[Poll] What do you wish for?

Which 3 feature would you love to have in B4X IDE?

  • IDE: Code Prettifier

    Votes: 3 6.7%
  • IDE: Cross-platform Assist (context aware tips/help)

    Votes: 18 40.0%
  • IDE: += AND -= notations

    Votes: 22 48.9%
  • IDE: Autoinsert ( "" ) after statements like Log / Initialize / Array

    Votes: 11 24.4%
  • IDE: Right Click > Move Dim statement to Globals

    Votes: 5 11.1%
  • IDE: Named Checkpoints and Revert to (like autobackup)

    Votes: 2 4.4%
  • IDE: Show color value with a tiny box of color next to it

    Votes: 9 20.0%
  • IDE: Edit History and Undo to:

    Votes: 4 8.9%
  • Designer: Percent of parent (like %x)

    Votes: 10 22.2%
  • Designer: Switch between wireframe and rendered

    Votes: 4 8.9%
  • Designer: Align to other items visually

    Votes: 16 35.6%
  • Debug: Disable Breakpoints (not remove)

    Votes: 9 20.0%

  • Total voters
    45
  • Poll closed .

epiCode

Active Member
Licensed User
1. This is not an official survey
2. This is not even a guarantee of any sort that any of the features will make it to B4X
3. This is general chit chat to know what fellow developers "wish" for and its priority
4. Votes are anonymous
 

cklester

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The Code Prettifier is Alt+f, isn't it?

All good suggestions, but I checked the ones I liked the most. 😁 🙌🙏
 

sorex

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Longtime User
I went for the += & -= (and ++ --) as those are big time savers in other languages.

and for string operations .= (or B4X specific &=) to concatenate/append something to a string is usefull aswell. multiline smart strings help a lot here aswell tho.

I doubt that it will ever make it to the B4X language as this means that it will bend too much to C/PHP/Javascript/Actionscript/... like languages
and that was not the intention when creating B4X.
 

epiCode

Active Member
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I went for the += & -= (and ++ --) as those are big time savers in other languages.

and for string operations .= (or B4X specific &=) to concatenate/append something to a string is usefull aswell. multiline smart strings help a lot here aswell tho.

I doubt that it will ever make it to the B4X language as this means that it will bend too much to C/PHP/Javascript/Actionscript/... like languages
and that was not the intention when creating B4X.
It can have both... in fact a newer alternative keeping in mind how b4x simplifies syntax intuitively should be something like...

Increment var by 1
OR
Decrement x by 2
OR
Add "suffix" to str1
 

alwaysbusy

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I definitely hope this one is not implemented. Especially for methods like Initialize, Array this would be very annoying as there is absolutely nothing that says the param or element is going to be a string. And even for log I would hate it, as I use it a lot to quickly show the value of a variable in debugging.

B4X:
IDE: Autoinsert ( "" ) after statements like Log / Initialize / Array
 

amykonio

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Longtime User
Yep.

Also, I couldn't find anything on the list so important that I would "love" it. No option for that opinion, so I thought I should mention it here.
Yes. But there are some cases where it could do a better job. Also refactoring would be useful...

Anyway. It's a great IDE.
 

Sandman

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Longtime User
there are some cases where it [code prettifier] could do a better job.
Post a wish about it, together with a good description on what the current problem is and how you think it should be prettified.

Also refactoring would be useful
Sure, but it's not on the list in the poll. It's mostly basic stuff for editing the code. Personally I'd be interested in some sort of basic unit testing built-in to the IDE. (It seems I am in a very small minority with that wish, so I doubt that will ever happen.)
 

Sandman

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Longtime User
A REAL time-saver in my day-by-day programming would be a more advanced IDE log window, with pause/resume and search functionalities.
Another MAJOR timesaver would be to have a time travel debugger. I had that in Prograph CPX ~25 years ago and it was amazing and magical. I imagine the only reason it's not really requested in the forum is that most users have no idea what it is.


(I haven't actually watched this video, it just seemed as a decent introduction to time travel debugging.)

I would also very much like a REPL, another thing I see nobody else wanting.
 

amykonio

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Longtime User
Sure, but it's not on the list in the poll. It's mostly basic stuff for editing the code. Personally I'd be interested in some sort of basic unit testing built-in to the IDE. (It seems I am in a very small minority with that wish, so I doubt that will ever happen.)
Actually, I agree... Unit testing would be a great feature.
 

EnriqueGonzalez

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Longtime User
I wish for tests, tests and more tests.
And git integration

The += -= are good enough
 

tufanv

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Longtime User
My wish is not here. I wish most needed libraries are wrapped for ios and android to have all benefits of useful tools. Of course Erel don't have time for this but maybe he can hire a developer who will wrap most wanted libraries every month, I would happily subscribe for monthly payments as donation to cover some of the developers cost.
 

amorosik

Expert
Licensed User
Mi wish is Ide remap control-key
I hate every time, every time, that i need press 3 key, ctrl-shift-B (two hand to activate a function !!!) every breakpoint
 

aminoacid

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Longtime User
Nothing on the list really sparked my interest. What I would like to have .....

Unsigned option for data types .... especially byte variables. Working with signed bytes is a pain especially when you are trying to manipulate 8-bit numbers (unsigned bytes). Also it would be great to have real logical operators instead of bit.and( ... bit.shift ..... functions.
 

AnandGupta

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Longtime User
Well, I voted for what I wished earlier, and will be happy if implemented, as have habit of it.
IDE: += AND -= notations

Also this one looks useful to me
Designer: Percent of parent (like %x)
 
Yep.

Also, I couldn't find anything on the list so important that I would "love" it. No option for that opinion, so I thought I should mention it here.
With you. While some of those might be nice there is nothing I particularly want. SIMPLICY. I like it short and fast.
 

Heuristx

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The problem with VB.NET is that there are a million classes, objects, methods, properties, they try to give a "simple" one-line solution to almost everything you can do with a computer. As time goes by, they add several such solutions that do the same thing, and people argue endlessly which one is better.

In Java the same problem is multiplied by the clumsiness of the syntax.

What is good in B4X is its simplicity, combined with flexibility. It just downs on you that what you did with Java or VB by learning volumes of lists of classes can be done with a List or a Map in literally seconds.

It is not an exaggeration that B4X can be learned in a few hours. And writing an application from start to release is magnitudes faster than with other tools.

There is nothing really missing, although I would have said that before the new .As() or IIf() improvements.

I would leave these improvements to Erel; he proved too many times that he is a master of adding useful functions without losing simplicity.
 
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