Other Promoting B4J - What do you think?

[Erel]

While there are many programming language available today, including free tools, there aren't many quality RAD (rapid application development) tools.
As I see it, B4J, especially after the latest update which adds an internal designer, is a good candidate to to be a very popular programming language / tool. I think of it as a modern VB6. A tool to get the job done.
It can also be a good choice for teaching programming.

How can we better promote B4J? What do you think?

 

[EnriqueGonzalez]

Same here. 100% b4j developer with a paid license for b4a and b4i.

The good thing is, the day I need to develop for mobile I will already have the tools and the knowledge.

 

[Erel]

I don't plan to charge for B4J and B4R and it doesn't mean that they receive less attention.

There are many free tools available and I think that to help B4X spread it is important to keep them free.

 

[Squiffy]

Same here. 100% b4j developer with a paid license for b4a and b4i.

I did the same. I really must install B4A & B4i I bet they're fun, just finding the time ...

 

[Harris]

I did the same. I really must install B4A & B4i I bet they're fun, just finding the time ...

I started with B4A - before it had code modules, services - or anything else other than a (bare) activity! I knew nor could understand anything about this!

If not for this forum, and Erel's knowledge and patience (along with others), I would still be lost.

Look where it is at today (Feb 07, 2017) (B4X). I challenge anyone and all - show us an easier path to creating (100 % functional) Web, Android, Apple integrated apps...

Also, answer me this: how could a simple add-on GUI, like ABMaterial, make such a difference if it was NOT built upon a solid platform like B4J?
I don't want to know why or how, I am just impressed that it does.

And, when I need to know how to implement something (beyond my limited knowledge), this EXPERT community points me in the right direction. Certain individuals take extraordinary efforts to helping 'us' out.

This platform and community continues to impress and enhance the efforts of all those that embrace it.

Newcomers need to have an understanding, like many others before them pondered, if this platform was the correct choice to invest time in...

Poll says?

 

[Walt]

I'm a newcomer, so here's my tuppence:
Get B4X to the top of every imaginable Google search. I haven't written a program since VB6 and I didn't finish that one. I finished it with Access 98.
So, when I went looking, I was searching for easy. First I installed Visual Studio thinking it was the progression of VB6. Yikes!
Then I looked at Python and Ruby since they came up as easy. I felt like I might as well re-learn Lisp.
Finally, I stumbled across B4J. I'm not even sure what search uncovered it but I'm glad it did. It's exactly what I had hoped to find.
But back to the question at hand, I'm sure that word of mouth will get you your recognition eventually but that could happen slowly. Getting to the top of Google searches will surely speed things up.
The other thing I would suggest (as a newcomer), put more sample code out there. Have a repository for it so a body doesn't need to search the entire forum to find something. You might even consider charging for some larger modules and put them in the store.
Thanks for the great program.

 

[Erel]

Get B4X to the top of every imaginable Google search.

This is indeed very important. The forum generates quite a lot of organic traffic, mainly from "long tail" terms.
I don't think that there is any magic way to improve the site visibility. Google is very sophisticated.

Maybe I will start providing support through Stack Overflow as well as the forum at some point. SO is ranked very high in Google for many good reasons.

 

[Walt]

I had another idea. You have a nice logo and splash screen so why not capitalize on it?
Write up a nice, scalable splash screen for anyone that wants to use it?
Something like this:

If enough people started attaching it to their programs, it should start leading to brand recognition.

 

[hibrid0]

This I think ways to make more popular B4J.

1. Write very good documentation.
2. Make Video Tutorials to Learn 0 to Medium.
3. Make a Collection of samples maked with B4J, I know you do a lot on the forum, but I'm talking something like Hotscripts or https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/.
4. Maybe make a Free Version of B4A without ExtraLibraries Support (B4A Express Edition).

Something like an Small Academy Online for anybody want to learn to develop apps for Windows, WebServer, Android and iOS.
I know this forum is an small academy, but some people want videos.
In my personal experience dont like the videos (I sleep with it), I learn a lot with app for learn on the phone for example "SoloLearn". I learned the basic concepts of SQL, Python and CSS with SoloLearn.

 

[Aristide]

Hello,

Your software is pretty ... impressive in terms of simplicity of implementation, functionalities, targets in terms of system, ...

