B4J Question B4J Version 9.90 beta coming soon, and B4J product roadmap available?

[m4.s]

Given it's been over a year now since [B4J] v9.80 was released, I'm just curious if v9.90 is planned for release by end-Y2023?

Also, the publishing of a [B4J] product roadmap would certainly shed light on enhancements that are a) in development phase and targeted for implementation as part a specific future version and having a tentative release date, and b) in early analysis or design phase (i.e. under serious consideration, including but not limited to "Wish List" functionality which receive the highest rankings based on forum developers' voting via forum polls). IMO this can be quite beneficial and effective if done right, and is something done by many other software companies.

This all said (and even if potentially controversial to ask and express): as B4J is currently a "free" product, will it become open-source software at some point for contributing forum developers to then assume responsibility for its product roadmap and new version builds and release schedules? If not, I'd prefer and recommend that B4J became a "paid" product instead (e.g. sold for a one-time licensing fee of say $495 USD; or an annual or monthly renewable licensing fee of $99 or $10 respectively) in order to generate enough company revenue to justify and permit quarterly update releases with continuous improvements - thus keeping all forum developers happy, for possibly the next 5-10 years.

 

[Magma]

Why... why? we are turning every thread to that conversation about "Erel"...

in Greek: "γλωσσοφάγωμα"...

Μετάφραση Google

Η υπηρεσία της Google, που προσφέρεται χωρίς χρέωση, μεταφράζει άμεσα λέξεις, φράσεις και ιστοσελίδες μεταξύ Ελληνικών και περισσότερων από 100 άλλων γλωσσών.

translate.google.gr

It is turning to "bad luck" at/to someone talked by others

 

[Sandman]

Over the years, Erel has searched ways to ease his work load, as any of us would, and at some point he hired someone to help him... but it short lived...

He has? That sounds really interesting. You seem to know more than I do about this, please share. ? I do remember Erel had a person in the forum briefly to work with SEO, but I doubt that's what you meant so please let us know what you know about his search.

 

[Cableguy]

He has? That sounds really interesting. You seem to know more than I do about this, please share. ?
II really don't think I know more than you do.

I don't really know more than you do.

I do remember Erel had a person in the forum briefly to work with SEO, but I doubt that's what you meant so please let us know what you know about his search.

Actually I think it is just of him I was talking about, although his role was never clearly explained and he vanished vanished as quietly as he appeared.

But, the continuity part I talked about is something that stuck in the back of my head.

 

[Radi]

If it ain't broke - why fix it !!!

+1

The problem today is often with security issues, which force updates. Apart from this I prefer products running for years without updates or any other changes. That's the result of my experience over the years.

This was different when I was younger and playing around with new versions was fun. Today I need my software to run stable and solid without the constant danger (or fear) of updates breaking something.

B4A... also not having problems for Android developing... but every time also Android versions/SDK changes need to "re-think" - "re-program" and go with the Rules of Google- Alphabet... but i think that need company need to change name... need to be alphaBET... because everytime we must bet... like internet-casinos... that never win... only casino wins

+1

 

[CaptKronos]

The problem today is often with security issues, which force updates. Apart from this I prefer products running for years without updates or any other changes. That's the result of my experience over the years.

I completely agree. Whilst it is always exciting when a new version is released, I am not waiting for anything critical or even important to be fixed or added to B4J. B4A, however, is another thing, solely due to the breaking changes that Google continually introduces. If B4A stopped being updated, it would very soon be a fairly useless development tool.

 

[Swissmade]

The IDE cannot be open sourced due to its dependencies.

I love the IDE is closed source so nobody can mess around with it and even do bad things.

 

[JakeBullet70]

The only thing I would REALLY want is some type of API hooks so that us developers can write add-ins for the IDE itself.

 

[m4.s]

I do appreciate everyone's feedback to my original inquiry. To hopefully restate more clearly: my primary intent was to question why evolutionary B4J enhancements (including, again, some spurred by developer users' "wishes") - to its IDE, language compiler and various maintained libraries - are not regularly planned for implementation and deployment on at least a quarterly basis. In most software companies, deliverables are tied to product-specific feature roadmaps and typically deployed many times a year; typically via continuous [agile sprint-managed] releases.

If B4J was not a free Anywhere Software product offering, I'd expect something similar as a paid subscriber customer. And I'd gladly even pay a recurring annual license fee in order to get such frequent upgrades (along with identified bug fixes too, of course). Given that's not the case, it seems we all just have to accept that B4J may not evolve/mature much more now - or at least not on/per any known timeline or long-term plan.

That all said, and after 8+ years of personal use, I still find B4J a unique and highly effective cross-platform desktop application development environment as-is; and am quite grateful for its existence and amazing support (from Erel especially, and all the knowledgeable forum contributors here).

 

[aeric]

My point of view is different companies can have different business model. Anywhere Software is not a giant public listed company that need to answer to thousands of shareholders about their annual revenue. It doesn't hire thousand of developers with team of project or product managers and having a lot of meeting and presentation. It doesn't have the corporate environment like any giant companies like the FAANG. So why would we have to compare apple with orange?

Do you know about other similar products? Do you see in their forum or website they provide a full road map? Yes, you may see some do that during the early prerelease version to attract users to try their software as a marketing strategy. Me too can list out all the sweet promises to steal your attention in my website about my company new product. But when a software become mature, the product talks to itself. It doesn't need that propaganda to sell for itself. As far as I know another product name starts with X formerly starts with R, has make promises in their road map to support Android from many generation but yet to deliver the promises.

I does not agree that all software development companies should embrace the sprint or Agile framework. There are other SDLC practice that suit a company. Agile framework is just a way to manage a team. I don't think other projects like the open source Linux kernel, Debian OS follow this methodology but the project teams deliver solid stable products. The industry has make big hype of certain concepts but in reality the actual product is not what we want to use.

We don't want to use Android Studio. We don't want to use Xcode. But we use B4X suite of products. I don't use React and Angular but plain jquery. People even look for a simple HTMX now.

The conclusion is, don't follow the hype and what the industry tells you. They are not 100% right. A product without public announcement of road map doesn't mean in Internal it doesn't have a plan. It may just keep secret, no point to share it or any other reasons not to do it. I think Anywhere Software rather use the time focus on development than telling a story.