[Deleted Rant]

"I came back to my hometown 30 years later and a lot of things changed. There were new houses and streets. My old friends have kids now and they don't look the same. Some of them moved away. Trees were bigger and I can't climb them now"

B4x has developped soo much. Never had such oppertunities to create apps and support. I have no issues or problems at all (and I don't know Java). I don't see a single point here.
 
FierceBlaze said:
The first time I created an app in B4A I had fumbled and stumbled my way through the forums and managed (somehow) to create a minimum viable product that the client was actually happy with
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Waw, you must have a bad memory, quoting you from 2014:
FierceBlaze said:
I have to be honest I was skeptical about b4a at first and I was unhappy about having to Install Windows on my MacBook to use it but I am so happy that we went this route. I was able to be very productive very quickly with Basic4Android. I was able to develop the native app in days.
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FierceBlaze said:
dealing with all these errors and ugly issus
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Maybe you should blame yourself for not engaging enough with the forum? You made exactly 5 posts (among them one good and one bad experience).

I'm glad you've put (RANT) in your subject as a rant is indeed an argument that is fueled by passion, not shaped by facts. There are times I feel the same too when it looks I've searched for a solution like forever, only to realize I myself was mostly to blame (due to fatigue or wanting to skim the answers to fast, missing valuable clues?). Android has changed a lot over the last few years and I was in the same position as you where. I hadn't used B4A for a couple of years (I mainly use B4J for webapps now) so it was also for me quite a shock some concepts I (thought I) knew didn't apply anymore. But I was very happy to see Erel had found simple solutions for those new changes. The Android changes Google makes can be very drastic sometimes, but every programmer in any language (Kotlin included) has to adept to Googles decisions.

Anyhows, good luck with your endeavors and see you back again in a year or four when you realize you can get stuck with those other tools too. I do hope you read my answer and maybe after a good nights rest you'll get an epiphany and solve your programming problem in minutes. (I know I do ;)!)
 
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FierceBlaze said:
The fact is that if I knew how much Java and Android I would have to learn I would have just done the whole thing in Kotlin to begin with.
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Hmm that's interesting. You don't really have to learn that much Java, if any at all. Maybe you will need some inline java now and again, but I really do doubt that. Maybe you re talking about using the JavaObject or Reflection, if you are then you must be doing a lot of things that are not already on the forum.

The simple fact is this:
You really shouldn't rant about the forum or B4A when it's you that haven't really interacted within the forum for a while. Yes things have changed a lot, you can blame Google for that and not Anywhere Software. It wasn't Anywhere Software that introduced the minimum SDK level for new apps on the play store, or the Runtime Permissions, or countless other changed that all developer around the globe have to deal with using B4A, Android Studio, Eclipse, Visual Studio with Xamarin etc etc etc, it's all down to Google.

I for one know that if I'm away for any length of time then it will be time for me to start learning new development techniques again, but I don't complain about it, I just get on with it, simple really. Yes the forum can be a bit of a pain to find simple answers to simple questions at times, but we all have to deal with the exact same issues when it comes to finding information. Anyway digging around the forum for a short period of time usually yields the results that one is looking for, and at the same time gain experience reading what not to do.

A couple of years ago I went away for about 10 months as I had other business to attend to, when I got back to using B4A it was like learning a new language all over again with the amount of changed to Android and awesome improvements to B4A. But I didn't complain, I just got on with it and enjoyed learning the new features.

Anyway, I'll presume that one will see you back on here in the future at some point, if not then good luck with your apps.

Peter...
 
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Peter Simpson said:
Yes things have changed a lot, you can blame Google for that and not Anywhere Software. It wasn't Anywhere Software that introduces the minimum SDK level for ll new apps on the play store, or the Runtime Permissions, or countless other changed that all developer around the globe have to deal with using B4A, Android Studio, Eclipse, Visual Studio with Xamarin etc etc etc , it's all down to Google.
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Where can i sign this? Fully agree!
 
You yourself are responsible for becoming rusty with that 4 years gap between the 2 app writings not B4X. Time causes changes... that's life.

Learning a language that's way further than VB6/B4A is a better idea? It seems to be a mix of javascript/actionscript/php style of coding.

From what you write you seem to be a copy/paste kind of coder and can only work with fully working examples so I wonder how long it will take till you're stuck with Kotlin.
Good luck getting the same support as we have here.
 
FierceBlaze said:
I started programming with Visual Basic 3. I loved VB until VB6. I wanted so badly to love B4A in the same way. This is the second time I purchase a license to create an app with it. It's also the last time I purchase a license.

The first time I created an app in B4A I had fumbled and stumbled my way through the forums and managed (somehow) to create a minimum viable product that the client was actually happy with. For that reason alone, when I was tasked to create a very similar app some years later, I came back to B4A. A lot had changed with Android since then. I tried reading the manuals, some books and the forums to catch up but most of the answers here are either too old, too vague and, therefore, useless.

The fact is that if I knew how much Java and Android I would have to learn I would have just done the whole thing in Kotlin to begin with and save myself a few weeks and a few bucks. I am doing this project in Kotlin now because if I have to learn Android... I might as well do it in an officially supported language so I can find the tutorials, videos and code examples I need. Why bother translating the code and dealing with all these errors and ugly issues? If I find some good Java code Android Studio simply converts it to Kotlin for me.

