Other It's time to grow

[Erel]

I’m very proud in the continuing progress of B4X tools. I’m also very proud to be part of this amazing developers community.

In the last couple of years, I have a growing feeling that B4X tools do not realize their potential. While there are all kinds of development tools, B4X offers a unique set of features: simple, powerful, mature, great community, RAD, native, cross platform and more.
B4X tools are an excellent choice for a wide range of real-world use cases.

So, the question is how to make B4X more popular? Obviously, it is not a simple nor a short-term task.
A clear growth barrier is the fact that unlike most development tools today, B4A and B4i are not free. This wasn’t the case 10 years ago.

The big announcement today is that B4A will become free in a few weeks. The framework - set of internal libraries, will be open sourced.

We will accept contributions for B4A like currently done with B4J.
We've also secured funds from a US investor who shares my vision of making B4X a popular development tool. These resources will allow us to further expand.

How can you help?

Help us spread the word about B4X.

 

[Erel]

Well, i bought B4A enterprise 3 weeks ago... any chance to get a refund then?

Contact support@basic4ppc.com

 

[Peter Simpson]

Well, i bought B4A enterprise 3 weeks ago... any chance to get a refund then?

I hope that you are going to donate/contribute something in the near future???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

[Dave G]

Make sure to use XUI library and other XUI based components. XUI hides many of the platform differences.

About your main question, there will probably some restrictions in the forum for users who haven't bought a license or made a contribution. They will be able to download libraries however their posts will be moderated.

I used XUI. There were only a few conditionals e.g. Color, internal directories, Resume/Pause, and event differences. Easy to find and fix.

 

[netsistemas]

Ojalá esté equivocado, pero prefería pagar cada 2 años por una licencia. Quizás en otros paises suponga mucho dinero el coste que tenía, pero creo esto no va a tarminar bien. Las cosas gratis ni se valoran, ni se cuida.
Supongo que Erel, buscará o tendrá otras cosas en mente, y esto dejará de ser tan ágil como hasta ahora.
Para mi, no es una buena notifica.

Google Translate:

I wish I was wrong, but I preferred to pay every 2 years for a license. Perhaps in other countries the cost that I had would involve a lot of money, but I think this will not take well. Free things are neither valued nor taken care of.

I suppose that Erel, will look for or have other things in mind, and this will stop being as agile as until now.

For me, it is not a good new.

 

[Jmu5667]

Ojalá esté equivocado, pero prefería pagar cada 2 años por una licencia. Quizás en otros paises suponga mucho dinero el coste que tenía, pero creo esto no va a tarminar bien. Las cosas gratis ni se valoran, ni se cuida.
Supongo que Erel, buscará o tendrá otras cosas en mente, y esto dejará de ser tan ágil como hasta ahora.
Para mi, no es una buena notifica.

Google Translate:

I wish I was wrong, but I preferred to pay every 2 years for a license. Perhaps in other countries the cost that I had would involve a lot of money, but I think this will not take well. Free things are neither valued nor taken care of.

I suppose that Erel, will look for or have other things in mind, and this will stop being as agile as until now.

For me, it is not a good new.

Interesting view point.

 

[netsistemas]

Those are good news.

This move have positive and negative consequences however, I like the idea of Open Source, in this community alone are many excellent developers who could expand and improve the product in short time as opposed to just Erel doing all the work, and that's a big plus, the negative side is fragmentation that comes along with open source projects as well as messy code.

I was an early adopter and big fan of B4A, I haven't done much lately but still B4X is a great product.

La orda mongolina, no por mucho mas desarrolladores, esto crecerá mas rápido o mejor. Dudo que nadie o grupo de permonas, lo puedo manejar mejor que EREL. Esto era su niño y lo mimaba
Erel es un profesional con conocimientos extensos, bien aplicados, con sabiduría, correción en sus planteamientos y explicaciones claras y concisas. Dudo que conozca en mi vida a ningún profesional mejor que él. Quizás exista una persona mas inteligente, pero dudo que sea tan resolutiva como él.

Google Translate:
Mongolian orda, not by much more developers, this will grow faster or better. I doubt anyone or group of permons, what I can handle better than EREL. This was his boy and he spoiled him

Erel is a professional with extensive knowledge, well applied, with wisdom, correctness in his approaches and clear and concise explanations. I doubt that I know in my life any professional better than him. There may be a more intelligent person, but I doubt he is as resolute as he is.

 

[ajk]

And how about B4i future?

 

[aeric]

And how about B4i future?

Nothing changes for now. It is possible that in the future it will also become free however it will not happen in the near future.

 

[OliverA]

I don't get some of the negativity/fears of this announcement.

As the title of the thread indicates, this move is done in order to promote growth! I doubt that @Erel would take on any investor(s) that did not have the same point of view/vision as he has. I'm not going to second guess him (it is not my place).