Your commercial offer is consistent, two products free and two others paying. A balance justified by the target and the "scarcity" of offer to develop on Android and IOS.

Your potential clientele exists, that of those who do not want to "se prendre la tête", in French, "do your head in" for anglophones if I believe this dear GOOGLE translation.

So, you have a good wagon in hand but it lacks a locomotive. There is no future apart from big institutions such as Apache, .... and ... Eclipse. You would need a locomotive of this kind that attracts many developers. The current RAD products from Eclispe are not at the level of your "know-how".

You have made the choice, finally I believe, to redevelooper everything that is included in the framework Eclipse. Eclipse has everything you need to build a software such as yours, the source code editing framework, the debugging framework, the management of project directories ... And also of fairly obvious link with software of management of Source software such as CVS, test software, ...

My experience in a large company in France has led a team that has develloped in this environment, a "workshop" for our script language, everything was there, editing, syntactic coloring, immediate compilation, ... execution, debug,. ..

I know that my message is a bit hazardous given the investments already made by you, but it must also be admitted that apart from a known organization, it is very difficult to get known ...

.

 

[bogdanc]

I have paid for b4a but mostly I use a B4J it is a great tool.
I'm realy thankful for that powerfull software.

 

[amaxco]

Hello to all,

It is the first time and by chance I came to this thread! I almost read 80% of the posts and will continue and read again. For me, this is one of the most vital issues in and for the community and must be among our concerns.

Needless to repeat what has been said, I know I will never be elaborate and fluent, I first suggest to add a new forum entry to only address B4X outspread and sustainability. A board, chaired by @Erel, must be formed to administer this project to achieve the goals you mentioned and discussed earlier. We need a vision, mission and plan. However, first thing first, we must organize ourselves and know each one's capacity and role.

I recently joined the B4X world, less than three months, but I feel like I am obliged to be part of a planned strategy to roll this name and products in the right way. I am not the knowledgeable or expert but I must participate simply because, as I mentioned somewhere in this forum, B4X for some people resembles the "lifebuoy" .....

Least but not last, a word of thankfulness and appreciation to @Erel and everyone who is willingly and relentlessly extending his/her help to the products and the community. We, proudly counting myself in, will grow because we like each others and we love B4X .... Only we need to come closer and share the responsibility.

English is not my native language, please excuse me if I missed to express properly.

Regards,

 

[Informatix]

Even though all the above, I have tried to convince friends to move to b4x (or at least try to do some apps with B4J). They are Python, C#, .NET, PHP, WPF programmers. Strangely, they all agree b4x is amazing, but they don't want to change their programming habits, even though I managed to convince them.

Same thing at work. My colleagues agree that's a good product but nobody wants to use it. I understand their arguments: obligation to use wrappers to take advantage of all the libraries available, too dependent on third-party libraries, no professional interest because there is virtually no demand, language with serious limitations (e.g. for class: no inheritance, no overriding)... Having said that, my colleagues are not the audience targeted by B4x products. They are not former VB users or beginning programmers. So they have to try it to be convinced that they could gain in productivity. But nobody seems interested by a try.

 

[Erel]

language with serious limitations (e.g. for class: no inheritance, no overriding)... Having said that, my colleagues are not the audience targeted by B4x products. They are not former VB users or beginning programmers. So they have to try it to be convinced that they could gain in productivity. But nobody seems interested by a try.

B4X tools are cross-platform, simple and powerful RAD tools. The focus is on productivity and helping the developer get his or her job done. I don't think that inheritance is really missing from B4X. As a RAD tool the language should be simple.
IMHO, B4X has other features such as the resumable subs feature (and many more) that are more important.

WPF is a good example of a powerful framework which is anti-RAD.

 

[LucaMs]

obligation to use wrappers to take advantage of all the libraries available

This is really true and important, I think; but when you use other languages & tools, you use core libraries, on which you anyway don't have "control".
Same thing when you use(d ) many third party dlls and activex.
I think that Anywhere Software should spend much of the time creating important wrappers and keeping them up to date.

Also, programmers who have never developed in vb have little desire to know it; moving from one language to another is already a bit unpleasant but still less enjoyable is changing development tools.