Don't bother responding. I'm not coming back. I will probably never read your response.
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You sound frustrated, maybe you haven't the patients for learning or coding anymore, maybe a career change is in order. Everyone gets a bit put out when things change, so suck it up buttercup and stop whinging like a baby.

BTW, this is probably the best developer community I have ever been on, and I take personal offense to your opinion given the effort that Erel and all the contributors have given, hence my response.
 
alwaysbusy said:
Waw, you must have a bad memory, quoting yourself from 2014:



Maybe you should blame yourself for not engaging enough with the forum? You made exactly 5 posts (among them one good and one bad experience).

I'm glad you've put (RANT) in your subject as a rant is indeed an argument that is fueled by passion, not shaped by facts. There are times I feel the same too when it looks I've searched for a solution like forever, only to realize I myself was mostly to blame (due to fatigue or wanting to skim the answers to fast, missing valuable clues?). Android has changed a lot over the last few years and I was in the same position as you where. I hadn't used B4A for a couple of years (I mainly use B4J for webapps now) so it was also for me quite a chock some concepts I (thought I) knew didn't apply anymore. But I was very happy to see Erel had found simple solutions for those new changes. The Android changes Google makes can be very drastic sometimes, but every programmer in any language (Kotlin included) has to adept to Googles decisions.

Anyhows, good luck with your endeavors and see you back again in a year or four when you realize you can get stuck with those other tools too. I do hope you read my answer and maybe after a good nights rest you'll get an epiphany and solve your programming problem in minutes. (I know I do ;)!)
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You don't need to be too polite !
 
The programming language is not the main challenge developers encounter when developing for Android. Android is not a simple platform and recent requirements changes made it more difficult. As written above B4A does go a long way to help developers with all requirements.

Too bad you haven't made any post about the actual issues you encountered and just chose to post this rant.
 
FierceBlaze said:
Yes, It was a rant and as such I expected the negative vibe but let me address some of this bullying individually. But first... let me admit to the world... I was wrong to do this and yes. As someone said above... I was frustrated.
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I started with BasicMSX, and Basic of the C64.

Then I had to learn something new at the Turbo Pascal school. But at the graduation they told me that I had to go to Micorsoft C ++, Miscrosoft J or Java from the sun. Did I just waste time until then?

I learned in VB4 and then VB6. When I learned well, VB.NET came out. I switched to Visual Studio 2008 which is completely different from VB6.
Now I've tried Visual Studio 2018 for the first time and changed again

I wanted to scold Bill Gates for all these changes ... but luckily I found b4x ... that changes like everyone else, but I have a very good assistance on the forum.

Good Luck

P.S. Tip: Hire a developer and get your App in no time and without having to study the changes
 
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B4A is like a toffee. It is (sometimes) hard to chew but it is nice! Nothing in life is simple. The "hard" stuff in life gives the grey (or gray - both spellings are acceptable depending on where you reside) matter between our ears some exercise in order for it to stay "fit". There is no better exercise for the brain than reading and learning. :)
 
FierceBlaze said:
Yes, I was wrong. I am sorry. Thank you all for your time and valuable insight.

I am willing to bet that you all did not get to be experts on this board without living and breathing the tool. Not saying that is a bad thing, I wish I did keep up with the tool like you guys have but I simply have not had REASON to use the tool. I been doing a lot of web work. It's not always very fun but it helps pay some bills.
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I agree that we probably have put a seriously amount of time in when it comes to developing using the B4X suite of tools, but for me it tops up paying the bills, just like you I'm sure that you know more than myself when it comes to web development.

You should really have asked a few questions, I'm not knocking you far from it, but just by asking a few questions you can learn a lot from the responses.

FierceBlaze said:
I probably picked up on Java and Kotlin because as SOREX said it "seems to be a mix of javascript/actionscript/php style of coding." and that is the world I have come to be more comfortable in being more of a web developer.
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Probably because that does make complete sense if you think about it. I'm pleased that you've found something that works for you, I believe that you will probably get to grips with Kotlin rather quickly knowing what you said about your background.

Anyway, good luck with your future endeavours using Android Studio with Kotlin, it sounds like you you've found your calling, but this community is here if you decide to come back ;)

Grab a pint and keep coding...
 
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Let me try to shift the focus of this thread just a little bit:

I'm no expert in B4X, but if you're willing to actually post a question I'll make an effort in answering it, as best I can.
 
Im a hobbyist programmer for the most part, and have used loads of languages over the years, most of them fiddling about making little things, most were games, some languages were propriety, some open-source... And one thing I can say, within my experience in, pffftttt, 30 years of programming on/off is that B4A is one of the nicest, cleanest (None MS <--- I may get scorned for that, but I do like VS, always have) tools I've ever used.

Okay it's not perfect in little ways, but that's probably down to personal preference really, and maybe stems from a time when, say, you could literally download the package, fire it up and you were away, where these days, you've got to install this, then that, then tweak this, make sure this is in your path etc etc Yeah, its not a deal breaker, but in the most part, I find it a chew, but nearly every language that targets multiplatform does this now, and I know its just the way it is.

Anyhoo, not sure what the beef is with the forum though, its great from my perspective, and absolutely loaded with gold nuggets of info, everyone seems courteous, questions get answered, and for myself, I've never done a search and not found what I was looking for, what more does anyone need?

Anyway, my two pence

Dabz
 
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