Visual thoughts on the B4X suite of development tools. What are your thoughts???

[Peter Simpson]

Well 3 out of the 4 products anyway

Considering that one man (Erel) started all this off as a though in his head. This whole community of developers from around the world have helped to build 4 absolutely great products, three of which I personally use.

Why only 9/10 for B4R?
Well I know that Erel will be improving certain aspects of B4R in the future, also the libraries are slowly building up too, but it's getting there. I originally gave B4R an 8/10. But after a quick rethink I increased it to a 9 because 8 was just not high enough.

Cheers...

 

[moster67]

Nice display!
Well, my votes:

B4A - top notch 10/10.
Someone wrote that the top-feature of B4A is that it is hiding the complexity/difficulties of Java and make it ideal for newcomers and VB-veterans alike but at the same time, the hiding is also a negative aspect since to get certain features we most expose them using wrappers, JavaObject or Inline-java. Well, there is some truth in this statement but still all other things combined such as the forum, the RAD etc make it up in my opinion.

B4J - top notch 10/10
I have actually only now started to explore B4J but it is easy to use but yet powerful. It can be used for desktop, servers and is very versatile and very often we can exchange code between the B4X-products. And for me the top feature is that I can write apps that will run on Windows, Mac and Linux.

B4i - 8/10
I have written two apps with B4i using my B4A-knowledge (and code) and that is another example of the power of the B4X-family. However, I am under the impression that B4i is still struggling to reach the same level as B4A, especially what regards user-base and third party development (they are of course related). Mind you, there are third party developers who have done amazing wrappers/libraries but I still think we are still too much dependent on Erel in this regard. While surely the B4X user-base is international, I think it is dominated by European users and this could explain a smaller B4i user-base since I think most Apple-users/developers can be found in the States. Of course there are exceptions like UK and Scandinavia. However, I hope that B4i and third party support will grow in the future.

B4R - no vote since I am not using it

 

[inakigarm]

B4A:9/10 (great !)
B4J: 9/10 (fantastic!)
B4i: No vote (actually don't use it)
B4R:9/10 (so easy to Program in Arduino and cross-platform with B4A/B4J !)

Why not 10? I think there's always a chance to improve these products a little more, but final score is closer to 10 than 9.

 

[imbault]

B4A: 9.5/10 - A real mature and RAD product

B4J: 9.5/10 - Despite it's young age, it's a very promising product, despite of some lacks (example SOAP implementation for web services, still needed in corporate businesses...), B4J is a great tool for creating xplatform and servers apps (it includes Jetty, but no way for Tomcat...)

B4i : 8++/10 , most of iPhone users have the last device and the last iOS version (compared to the Android smartphone world), B4i must be very quick to implement Apple new features like finger print, force touche, Siri and mainly Swift etc... I know, it's hard, but it's necessary

B4R : no vote, no need so far, C is easy for Arduino, but B4R is a real plus

we need a real B4W, W not for MS Windows but for Web apps, ABmaterial gives us a lot, a very lot, but I think, we really need that, mainly in the Javascript and jQuery world....(there are lots of frameworks coming on, more and more: Node, Angular, React...)

Anyway, Erel is a kind of genius for those wonderful products, 10K and more thanks and all my respect for him, his work and involvement in terms of creativity, support, help, tutos, new ideas in our B4X community, a very big thank you for your passion in this adventure

Long life for B4X, and Cheers Erel, you really deserve it!!!!



Patrick

 

[Erel]

Thank you for the feedback

I agree that we need more B4i library developers. It is technically more difficult to create a B4i library compared to the other platforms and you also need a Mac computer and many B4i developers do not have one.
I do have an idea for a tool that will make it a bit easier.

 

[ilan]

I am using a lot b4a/b4i and b4j.
And I dont agree with the b4i votes here.

For me b4i is amazing. There are a lot stuff that are missing if you compare with the native solution but i have to say that b4i is much much simpler and also faster then xcode.

Try to create a simple "hallo world" app in swift and you will understand what i mean.

I have started learning xcode (swift) and i noticed right in the beginning how simple b4i is compared to xcode.

So in my opinion all b4x products are 10/10 because of their simplicity.

 

[giggetto71]

B4A: 10+/10. Incredible! Fabolous!!! The tool that allowed me to restart programming in my 40s..Erel you made my decade!!!! Thanks!! Grazie!!!!!!
B4J: 10++/10. The real alternative to glorious VB 6. Exceptional also for programming raspberry.
B4i: N/A. I don't use it and not plan to do.
B4R: don't use it for now but plan (no idea when..) to use it. Edit (2022): 10++/10 today it's probably the one I use the most! esp8266 and any possible sensor..Just great

 

[JordiCP]

B4A: 10/10
B4J: 10/10
B4i: 9/10 Just the other day (at last) I could set up everything and build my first app based on an example. Promising....
B4R: I would really like to test it, but I have been using C for so many years that I must find time to translate some project and see how it behaves

Support&community: 10+++/10

 

[Cableguy]

I'm the closest to a forum fossil as it gets...
Been a part of this community for well over 10 years... Almost 15 I think...

B4ppc was like the testing tube in which EREL tested out and implemented new programming mechanics, always staying true to the BASIC keyword.

B4Ppc - 7/10 died prematurely, no fault to EREL

B4A was the natural evolution, and the starting point for the suite.. it sprung a growth to the dev community that I bet not even EREL expected.

B4A - 10/10 and still EREL finds new updates to gift us

I will not go into B4i simply because i don't use it... still.

B4j... I was very reluctant to try b4j, and only did so when EREL introduced the Visual Designer we all love and that i knew from B4A... And i use it almost in a daily basis.

B4J - 10/10, it's simply amazing, and so powerful!

B4R took us from developers to programmers... Mastering the whole creation process, from hardware to software.

B4R - 9/10, just because it still has a long way to go to be a true replacement for the arduino IDE... But it's getting there!

 

[giggetto71]

....forgot to rate support and community:

support and community: 100/10!!!!!!

 

[LWGShane]

B4i : 8++/10 , most of iPhone users have the last device and the last iOS version (compared to the Android smartphone world), B4i must be very quick to implement Apple new features like finger print, force touche, Siri and mainly Swift etc... I know, it's hard, but it's necessary

Also add "Extensions":

Image Source: http://easynativeextensions.com