Other It's time to grow

Erel

B4X founder
Staff member
Licensed User
Longtime User
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.
 
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Ed Brown

Active Member
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Longtime User
Whoah!
Erel said:
The big announcement today is that B4A will become free in a few weeks.
Click to expand...

Erel, you've clearly got a flare for the dramatic but, you've understated the news here! This is EPIC news.

Erel said:
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.
Click to expand...
Something tells me that this is just the tip of a much larger iceberg.

But, a question if I may, by 'open source' do you mean the IDE, compiler/parser and supporting libs? If yes, what's the plan to keep the IDE in-line with B4J/i/R?
 
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Peter Simpson

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I said this to a well know developer on here over PM not long ago. I'm more than sure that developers looking for an easier solution tried B4A in the past but couldn't afford to purchase it. I personally believe that B4A is a bargain for the price, if not for the software updates then for the absolutely fabulous always busy forum (community) and the fact that questions get answered relatively quickly. If you look at other forums, questions can go unanswered for days if not weeks. This forum if different, the community will always band together to answer questions, that is unique in itself and worth every penny in my opinion. After all, time is money, the faster you get an answer to your questions, the more productive you become.

But saying that, I personally believe that the decision that @Erel has made is the correct one for Anywhere Software and the whole B4X community at large.

Anyway, thanks again to @Erel and to everyone on this great community of ours.

Cheers...
 
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mading1309

Member
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Longtime User
To be honest, I have some reservations about this decision. US investors only invest if they are very likely to profit. I currently don't see any option for this in case B4X will come for free. I do not hope that with B4X become free, in the near future license fees will be incurred per publication or that certain download volumes in the Play Store. or other stores will be charged.
I will feel better if the license terms stay the way they are.

anyway thanks to @Erl for his energy and time and idea for this great and useful development tools
 
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engvidal

Member
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Longtime User


I think the same.
Free forever?
My suggestion is that instead of donations, you should be charged,
for example US$ 10 / year to maintain the support as it is today, excellent.

Thanks to this tool, I didn't give up on mobile programming.

Vidal
 
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Star-Dust

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Longtime User
What does that mean in practice?
 
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josejad

Expert
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Longtime User
Fantastic news!!
I was saving to update my license. This way, I will make donations.

I think B4A price is affordable, but probably not for everybody, so, good news to grow the community up.

My best wishes in this new stage, here we will be to help.
 
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kisoft

Well-Known Member
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Longtime User
This large investor is probably Google. I don't know whether to cry or be happy. @Erel please say it's not Google ..
 
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Martin Larsen

Active Member
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Longtime User
Syd Wright said:
If that would be the case then I think Google's aim would be to buy and kill B4A in favour of its own products,
Click to expand...

B4X is not big enough for any company to invest in only to kill it. It is not a threat. Yet, at least.

Erel, do you have the same plans with B4i? (I understand if you currently are not willing/able to tell)
 
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kisoft

Well-Known Member
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Longtime User
So when can we expect the first free version? Will you still work alone or will you work as a team? Give us some more details here ....
 
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