Android Question Is it worth learning B4A?

[AndreyPozdnyakov]

Expert opinions often appear on the Internet that smartphones may become a thing of the past in the coming years, that they will be replaced by other gadgets.
Is it worth it to seriously study programming for Android (iOS) in this case?
How much longer can smartphones (and tablets) last?

 

[Erel]

Expert opinions often appear on the Internet that smartphones may become a thing of the past in the coming years,

I did laugh when I read it.

And more importantly, you are learning concepts, practices, algorithms and more, that will be useful even when we develop apps for in-skull gadgets.

 

[zed]

After smartphones, it will be brain implants.
It's going to be great to code in B4X for these implants.
Might as well learn for now with gadgets such as smartphones.
The big machinery will arrive later and we will be ready.

 

[aeric]

of course!

How much longer can smartphones (and tablets) last?

Longer than you and I live, I guess.

Expert opinions

Who are these people who claimed themselves as Expert? Bill, Tim, Mark or Elon? or Michio Kaku?

 

[josejad]

Expert opinions often appear on the Internet that smartphones may become a thing of the past in the coming years

No, no. I said that smartphones may become as thin as a pastry in the coming years.

 

[amykonio]

After smartphones, it will be brain implants.
It's going to be great to code in B4X for these implants.
Might as well learn for now with gadgets such as smartphones.
The big machinery will arrive later and we will be ready.

In this case, a bug may be really a headache.

 

[Sagenut]

even when we develop apps for in-skull gadgets.

Do we have some Brain.b4xlib in Beta now?
Smartphones and tablets will upgrade or will be substituted by something else one day.
But as @Erel said the programming concepts will remain for a good 80% - 90%.

 

[Erel]

Yes but I'm still not sure whether B4B-Bridge will work with USB or wifi

 

[amykonio]

Yes but I'm still not sure whether B4B-Bridge will work with USB or wifi

I think it will be contactless... Wifi should work.

 

[amykonio]

I think it will be contactless... Wifi should work.

I'm thinking now what would be the impact of a dos attack for example in the future. Think of a brain implant that is exposed to a network or accessible through Bluetooth nfc or whatever technology will be available at that time... They will really have to many thinks to think...
Andreas.

 

[tigrot]

About in 90's I saw first handheld computers. It was a HP pocket PC. It had a back side connected phone. I could never guess what this idea could have change the world in a few years, along G3 and G4 networks. I worked on mainframe and was thinking they could be the future. Future is out of scope

 

[aeric]

Since ChatGPT is opened to the public, there are tons of questions everywhere that developers will be replaced by AI (in coming years).
If it is true, then why bother to learn ANY programming language?

 

[aeric]

I'm thinking now what would be the impact of a dos attack for example in the future. Think of a brain implant that is exposed to a network or accessible through Bluetooth nfc or whatever technology will be available at that time... They will really have to many thinks to think...
Andreas.

Don't worry, you can have Digital Twin to take the damage for you first.

 

[walterf25]

I don't know about brain implants but I'll tell you what's coming down the pipe line is AR wearables, and some of these devices will run on a modified version of Android. Can't give too many details.

 

[BlueVision]

Short answer:
YES, Absolutely

Long answer:
As Erel said already before, you learn how to convert an imaginary idea into a piece of code, working on a whatever piece of hardware. Remember, BASIC got in the early years of it's existence a laugh by many programmers (and the expert's told us it will only create spaghetti code because of the use of GO TO). Nowadays BASIC is so different, less code-flow-interpreter oriented, much more a strong structural problem oriented program language. It will change, but continue existing for many many years. It's easy to learn compared to other languages and delivers in a comparable short time a final product.
It is best choice for me.

 

[AndreyPozdnyakov]

Good day everyone.
It was a very interesting discussion. Thanks a lot, everyone!
Perhaps I didn't formulate my question very precisely.
I'm wondering: is it worth writing large projects on B4A specifically for smartphones?
It is possible that in the coming years something will replace them, and the project will have to be radically redone.
And the global reworking of large projects is not the most pleasant task.

Well, no one doubts that B4A will exist for many, many years. As in the words of Erel about programming in general.

As the great Donald Knuth wrote:
"...programming is an art because it is the application of accumulated knowledge for practical purposes, because it requires skill and craftsmanship, and especially because programming products can be of aesthetic value."

 

[Sandman]

It is possible that in the coming years something will replace them, and the project will have to be radically redone.

You're talking about a paradigm shift. It's in the nature of those that they aren't really possible to predict. So we don't know, and we have no real way of knowing. That's the bad (from your perspective) part.

The good (from your perspective) part is that humankind has a built-in inertia which makes a possible paradigm shift irrelevant. It simply does not matter if there's a new exceptional solution invented tomorrow, there will still be billions of mobile phone users out there for years to come.

Let's say somebody tomorrow invented a safe, reasonably priced flying car. There would still be billions of regular cars driving around for many, many years to come. Same thing.

There's more to say on the subject, but basically it boils down to this:

I'm wondering: is it worth writing large projects on B4A specifically for smartphones?

Yes. Stop worrying and start coding.

 

[AndreyPozdnyakov]

Yes. Stop worrying and start coding.

Actually, I started programming way back in 1979.

 

[copanut]

Actually, I started programming way back in 1979.

As did I. And one thing we should have learned in that 44 year span is that the technology landscape is constantly evolving. If you wait for it to be stable before writing software, you will never write software.

Short of an AI singularity that takes us all out, I seriously doubt that you and I will outlive the viability and relevance of the current main B4X platforms, Android, iOS, and Windows. They are used daily by literally billions of people and businesses globally, and that creates a tremendous amount of inertia to change.

 

[William Lancee]

I agree with what has been said, but I would like to add some other considerations.
The B4X language you have to learn to program Android devices, is the same language you have to learn to program
iOS devices, Arduino devices and Windows apps. One learning task for opportunities on four platforms.

Moreover "learning" while not always easy is always beneficial. The mind's ability to abstract is amazing and the more you assimilate
the more effective that abstraction becomes.

Learning to program in any coding language is learning to break things down into procedural steps that can then be implemented
at lightening speed. Why would that not be worth doing?

I actively seek out new learning opportunities each day. I give an example.

When I was at University I had a friend who regularly beat me at chess.
It was not important to me at the time, it was just an interesting activity to pass time.
When I retired, I decided to test an idea that if you do a task repeatedly without too much analysis, in time
the solving process would become integrated into the mind, and eventually I would become better at chess.

So every day or so in the past 10 years, I have tried to solve chess puzzles, trying to make as little effort as possible.
Sometime even reading a book at the same time, making a move once in a while.

This week I actually paid attention to what I was doing and voila, it was obvious that I knew most of solutions right away.

I have learned many coding languages, as have most of the members of this forum.
For me, and I am not alone, I stick with the one's that are most "fun" (least annoying).
Since finding the B4X language, I have had lot's of fun, been very productive creating apps, and have been able
to apply what I learned to make Arduino robots that can communicate with the desktop and with android devices.
And yes I learned to solder.

You can create web apps and servers with B4X and fantastic charts, graph, and games.
None of that is dependent on whether smart phones will continue to exist in their present form.
Even AI entities need material to learn and verification to be useful.

My advice to all is be open to new ideas - you won't be sorry.