As to support, have you folks seen B4J and B4R? Both products are FREE and both products have the same forum support as the two (soon one) paid products in Anywhere Software's arsenal. Also, have you noticed how B4i/B4A/and B4J have more and more in common with each version? Why would that stop? Why would advancements in B4i stop to be migrated to the other platforms if currently B4i/B4A advances are migrated to B4J (B4R is a little bit more specialized - BTW, how did @Erel find time to freely publish that one?)? Why would this change?

As to opening up the source to the core libraries, what an awesome move! Have you looked at the Git repositories for B4X products (just search for Git on this forum)? They are a treasure trove of information. You may not directly modify them in such a way as to include them in the next version of the product, but they can be used to see HOW the libraries work internally, which in turn can lead to better usage of the libraries (through better understanding). The source can be used to glean how wrapping is done. The source can be used to make better "wishes" for changes/additions to the libraries.

If you are worried that non-payment = non-support, then just buy the B4i license, even if you don't use it. Or donate. Nothing is stopping you from spending your money.

Ok, it's late and I'm rambling. Peace out.

 

[sorex]

I don't get some of the negativity/fears of this announcement.

I think that some people just think straight.

Investors invest to make profit.
If the product they invest in goes from paid to free how will they make profit on that product?
(The forum full of ads?)

It can lead to more sales of the paid remainders if people like the free products and want to expand platforms.

It's not really clear that's why some people are skeptical.

No doubt about the support as we still have people like @DonManfred , @LucaMs and a bunch of others who react fast and with links to solutions.
The less Erel needs to react the better (more time for him to code )

 

[DonManfred]

No doubt about the support as we still have people like @DonManfred , @LucaMs and a bunch of others who react fast and with links to solutions.

Including you ;-)

 

[DALB]

But doing so, how will you earn your money?

I think Erel so clever that he cant finish his life in the streets. I hope his life will give him satisfaction every day the sun is raising !

 

[ajk]

I think the advantage of this is:
1) the project will not depend on one person
2) Erel will be able to do what he likes (I think it takes 80% of his time to grasp what is not pure programming)
3) A platform will be created, for example Unreal or UNITY like schema: one code> many devices (I think that was the reason for the investor's interest)
I think the disadvantage of this is:
1) the inverter will decide on the direction of development
2) collaborating programmers do not necessarily have to be as intuitive as the Author
3) Android market and then IOS floods the mass of "good software" written in B4X

 

[Alessandra Pellegri]

I think Erel so clever that he cant finish his life in the streets. I hope his life will give him satisfaction every day the sun is raising !

No doubt about that, I am just curious about this business model. If I give for free my job, what or who gives me money ? And why ?

I know that Microsoft distribute Visual Studio for free, but it is different. Visual studio may incentivate developers to create software for Windows, and Windows isn't free.
Or may be that some people developes software just for hobby and distribute its job for free, like Reactos for example.

But in this case, how could B4X earn money ? The first post speaks about an investor; ok, but this investor, how earns from this operation ?

It is just curiosity, no polemic.

 

[iCAB]

I think it is a great move that ensures the survival of this product.
There is no doubt in mind that Erel needs help to take B4X to the next stage, otherwise he wouldn't be looking for investors.

We have invested years and tons of code based on the B4X product line. For those that think it is a risky move for us, simply think about the current situation and the backup.

As far as the quality and the support, a great leader will always make it happen.
This is Erel's baby and I am sure nothing is going to change his commitment.

I am not concerned about "free". In reality, nothing is free. One way or another, somewhere somehow there is a plan to make money from it. It could be short term, long term, indirect benefit, etc...

@Erel , make sure to keep a minimum of 51% so you can call the shots

 

[aidymp]

Forums about to get a lot busier! which is really good news for everyone!

Thanks @Erel I think this is a good way to move forward.

 

[leonardo pino]

Excellent News, congratulations, this is a great leap Forward.

 

[Toky Olivier]

I think that It's time to think again about Inheritance etc within classes. I know already the advice of @Erel on the subject but what I can say is, one reason of some person to not move to B4X language is this. If they came from Visual Basic, yes they'll adopt easily but if they came from another language, for example, they want to port their existing projects, It'll be difficult for them if they use all classes stuffs in their code.
In some thread, @Erel said that it's not difficult at all to implement it. Why not implement it and let users to choose and use it or not?
Netherless, hope the best for B4X and @Erel for this decision.

 

[DonManfred]

I think that It's time to think again about Inheritance etc within classes

This is not the right place for Wishes.

You are free to create another wish in the wish-forum though.

 

[Beja]

We've also secured funds from a US investor

Maybe it's LukaMS from Italy, because sorry I don't remember I put any funds into this!