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Add to SafariWhen comparing AutoIt vs B4X, the Slant community recommends B4X for most people. In the question“What are the best BASIC-like programming languages?” B4X is ranked 1st while AutoIt is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose B4X is:
B4XUI custom views are designed, by Erel and other forum members, exactly with this in mind; custom views that act and feel exactly the same no matter what platform you target.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Rich library included
Standard library includes solutions for all occasions allowing, in addition to capturing windows, keyboard and mouse events, to create a GUI, access Obj / COM, system processes and threads, the registry, MS Office applications, work with the network and databases.
Pro Compiles into portable executable
Interpretable code can be flexibly compiled into compact executable file.
Pro Easy to learn and start to use
Simple BASIC-like syntax and close documentation with clear examples.
Pro Create easy, fast cross-platform views with less code
B4XUI custom views are designed, by Erel and other forum members, exactly with this in mind; custom views that act and feel exactly the same no matter what platform you target.
Pro Powerful general purpose programming tool
As mentioned in its website, "With B4X, anyone who wants to, can develop real-world solutions."
Pro A very active forum where you can find any issue you have, and quick answers to new ones
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 Very easy to use and powerful for IoT
Support for Bluetooth/BLE, MQTT, TCP/UDP, Serial, NFC, Websockets, HTTP/2 across platforms makes it the ideal tool for IoT projects.
Pro Live code swapping
A huge productivity boost when you can run your apps on the devices and make code changes real time without needing to recompile.
Pro No complexities compared with other tools
No need to learn JAVA, C+, PHP, or any other complementary languages in order to achieve exactly what you need.
Pro The best all round
Produces highly optimised end results. Easy to use and quick to learn. When you know how to produce an Android app you near enough know how to produce an IOS app.
The fact that there are subtle differences between writing for different platforms is a huge plus - those differences help optimise your code and they're really not difficult to wrap your head round.
Pro Erel has much passion for his tool
The speed of answer topics is amazing.
Pro Many informative video tutorials
The tutorials help beginners as well as more experienced programmers grasping important concepts.
Pro Many code examples of fully working apps for free
The Forum is filled with many code examples of fully working apps for free. Code snippets, animation, different type of views etc. can be easily downloaded and used in your own app.
Pro Large user community
Over the years it has built up a very active user community that is very involved in the evolution of B4X. In their forums you can find any answer to your questions, and if it is not there, they will answer you.
Pro RAD
VERY Rapid Application Development, with tons of pro features.
Pro Tightly integrated framework
Pro Almost everything is free and complete
Except the IDE for iOS. Even so it's very cheap.
Cons
Con Closed-source
Being a closed-source scripting language creates security concerns such as hidden back doors.
Con Unfriendly forum
Has well known reputation of the forum being unfriendly to newbies and casuals.
Con Basic-like syntax
Basic-like syntax is much less used these days than C-like syntax.
Con Inappropriate standard code editor
The default code editor SciTE is simple but extremely difficult to tune, not recommended for beginners. Alternative editors are weak for AutoIt.
Con Lack of flexibility and power
Many necessary things, for example, capturing and analyzing screen pixels or capturing keystrokes by their scan codes, are implemented only through direct access to the Win API through a rather cumbersome code.
Con Ceased to develop
Bugs are slowly fixed and the last major update was many years ago.
Con Java-dependent Desktop Development
Con Only for Windows
The IDE, while very handy, only runs on Windows. If you want to code on Mac or Linux, you have to install it on a virtual machine. But you can debug your app by running it on the target OS.
Con The documentation and examples and tutorials are not up to date
The documentation and examples and tutorials are not up to date.
Con For BASIC language lovers
Lots of people are not fans of BASIC-like languages. Enjoyment of B4X, may depend on having a background or affinity for BASIC.
Con Can still need deep knowledge of Java
Attempts to provide BASIC-like language that is more comfortable for a certain demographic of users, but various circumstances will still require knowledge of Java. "No free lunch".
Con Lack of B4W real Web app
Erel needs to make a real Web app designer.
