4A.
1) More logical / easier addressing of views in layouts.
Say I have a layout "main" with some buttons, labels, edittexts and panels. Currently if thats all I have I can addess these views either by name or by iterating. Now say I load a layout into one of the panels in the layout. Now I have to iterate through the views to get the panel and then iterate through its views to get the view I want.
Instead, would it be possible to do something like:
Activity.Layout("main").Views(Panel,"pnlTest").Views(Label,"lblHello").text = "Hello"
More generically
Activity.Layout(<name>).Views(<type>,<name>).....
I admit this might just be my brain wanting things to be more logical but even so I think it would make things a lot easier for people, especially newcomers.
2) The ability to save layouts so they can be added as views to another layout.
The best example of this is the up down numeric add on. It consists of two buttons one for increase and the other decrease with a textbox to show the number. Currently its all done in code to add the threee views with no option to see it in the designer. If you could save a layout as, to borrow from VB, a 'control' and then add this in like adding a library it would be great for the people who make these libraries and add ins as well and anyone whating to create special views for their own programs.
3) Access to more properties of views.
Currently there is no way of finding the name of a view in code or its parent, which would be useful if iterating through views
Look forward to hearing what people think and many productive years with B4A. I've already starting trying to convince a friend to have a look, since his company moved away from app developement due to the lack of quality tools. Fingers crossed
I have a lot of experience of VBA and VBScript, a reasonable experience in .Net and a few courses in C type languages. First of I have to say, I hate C syntax in all its many forms. I just can't get my head to understand it the way I can VB. Don't get me wrong, I've tried to learn Java and Eclipse but no matter how long or hard I've tried my brain just keeps complaining. So finding B4A was a blessing since app development was one of the reason I went for an Android device.
All that said I do have some ideas for additions to B4A.
1) More logical / easier addressing of views in layouts.
Say I have a layout "main" with some buttons, labels, edittexts and panels. Currently if thats all I have I can addess these views either by name or by iterating. Now say I load a layout into one of the panels in the layout. Now I have to iterate through the views to get the panel and then iterate through its views to get the view I want.
Instead, would it be possible to do something like:
Activity.Layout("main").Views(Panel,"pnlTest").Views(Label,"lblHello").text = "Hello"
More generically
Activity.Layout(<name>).Views(<type>,<name>).....
I admit this might just be my brain wanting things to be more logical but even so I think it would make things a lot easier for people, especially newcomers.
2) The ability to save layouts so they can be added as views to another layout.
The best example of this is the up down numeric add on. It consists of two buttons one for increase and the other decrease with a textbox to show the number. Currently its all done in code to add the threee views with no option to see it in the designer. If you could save a layout as, to borrow from VB, a 'control' and then add this in like adding a library it would be great for the people who make these libraries and add ins as well and anyone whating to create special views for their own programs.
3) Access to more properties of views.
Currently there is no way of finding the name of a view in code or its parent, which would be useful if iterating through views
Look forward to hearing what people think and many productive years with B4A. I've already starting trying to convince a friend to have a look, since his company moved away from app developement due to the lack of quality tools. Fingers crossed