Google App Inventor

Anyone heard anything about Googles new programming system which they claim gives non-programmers the ability to develope advanced programs.

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Ges Nelson said:

Anyone heard anything about Googles new programming system which they claim gives non-programmers the ability to develope advanced programs.

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Yes it looks very promising, I do thing that this will only work for simple applications, not for the more “if/then” work
But it is too soon to speculate, I’ve requested access..

We’ll see

As a small note I will say that the work for Basic4android has begun.
Android OS is both smart and complex. Applications are made of several activities which are similar to forms. However as the user can navigate between different applications and different activities, some of the activities will be destroyed to preserve memory. These activities will be then recreated when needed.

This issue alone has many implications on the design of well behaved applications. I'm sure you are familiar with apps that crash or lose their state when rotating the phone. This is exactly for this reason, the activity is being destroy and then recreated.

The purpose of Basic4android is to make it easy for the developer to create "correct" applications without losing performance or ability to create complex applications.

I've been asked about my view of Basic4android relating to this new and interesting project. I believe that Basic4android targets a different market which is developers, with different levels of expertise. AppInventor targets non-developers.
Actually I hope that Basic4android will be positioned as the next step for Appinventor users who want to create more complex applications.

Basic4Andriod

Erel that really sounds like an exciting developement and I am eager to see the completed system. What's the predicted timeframe and any plans for Basic4iphone, although I appreciate this would have to port BASIC to xcode Native Objective C instead of executable code.

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Ges Nelson said:

Basic4iphone, although I appreciate this would have to port BASIC to xcode Native Objective C instead of executable code.

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You do realize this is not allowed by Apple?

You can only use their IDE...
On the other hand you could release into Cydia


Power to the people !

Not quite

Mr Gee - The system would produce C Objective code which you would then compile in xcode on a mac but the advantage would be you would not have to write the C code. This is perfectly acceptable by Apple as it would be compiled natively.


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I don't think that this is allowed. Apple recently changed there license terms and they now they only allow to develop with their own tool.

Ges Nelson said:

produce C Objective code which you would then compile in xcode on a mac

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Yes, cross-compilation from other tools is no longer allowed Adobe vs. Apple is going to get uglier | ITworld. This was (allegedly) aimed at barring iPhone apps produced by Adobe Creative Suite 5 Flash-to-iPhone converter.

BASIC 4 to Objective C translation

If BASIC 4 produced the C code (translator from BASIC 4 to iphone Objective C) it would be indisinguishable by Apple if compiled on a Mac.

Apple have actually stopped iphone apps being compiled by systems other than theirs with exceptions such as Rhodes and PhoneGap (now) but this is irelevant as I am refering to a BASIC to C translator so it can loaded to be compiled by Apples toolkit on a MAC.

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The Basic4ppc compiler actually produces C# code which you can find in class1.cs in your "\MyUserName\AppData\Roming\Anywhere Software\Basic4ppc\Tzor" folder on Vista or \Documents and Settings\MyUserName\Application Data\Anywhere Software\Basic4ppc\Tzor on XP. This code is compiled by Basic4ppc using the C# compiler that is shipped with every version of the .NET runtime. Translating this C# code to another language that is not .NET based would not be useful as the compilation process references the .NET assemblies installed on the computer and for which the source code is not available. The final assembly also relies on these installed assemblies to execute.

C# Code

It is a interesting point that C# code is produced by the BASIC4 Compiler. Thank you for that information. But in regards the .net assembly references - I am thinking at a higher level from what you are refering - cross platform compilling which would reference and replace code where necessary for the relevant target machine. I already have access to one compiling system/service that takes .net code and converts to objective C for the iphone. (A straight .net code stream would obviously be of only use to a .net ppc/pc - I think this would be little to obvious to mention to even a basic level developer) :sign0089: