Recs.
Updated
Simple, powerful and modern crossplatform development tools. The B4J edition for cross platform desktop, server and IoT solutions is free.
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Excellent library creators and wrappers
For a 3rd party applications, it's just astonishing how many great libraries there are on the forum available for B4A, B4J, B4i, and B4R. Using a code module, classes or a mixture of both with or without XUI, anybody can create their own libraries within the B4X suite of development tools and share them on the forum for others to use.
Pro Creating your libraries with ease and also shared B4X XUI views
Using B4X developers can create their own libraries by using the built-in compile to library feature. Developers can even create a simple library using B4A and use that same library in B4J. The forum is full of libraries that have been created in this way and then shared online for other B4X developers to use.
Another B4X feature allows developers to create XUI (cross platform user interface) views that can be used with B4A, B4J and B4i, just create one XUI view and use that view in all three B4X packages.
Pro A highly motivated program author who is very active in the forums
Erel Uziel is simply the most pro-active Soft-Creator/Forum Manager you will ever come across. If it has not yet been asked & answered, just ask and you will be answered withing minutes, and thanks to it being a trully international forum, this is achieved 24h/7d.
Pro B4A (B4X suite of development tools) is constantly evolving and being updated
Anywhere Software are constantly updating their B4X suite of development tools. From updating the IDE to innovating the new XUI cross platform (Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS and Linus) for shared libraries including the XUI2D gaming libraries. Anywhere Software development tools are constantly evolving and excellent improvements come with that.
Pro IDE themes (light, dark, etc.)
The B4X suite of development tools allows you to select from a multitude of color themes for the IDE, if need be you can manually change each individual text color (Comments, Errors, Warnings, Operator, Identifier, Annotation, Numbers, etc.) to suit your needs.
Pro B4A and B4i are relatively cheap, B4J and B4R is 100% FREE
The price for B4A and B4i are extremely cheap considering the high quality of the applications. You get a great discount deal if you buy both B4A and B4i as a bundle.
If you only need B4J and B4R you can download the full packages and use them for FREE with full technical support.
Pro An extremely active forum where you can find answers to any issue you may may come across
The forum is always active and most of the questions that you might want to ask have already been asked and previously answered. When you ask a new question, the chances are that your question will be answered within hours and not days.
Cons
Con Some programming experience may be needed
The getting started and basic language guides appear to assume some prior programming knowledge which may confuse the beginner programmer. Also since B4X is a wrapper for Java, it may take some knowledge of Java to learn B4X - for example when creating a console-only application. The syntax can get quite complex compared to some other languages when creating console-only programs. Knowledge of using the command line to run a JAR file is necessary as well to run console-only programs. So an interactive console-only application is not quite as interactive as say running a similar program in other languages. A simple input/output console-only program in QB64 would require only a few lines of code and will work in other variations of BASIC such as Liberty Basic, BBC with slight tweaks. Python, Ruby, Nim, etc.. are similar in their terseness.
See here what it would look like to produce a similar console application in B4X.
Of course, one can totally bypass the need for a console app by using the internal IDE debugger for interactive feedback. To be honest, most developers are not educators and it takes a monumental effort to write or make video tutorials with the mindset of a beginner, especially smaller companies that are one-man shows or only a few developers. It takes a village to raise a competent programmer. With that in mind, the book by Wyken Seagrave "B4A Rapid Android App Development Using Basic" is highly recommended.
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
Pro B4J is completely free to download and use
Astonishing B4J is completely free to download and use for anyone who's interested in developing desktop applications using the B4X development language.
You don't need to purchase B4A or B4i to be able to download and use B4J. Businesses and home developers alike use B4J to create Windows, MacOS, Raspberry Pi, Linux and server applications, one file runs on all platforms.
Pro A very active forum where you can find any issue you have, and quick answers to new ones
Pro The forum is constantly in use and questions are always being answered
The forum is always active and most of the questions that you might want to ask have already been asked and answered. When you ask a new question, the chances are that question will be answered within hours and not days.
Pro The forum is excellent
The forum is always active and most questions can be found using the forums excellent search facility. Any new questions asked are usually answered within a few hours.
Pro Debugging in B4X really is second to none
Using the debugger in the B4X suite of RAD tools really is a pleasant experience. The built in hot-swap-able code feature saves developers a lot of time too.
Out of Date Pros + Cons
Con Can't think of any
No seriously, I can't think of any at this current point in time, maybe later...