Where is best place for B4J?

Where is the best place to learn about B4J? I have been using VB6 for about 10 years and since changing over to 64bit I am finding a lot of issues. Is there any docs geared towards VB6 developers converting over to B4J? Is there any good place to learn about replacements for the controls in VB6?

My specific questions are:

Where is the best place to learn B4J?
Is B4J more or less powerful than VB6?

What about tools for grids? I have been using Sharpgrid by Data Dynamics but it has been discontinued.

Any good way to access DBF files. I do some SQL also but dont like the overhead required by SQL servers. I also have a app using Access database and SQL in VB6 but this database is so small that Access and SQL is a real overkill.

Where is the best place to learn about ABM?

First VB6 was a Windows OS specific IDE, where you could get access to windows, office and a lot of ocx and dll...

B4J is a cross platform IDE : you are able to run your jar on Windows, MacOS, Linus OS

B4J is a very easy to use IDE and a RAD IDE

You will find full of examples on this forum, as tutorials

To finish, no pb to access DBF files as well as SQL server, you just need the JDBC driver... But you can choose SQLite as well

Patrick

Not a direct answer to your question, but my advice is to just do some little things.
I'm learning best from little projects i make. Make a hello world app, a countdown to something, a small calculator with + and -, a JSON generator, etc.
If your envirenment is set up and you take yourself 2 hours, you can probably make 10 of those tiny apps.
And don't hesitate to ask questions if you have problems

Mikelgiles said:

Where is the best place to learn B4J?

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Start with the beginner's guide: https://www.b4x.com/b4j/documentation.html

I did a lot of VB(.net) and now I'm only using B4J because it works perfect, it can run on other platforms having Java and most of the code can be used without modification in all B4x products. You don't have to install it, just run. Wow. Libraries are mostly available for all B4x products (when it makes sense).

Annnnd.... B4A/B4i is very cheap, B4J is even for free

Erel said:

Start with the beginner's guide: https://www.b4x.com/b4j/documentation.html

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Then go through "B4J HowTos" http://www.rwblinn.de/b4j/b4jhowto/index.htm
-And keep a bookmark for it

Mikelgiles said:

Where is the best place to learn about B4J? I have been using VB6 for about 10 years and since changing over to 64bit I am finding a lot of issues. Is there any docs geared towards VB6 developers converting over to B4J? Is there any good place to learn about replacements for the controls in VB6?

My specific questions are:

Where is the best place to learn B4J?
Is B4J more or less powerful than VB6?

What about tools for grids? I have been using Sharpgrid by Data Dynamics but it has been discontinued.

Any good way to access DBF files. I do some SQL also but dont like the overhead required by SQL servers. I also have a app using Access database and SQL in VB6 but this database is so small that Access and SQL is a real overkill.

Where is the best place to learn about ABM?

Click to expand...

I have been using VB since it's inception. I am currently moving all of our VB6 apps over to B4J. I looked and using .NET and said ".NO". In relation to Databases, You can use SQL lite to replace access and it's not too difficult. I have integrated with full SQL server and can help you with that.

B4J is truly the next evolution of what VB6 would have been, if Microsoft had not owned the product. If you are having difficulty with any aspect of developing in a B4X tool the community are here to help. So get in touch if your stuck

Regards

John.

Jmu5667 said:

I have been using VB since it's inception. I am currently moving all of our VB6 apps over to B4J. I looked and using .NET and said ".NO". In relation to Databases, You can use SQL lite to replace access and it's not too difficult. I have integrated with full SQL server and can help you with that.

B4J is truly the next evolution of what VB6 would have been, if Microsoft had not owned the product. If you are having difficulty with any aspect of developing in a B4X tool the community are here to help. So get in touch if your stuck

Regards

John.

Click to expand...

Jmu5667 said:

I have been using VB since it's inception. I am currently moving all of our VB6 apps over to B4J. I looked and using .NET and said ".NO". In relation to Databases, You can use SQL lite to replace access and it's not too difficult. I have integrated with full SQL server and can help you with that.

