I often say Erel saved my life… Here's why...

I was working as a sub-contractor for the region's branch of the national Cable TV Company… (Who would have guessed it, given my nickname?), this was back in the 2000's...
PockectPCs where the latest in technology, but they still lacked a lot of features. I had gotten myself a HP PPC and the "Sleeve" Add-on which allowed me to add PCMCIA card to it.
My goal was to use it with an Ethernet card and program the Cable Modems I installed through it. But my coding skills were, as they still are, very limited, and so I started looking for ways to accomplish this.
Many months passed, but I kept on searching, and one day I found a post about a BASIC based IDE.
Basic4PPC it was called, and targeted the Windows mobile platform… perfect, I thought… But there was not an actual forum available at the time (2002?) and the Compiler still only produced cab files that needed a Transpiler DLL. A few moths later we finally got a real forum, kindly provided by a member (GeoCoder if I recall correctly) and things really started to take off.
I never did actually produce the program I was aiming to, but I was addicted. A few moths later I bit the bullet and bought the licence. It was my first payed software I ever had.
Erel kept pushing Basic4PPC forward, and eventually there was no need for the transpiler DLLs anymore, and the IDE produce both Cab and EXE files. We could now create our own Win32 programs!
Then I had a major setback in my life… I got divorced. After 19 years together, it was not expected at all, and I went through all the grief stages… and at one point, even considered suicide.
But there was this thing that I did, and that was important; I managed a Thread in the Forum that listed all the available User Created Libraries, and so I was needed!
I managed this thread for over 3 years, if I recall correctly. This saved my life. Kept my mind busy, with the thread management, the library creation, and the "noise" I created in the forum (at that point I was the 4th most posting member), my mind was too busy to even think of any other thing.
Shortly after my divorce, I moved to France, but kepted my presence in the forum.
B4A had been created, and I jumped on that train too, although it was though at start as it was a whole new ball game… understanding activities, views, etc... where had the controls go?
This was 2010... and I kept coming, kept trying to help others, kept asking expert newbie questions...
I often say its been 13+ years since I joined here, simply because I just lost track… I suppose its almost 18years now...
And I hope to be here for many more.

Oh, btw… the only 2 real piece of software I ever released was an Android game called Pairs4Android and a B4J based app called B4X-Launcher...
You may have guessed by now… I'm here for the ride… not for the destination!
 
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Cableguy

Cableguy

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Erel said:
We are on this ride together :)
I must say that the forum cannot be a replacement for real treatment in such crises however I'm happy that we could support you and help you keep going.
Click to expand...
My Ex-wife though, at some point, that I had unmanaged rage issues… so I went to see a professional…. I can only say it was a very short session, as we spent most of the time talking about all kind of things… my "rage" was a normal, moderated one, fed by the immediate events going on with my life...
Also, in my point of view (others may differ), suicide is a cowards way out, leaving all the suffering he couldn't endure, to all the others that had not the responsability to endure it
 
LucaMs

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Cableguy said:
After 19 years together, it was not expected at all, and I went through all the grief stages… and at one point, even considered suicide.
Click to expand...
Cableguy said:
I managed this thread for over 3 years, if I recall correctly. This saved my life
Click to expand...
If you really want to think about crazy gestures, in these cases it is better an uxoricide ?
 
ilan

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i am happy we have you and people like you in this forum. without people like you its like having a tv without cableTV ?
be strong and never look back ;)

just today i was thinking about something. i follow a guy that is live streaming were he is playing a game and i really like to watch him play. but he is doing it every night and i was saying to my self "what a waste of time". every night do the same thing but dont get anything from it. we developer have lot of power if we think about it correctly. i am pretty sure that i will never write a great book or invent something important where i can say i did something in my life, but what we (i) can do is creating software that can help others, make their life easier in some tasks like kids with learning difficulties. instead of think on how to create the next app that will make me some income i want to try to make apps that will help people.

EDIT: it would really be nice if a group of devs here in this forum would get together and create a nice, helpful app for kids that are now in quarantine. something that will make the learn in a fun way instead play the whole day xbox or ps. i am ready to be part of such a project ;)
B4K(ids) ?
 
Erel

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ilan said:
B4K(ids)
Click to expand...
Working on it:
B4X: 
Sub TurtleStart
    For i = 1 To 4
        Turtle1.Forward(100)
        Turtle1.Left(90)
    Next
End Sub

3lyAjgN5G4.gif
 
ilan

ilan

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Erel said:
Working on it:
B4X: 
Sub TurtleStart
    For i = 1 To 4
        Turtle1.Forward(100)
        Turtle1.Left(90)
    Next
End Sub

3lyAjgN5G4.gif
Click to expand...

looks awesome erel. do you know https://www.codemonkey.com/ ?
they teach kids the basic functions of coding in a very kid friendly way.

it would be really awesome to create a project like this for kids. i will think about it...
 
hatzisn

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@Cableguy thanks for sharing. I am really glad you selected the correct way and you are here among us to collaborate with us in our efforts to improve ourselves and our B4X and electronics knowledge.

Whatever keeps one going is always a great plus.
 
aeric

aeric

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I think someone (one or two) here may able to save another's life(time) by helping him/her solving a problem. We may live long or short on this earth. Saving someone's time is a great gift that money may not able to buy. Thanks to Erel (and other expert or any level of members) who have helped me go through my journey (or ride) in B4X.
 
Mark Turney

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@aeric - I agree. I always say time is life (not just money). Even Bill Gates said during an interview (digging in my memory so please don’t quote me ?) that at a certain stage in his career, he realized money was no longer an issue for him ... however, he said he still can’t buy more time.
 
aeric

aeric

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Erel said:
Working on it:
B4X: 
Sub TurtleStart
    For i = 1 To 4
        Turtle1.Forward(100)
        Turtle1.Left(90)
    Next
End Sub

3lyAjgN5G4.gif
Click to expand...
I am wondering @Erel has prepared this for a while and just keeping it until now or he just done this in a few hours if not minutes? ?
The new library is almost here!

[sneak preview] B4XTurtle - library for teaching kids programming

This is an early draft of a new library inspired by Logo programming language and Teaching Kids Programming project: https://teachingkidsprogramming.org/ The idea is to program in B4X language with all of B4X features and to make it very simple to start with something that you can see and play...
www.b4x.com www.b4x.com
 
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