B4J Question Will B4J and B4A written in B4J in the future?

[Xax]

Will B4J and B4A written in B4J in the future?

Its funny, if someone don't use its own products, because he prefers the products of others.


To develop in B4J and B4A you need to install the .NET Framework.
Thats an competing technique to Java. It have its own Basic-Compiler (VB.NET), have something similar like JavaFX (WPF), have also libraries for mobile development (Xamarins products). And the Community Edition of Visual Studio, including WPF, Xamarins tools, etc. is free of charge.

The advantage of Java is, that it runs on Windows, Linux, macOS and other platforms.
But to create IDEs it should be having disadvantages, because Anywhere Software prefers to use .NET to write its software. Possible JavaFX is also a little bit slow.

So, do you plan to port the IDEs and development tools of B4J and B4A to B4J in the future?
And if not: What are the nice goodies of .NET, so that you stick on it?

The disadvantage of .NET is, that a lot of libraries outside of the .NET standard library
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2016/09/26/introducing-net-standard/
https://blog.xamarin.com/net-standard-library-support-for-xamarin/
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/articles/standard/library
especially that for GUIs, existing only for one special platform.
And because B4A und B4J are based on WinForms, they only running on Windows.

So, where are the advantages of it, so that you use it and prefer it over your own products?

 

[EnriqueGonzalez]

I believe it is a matter of time.

C# .net is way more mature than b4x and even than javafx. B4j is still to young to re- create it self.

I like the idea of having .net as the base of the ide's simply because it makes the whole environment future proof.

Yet the more we use and support b4x products some day we will see a b4j ide in Linux! As I said only a matter of time

 

[Erel]

To develop in B4J and B4A you need to install the .NET Framework.

That's not really true. .Net Framework is installed on all Windows 7+ computers.

Will B4J and B4A written in B4J in the future?

Maybe. No concrete plans for now.

Writing an IDE is a very challenging task.

1. B4X IDE is being actively developed for 7 years now and I think that it is a good IDE.
2. The IDE is based on a third party library. There is no such library available for JavaFX.

 

[alwaysbusy]

B4X has an excellent IDE, one of the most productive and stable ones I have come accross. Writing your IDE in your own programming language is not always a good idea. e.g. RB/Xojo did, and it is the buggiest IDE I ever worked with as it suffers from the same bugs its own language has. Would love a Linux version too though...

 

[Aristide]

If the unlikely project to rewrite B4X was on the agenda, I believe the choice of Eclipse Framework would be obvious.

Eclipse? An IDE java? Not only it make IDE usable on all systems, but above all the advantage of a framework suited to the construction of IDE. In addition there is no need for installation, only a plug of the type zip or other.

A framework, stable, efficient, complete, ... of the editor, highlighting syntax, debugging, GEF for GUI, ... all framework for IDE development. More importantly, the heart of B4X is still the compiler, maybe it is written in java.

It is a real experience, in a company that has transformed a scripting language with mainframe communication. I carried out this project, the feasibility was demonstrated quite easily as the framework is complete and ... easy to implement. Simple ? No, but efficient. You don't write code like management of project, link with CvS or other addons, all the visual of an IDE is allready existing, ...

But hey, B4X exists and I believe that the priority is surely to others more ... pragmatic subjects.

 

[An Schi]

I don't care how B4X is done.
As long as it works and improoves i'm happy