Whats the future of B4A?

[netchicken]

I set out to learn Android a few weeks back and despite having good VB.net and some C# skills I was blown away by the complexity of Java and the minutiae of work it entailed. Visual Studio it is not! (It took me over 100 pages of the instruction manual before i got a form, button, text box and label running. )

Then I found B4A .....

I am amazed that such a simple program exists, after just looking at the first lesson, which felt like putting comfortable clothes on after Java, I think its something I really want to get into, and to use with my students.

However I am somewhat perplexed by the informality of the program and users and wonder if its just a flash in the pan, or is it around for the long term.

Is B4A being developed further?
Is it keeping up with new Android releases?
Can it do the 'more advanced' stuff Java can do (here i am guessing, but I want to work with google maps, databases, web browsers, etc. )

Can Apps be sold in the apps market? Can users install them just the same?

Is it being optimized for the latest cellphones (I bought a Galaxy S2 to learn how to program, as I think its the future)

Is there a team behind the scenes developing it, rather than some people who might move on to more interesting challenges in the future?

I am really asking if its as good as it looks, because it looks amazingly good!

Finally, as a foil to all the good things.
What do users DISLIKE about B4A?
Whats its downside?
Whats it lacking?
Whats annoying?

Sorry is this sounds pushy as a newbie, but I am looking forward to jumping in and making programs, just need some reassurance over it.

Oh, and can I buy a site wide license of it for a school?

 

[NeoTechni]

Finally, as a foil to all the good things.
What do users DISLIKE about B4A?
Whats its downside?
Whats it lacking?
Whats annoying?

The things I dislike, are the things that are done differently from VB6
Dont take offense to it, I'm OCD and love what I'm used to.
I even hate that VB.NET does so much different than VB6

-No optional parameters
-No immediate window support (he explained why, I'm sure he could at least get it so we can change variable values at run time)
-No enum or constants support
-I'd like to use an array like a list somehow, so I can red(imension) preserve it, and not have to use .get and .set after I'm done changing it

-No designer within the app itself
-No multi-monitor support
-Custom Types are defined in a single line instead of
type Custom
test as boolean
end type

 

[thedesolatesoul]

-Custom Types are defined in a single line instead of
type Custom
test as boolean
end type

I always define custom types across multiple lines:

   Type MetaDataTaskType ( _
      Index          As Int,     _
      Urls           As List,    _
      Active         As Boolean, _
      Successful     As Boolean, _
      ProcessingItem As Int,     _
      TotalItems     As Int,     _
      Files          As List)

 

[rbsoft]

The things I dislike, are the things that are done differently from VB6

I agree, VB6 was the best environment MS ever created. Not as overloaded as VB2005 etc. I never liked VB.Net, that is why I changed over to PowerBasic with FireFly as GUI which gives me that good old VB6 feeling plus some extra features with a much advanced compiler.

Also B4A has some features that are advancements to VB6. And of course it cannot be 100% compatible because of the underlying Java environment. But if you know how to work with VB6 you instantly will feel comfortable with B4A. The learning curve is extremely low. Within a few hours and checking some examples you can start writing your own little test apps. Add the good documentation (compare that with VS2005, which was plain horror) and the excellent help here in the forum then everyone can be content with B4A.

We also should never forget that there was a large developer team at MS for designing the environment. Here we just have Erel and the guys who make those fine libraries.

-No designer within the app itself

That of course would be a nice feature!

-No multi-monitor support

What do you mean by that? I usually have the editor and designer on one monitor and the emulator and helpviewer on the second screen.

Rolf

 

[zouriteman]

From a new user

I come from DELPHI , and cannot compare with VB6 or other.

But I don't understand what are your dislike on :

the Designer : No designer within the app itself
I think that it is good enough ...
Sure , no "inspector of componant" like DELPHI , with many and many atttributs and evenments , no right click to context menu ...
But that is the faults of B4A and the fault of the OS (and Android is updating rapidly) ?

Monitor : No multi-monitor support what do you want realy ?
My two monitors works with all applications, this is the task of the driver (in my case : NVidia)

 

[Erel]

the Designer : No designer within the app itself

Note that v1.7 includes an internal designer: http://www.b4x.com/forum/additional...dates/12051-basic4android-v1-70-released.html

 

[Rui]

Whats the future of B4A?

More work for Erel I think
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was just released.

 

[vb1992]

" multi-monitor support "


I would think he means, being able to test this
as a android phone screen resolution then also
as a 10"tablet, to see how it looks in both?

But I am not sure, he would have to clarify it.

But I would be curious to see how our apps
look in different phone layouts and tablets.

 

[avoka]

b4a is great but create a decent game is a big problem.

 

[klaus]

What exactly do you expect ?

Best regards.

 

[avoka]

What exactly do you expect ?

Best regards.

I expect a collision detection system, drag-drop, animations etc.

 

[Penko]

This is game-specific, why should it be core functionality?

 

[margret]

I believe the future of B4A is GREAT!! I have only been using it for 9 months and the growth and power over those few months has been astounding! It gets more powerful almost daily as new Libs and Classes are released. It has the best community of support, so I think it's future is GREAT!!