B4X tools are cross-platform, simple and powerful RAD tools. The focus is on productivity and helping the developer get his or her job done. I don't think that inheritance is really missing from B4X. As a RAD tool the language should be simple.

I don't agree. RAD should be an additional aid, an additional and superior layer on an important and extensive basis.

I don't think that inheritance is really missing from B4X.

This thread is about B4J and I think instead that in b4j all the characteristics of classes should be implemented
(being b4a cross-platform, of course this could also be done for the other platforms)

 

[amaxco]

Hi to all,

@Erel just a quick statistic question, what is the number of views for top 10 questions been recorded so far? (this question has marked up 7,947!)

 

[Erel]

You can sort the threads by views: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/forums/b4j-questions.54/?order=view_count

 

[amaxco]

You can sort the threads by views: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/forums/b4j-questions.54/?order=view_count

Thanks.

Apart from notifications for new versions release, this thread has the highest views!

I am sure many of the viewers have something to say but maybe no knowing from where to start. We need open and more talks herein

 

[Don Oso]

I think that B4j it's a Great Tool who help you to create a complex applications cross platform, it's easy to use ,with many libraries ready to go. But one of the greatest things its that you can build and sale encapsulated web apps that it's awesome very few compilers or IDE give you that option may be Delphi but with a US$ 3000 cost.
For me has a small software company it's a very good option for commercial software products.

Thanks Erel for this Great and Awesome Free Multiplatform Compiler.

 

[Winni]

Hello everybody. Even though I've bought B4A quite a long while ago, I've never posted on the forum. And only recently I've begun working with B4J...

Here are my 2 cents about the B4J promotion question, in a few brief points:

1. The entire B4X family should have multi-platform IDEs. B4X -- literally! -- is the ONLY remaining reason why I still have a Windows desktop or VM around. I take care of over 120 servers at work, and the vast majority of that runs Ubuntu. Software and scripts that I write are always deployed to Ubuntu machines, not Windows servers. On the client side, I have to make sure that all three big desktop platforms are supported. But having to work with Windows on my workstations and notebooks... feels out of place these days. I would very much prefer my desktop to be either a Linux machine or a Mac. I know that this is asking A LOT, and probably it is asking way too much, but I thought it won't hurt to put it on the official record. ;-)

2. B4J should come bundled with ABMaterial. I'm still learning and evaluating Alain's framework and have not yet produced anything for production use, yet. But boy, from what I've seen so far, ABMaterial is a real killer feature for B4J! It takes away the pain that HTML, JavaScript and CSS are -- just like B4X takes away the royal pain that Java is. It only feels natural to ask for both B4J and ABMaterial in one package.

3. It's awesome that B4J is a "free" product (as in beer). But I am not sure how viable this is on the long run from a commercial / economic perspective. B4J certainly helps selling B4A or B4I. But seeing what B4J can do, it has all the right in the world to become a paid-for product (and then there should be an option to buy commercial support for it).

4. Maybe it's just me, and maybe I am totally missing something here: But couldn't all B4X products merge into one shared IDE?

5. Documentation is a bit of an issue. But then again, I've worked as a Technical Writer in my previous life, so by definition I am almost never pleased with any technical documentation that I find -- I always see the things that are missing or the parts that could and should be much more elaborate.

But in general, B4X is an amazing and extremely productive and useful family of products. It should be more aggressively advertised and there should also be "official" training courses available for it that can be booked. Maybe even a certification program? (Because that is what a lot of enterprises love to see.)

 

[Erel]

But I am not sure how viable this is on the long run from a commercial / economic perspective. B4J certainly helps selling B4A or B4I. But seeing what B4J can do, it has all the right in the world to become a paid-for product (and then there should be an option to buy commercial support for it).

B4J and B4R are not free because they are less powerful or less important than B4A and B4i. If many developers use B4J and B4R then many developers will also purchase B4A and B4i.
Remember that most development tools today are free.

But couldn't all B4X products merge into one shared IDE?

~90% of the IDEs code is shared between the four products. The IDE is lightweight enough that it is not a big deal to install multiple B4X IDEs. They might be merged at some point in the future. I'm not sure that the benefits of having a single IDE are very significant.