Are Windows apps obsolete? (my first post)

Hi guys and gals

I just joined this awsome community, though i've been "learking" on and off for a while...
I am mostly interested in the A J R Products and on how to make them work all together.
After keeping an eye at the B4J forum, a question popped to mind:
Are Win32 apps becoming obsolete? (in favour of web services)
If so, then what is the B4J way to go?
ABMaterial seems very interesting and mature, but no new features for a while now...

Dev-i9 said:

Are Win32 apps becoming obsolete? (in favour of web services)

Click to expand...

IMHO, all business systems (not any systems, say, like games) with lots of users - are more effectively to develop as web-service recent years.
But if a system with special needs of the native APIs - anyway the native apps are needed.

I can't imagine software like B4A (development tool), such complex sw, implemented as web services. Not to mention that an Internet connection is not required.

On the other hand, if this version existed, it could also be used on Mac, Linux, ... "directly".

LucaMs said:

I can't imagine software like B4A (development tool), such complex sw, implemented as web services. Not to mention that an Internet connection is not required.

On the other hand, if this version existed, it could also be used on Mac, Linux, ... "directly".

Click to expand...

Hi Lucas, Thanks for taking the time to respond to this thread...
My question is more about developing native win32 apps as opposed to developing Web based "services"...

Dev-i9 said:

My question is more about developing native win32 apps as opposed to developing Web based "services"...

Click to expand...

Didn't understand what you mean? B4A (development tool) is a...

Dev-i9 said:

native win32 app

Click to expand...

Dev-i9 said:

After keeping an eye at the B4J forum, a question popped to mind:
Are Win32 apps becoming obsolete? (in favour of web services)

Click to expand...

I think my question was clear enough, since I specifically mentioned B4J and Win32 ... Never mentioned B4A and posted in Chit-Chat on purpose since it wasn't a technical question.

From a simplicity point of view, web apps are much easier to SUPPORT. (update just one system).
One server (one app), perhaps several user web browser types (not your problem) - As opposed to many (many) PC's with God knows what OS version, outdated dll's and so on...

Lurking in the background, you have seen where the SW industry is going. I did the same because I was unsure WTF was going on...
Now it is rather clear. SAAS or simply creating your apps as a web service is now favored.

I first thought that I could not accomplish "special stuff" in a web app that I could do a standard "desktop app". Bull Crap!
In fact, one can now do so much more... thanks to the very smart people in this community! Have a problem? Ask and amaze at the response.

Developing apps with B4X (A,I,J) is the best / easiest thing ever produced - all essentially from one man.
I started with B4A many years ago (the early days). This was Gold and grew to something well beyond Platinum.

Then I thought - what the heck is B4J and how can that help me? I don't know or want to learn JAVA (JavaScript or any of it's alt names)..
Well my son, I could never have imagined how this would transform my outlook on app development... When I dived in, I was hooked. It is Brilliant! So easy!

ABM runs on B4J. ABM is the UI to your web apps. The rest is essentially B4J.
As with your concern with ABM... What more do you want / desire? It's hard to improve on near perfection... ABMCustomComponent addresses the rest, as I have found..

There is also BANano produced by @alwaysbusy , which I have yet to come to learn - but looks great...

Stop lurking, jump in and come on down. You won't be disappointed with your short learning curve - which seems to be the stopping point with most people - and rightly so.

Thanks

LucaMs said:

I can't imagine software like B4A (development tool), such complex sw, implemented as web services. Not to mention that an Internet connection is not required.

On the other hand, if this version existed, it could also be used on Mac, Linux, ... "directly".

Click to expand...

why not? It depends on what to be considered as a web service - 100 developers in India also can be considered as a web service

>> Are Win32 apps becoming obsolete? (in favor of web services).

I don't think so as I contend that no serious work is done on a small screen. In addition, why make a special app which may only work on one set of devices? All devices have a web browser, so if you write a web app (which perhaps is written in PHP) running through a browser, then anyone with any device or computer can run it.

Politely, I would just like to point out that your question, if read exactly as written, doesn't make sense. Neither do most of the answers because of this.

Not because anyone is necessarily wrong, it's simply because you are using the wrong name.

A "Web Service", is not "Software as a Service (SAAS)", nor is it the same as a Web app[lication].

A Web Service allows two systems to communicate across the internet. It's a data conduit.
A Web app[lication] is an application delivered by the internet, and usually running in a browser. It could be running locally on the client machine, but it could also be running on the server delivering it. It could also run some code on the server, and some code on the client machine.

Also, Win32 App[lication]s are not the same as UWP app[lication]s, nor are they the same as .NET app[lication]s or Java app[lication]s.

Hopefully this clears things up for you a little.

It will be a VERY long time yet before Windows is obsolete. Particularly for small and medium sized businesses, any business with strict security rules and business (there are many) who just want to own their software and their data - and there are a lot of these.

Let me tell you a story. My ex wife worked for over thirty years at a 4000+ employee company she was a big honcho in human resources. She was there when the switch from "Central computing" (mainframes) to "distributed computing" (smart workstations, aka IBM PC - we're talking DOS here) happened. It was "THE SOLUTION". Then five or 10 years later a new CIO and it is back to central computing - 5 or ten years "Windows is the answer and back to distributed again - etc. etc.

In a few years someone will create an appliance that is simple enough abd easy enough to manage, that will make it cheaper to move your computing back in house AAAAAND here we go again.

There will ALWAYS be a variety of solutions to meet a variety of needs and there will ALWAYS be ****NEW AND IMPROVED**** solution that will solve all the worlds problems (did someone just think AI, Quantum?). Find a niche you enjoy and stick with it.