just for discussion: Why B4X is not famous enough

KZero

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Why B4X is not famous enough

I believe that B4X is one of the Best Rapid Application Development to build a real Native application for any platform in no time

light, fast, powerful, productive, stable and easy to learn,

I used B4A to build professional apps for companies, it literally can build anything

so why do you think it's not famous as some laggy and buggy hybrid tools?

I think it's BASIC

We "The old developers who used to use the old VB" already love it

but what about new developers?

BASIC nowadays has a really bad reputation

I don't think that there are any new courses to learn BASIC language now

BASIC is not in Top 10 recommended programming languages to learn in 2020 (if there is top 100 list I bet it will not be there too)

even Xamarin (Owned by Microsoft) not officially support VB!

what do you think about adding support for other "Trendy" languages like Python for example

Python's syntax is very similar to BASIC, i don't think it will take huge effort to change the BASIC's keywords to match it.


eventually, as I mentioned this post is just for discussion
 

rabbitBUSH

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well...you may have a point i've had someone or two make that omment "not going back to BASIC"

as @sorex says its been discussed.

Incidentally, I just counted out the P languages I've been through starting with BasicA, excluding starting to self-learn python (and drifted off it).

I guess my position is " it might not be Famous but its got traction " -> and if it means I can avoid having to dig into JAVA [bonus]

More to the point it doesn't Feel like BASIC

sorex said:
just do what you think is best for you. the end result is what counts imho.
Click to expand...
 

KZero

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I didn't mean to replace the current BASIC with Pascal or any other language,

I'm just thinking about if B4X support more languages (not only BASIC) it will be suitable for much more users
 

aeric

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KZero said:
what do you think about adding support for other "Trendy" languages like Python for example
Click to expand...
I don't understand the point here.
I use B4A because I am not comfortable with Java syntax, B4i because of Objective-C/Swift syntax; to build mobile apps.
Python is already simple. I am not sure about it's use cases. I only tried out Python using Django for web application. And we can use B4J to build web app using framework like ABM or BANano.
Why bother to use B4X then to convert into Python code?
 

Erel

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KZero said:
I'm just thinking about if B4X support more languages (not only BASIC) it will be suitable for much more users
Click to expand...
1. B4X is not BASIC. B4X is a new programming language with syntax that is somewhat similar to basic.
2. As B4X is a programming language it will never support other languages.
 

amidgeha

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If you are an Android studio developer (just an example) and start developing apps with B4X, you will soon discover that you have been shooting an ant with a huge gun.
I think such developers will fall in love with B4X. I am sure that B4X is very famous among such developers.
I am an Android studio , Embarcadero, and MS Visual Studo for many years and also a pascal developer since 1982.
 

rabbitBUSH

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aeric said:
Why bother to use B4X then to convert into Python code?
Click to expand...
I thought @KZero wants it the other way round : write in Python in the IDE and process as it does now.

But. Anyway, #6 is definitive. I've never thought B4X {is} {as} BASIC anyway (excusing the Pun... It took me less than an hour to get the front ends of the first app going.)
 

udg

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B in B4A..B4X doesn't stand for Basic but for Best.
 

AnandGupta

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Agree with LucaMs.

In my company there is a team developing Android in Java.

I have mentioned about B4A, when it was paid. Did not find interest from them. Further Java programmer are available a dime a dozen.

Now that it is free, I hope we may see more programmers in B4A.
And then interest by companies.

Regards

Anand
 

Polaris

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Absolutely agree with the first post. Never could figure out why B4X never gets the recognition it deserves. Maybe it's due to the word ' Basic' in the name.
I spent 12 months trying to get my head around Java for Android and got nowhere. With B4X I had my first app up and running in 4 months. B4X is much more straightforward and has much less silly boilerplate code that goes around in circles. But funny thing is when I went back to Android Studio code, it was easy to figure it out , because it tied in to the B4X logic very well even if the syntax is different. So I think B4X is a MUST for newbie coders to start learning . Having said that, B4X is powerful in it's own right, and can be used instead of Android Studio no problem at all.
It's probably down to herd mentality, people go straight to Android Studio because that's where everyone else is.
 

alwaysbusy

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I've always named it "Build" for Android, "Build" for Java, etc... It may have started as a Basic like language, but now it really has its own identity. There is so many stuff in B4X that never existed in any Basic language. I've seen other tools move things like 'Dim' to 'Var' because they are so scared of the 'basic' stamp, with absolutely no additional value whatsoever to the programmer. In fact, it just annoyed the hard core programmer of their tool who has to rewrite whole chunks of code. I'd ratter have a tool that stays true to its roots instead of a tool that changes its syntax every so much years. The result, such tools have now 3 syntax's that do basically the same!

I wrote the transpiler BANano. It is not Python to Javascript, not Java to Javascript. Hell, it is not even Basic to Javascript. It just is B4X to Javascript! Or if you want, call it "Build" for Javascript.
 

Erel

B4X founder
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I'm thinking about this a lot. How to make B4X more popular? What are the barriers who prevent B4X from growing?
Making B4A free removes one barrier and I'm sure that in the long run it will have a positive effect. Making the core libraries open source will also help.

About BASIC. There isn't too much to say here. The programming language is B4X. For better or for worse its syntax is close to BASIC and it will not be changed.

The real challenge is how to increase the exposure of new developers to B4X. I need your help here. If you like B4X encourage other developers to give it a try.
There is a large and active community here and this community is the key for further growth.
 
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