B4J is truly the next evolution of what VB6 would have been, if Microsoft had not owned the product. If you are having difficulty with any aspect of developing in a B4X tool the community are here to help. So get in touch if your stuck

Regards

John.

Click to expand...

We also looked at most of the VB6 replacements offered by Microsoft and have decided that all were not really options to convert. We are still using VB6 and have did a conversion from VB6, dBase files, & a third party file access lib to using VB6 and Microsoft SQL server 2008. However we are still worrying about VB6 for the future. I assume you are finding converting VB6 to B4J a lot easier than converting to NET? We have close to 100 exe files that will have to be converted ( a full forms printing plant operations system other than accounting is handled with a interface ). Forms printing industry is in decline so we have decided to not convert the old stuff unless we have to. We did this from DOS to windows years ago and it took several years. However we are thinking that if we need to write anything new that it should not be done in VB6. I am assuming that we could run new apps in B4J alongside the VB6/SQL apps without any problems. I am not so sure about the VB6/dBase.

Mikelgiles said:

We also looked at most of the VB6 replacements offered by Microsoft and have decided that all were not really options to convert. We are still using VB6 and have did a conversion from VB6, dBase files, & a third party file access lib to using VB6 and Microsoft SQL server 2008. However we are still worrying about VB6 for the future. I assume you are finding converting VB6 to B4J a lot easier than converting to NET? We have close to 100 exe files that will have to be converted ( a full forms printing plant operations system other than accounting is handled with a interface ). Forms printing industry is in decline so we have decided to not convert the old stuff unless we have to. We did this from DOS to windows years ago and it took several years. However we are thinking that if we need to write anything new that it should not be done in VB6. I am assuming that we could run new apps in B4J alongside the VB6/SQL apps without any problems. I am not so sure about the VB6/dBase.

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Hi Mike

I understand your concerns. I don't know much about your apps and how they interact with each other. What we are planning to do is re-develop our licensing server app in B4J. It will replace the existing VB6 app. If there is a problem we an hot swap back to the old VB6 app and fix any issues with the B4J app( I doubt that will actually happen).

In relation to code transfer. I just copy and paste the generic VB6 code and fix any syntax. It may be a bit boring at first but it lets you learn as you go.

The future of VB6 is simple, Microsoft have killed it, they are also going to Kill VB.NET. They want every one to use C#. So, in summary, either learn a new language and use .NET or embrace B4J and all the rich set of features that it provides.

I don't know what plans @Erel has for his company, but there comes a tipping point where your product becomes too valuable to a development community for it to disappear, that said, people still develop in VB6, and sure I only wrote a a simple SMTP server in VB6 last week.

Don't be afraid to make the leap, whats the worst thing that can happen....Microsoft buys B4X, kills it and make us all use .NET

Regards

John.

So business works. With staying at VB6 (I liked it!) MS will not earn any money. So they had to invent "new things" like .NET. As John said, even .NET is obsolete in a few years and "someone" has a new idea which generates money. XP was a good system and now I have WIN10 (and I like it, too) but let's be honest: What do we do with our computers? We all start our favourite browser, check our mails, buy some things, read some things, code some things. That's it. Nothing new since decades.

And from time to time somebody has a new development environment like B4x. Again I had to learn how it works. Same procedure. The main thing is that you know HOW to develop. The language is less important.

My first statement on a computer was a FOR ... NEXT loop (I did not start with a simple "print"). And guess what? 35 years later I'm here doing FOR ... NEXT loops in B4x

KMatle said:

So business works. With staying at VB6 (I liked it!) MS will not earn any money. So they had to invent "new things" like .NET. As John said, even .NET is obsolete in a few years and "someone" has a new idea which generates money. XP was a good system and now I have WIN10 (and I like it, too) but let's be honest: What do we do with our computers? We all start our favourite browser, check our mails, buy some things, read some things, code some things. That's it. Nothing new since decades.

And from time to time somebody has a new development environment like B4x. Again I had to learn how it works. Same procedure. The main thing is that you know HOW to develop. The language is less important.

My first statement on a computer was a FOR ... NEXT loop (I did not start with a simple "print"). And guess what? 35 years later I'm here doing FOR ... NEXT loops in B4x

Click to expand...

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