![]() I'm not a beginning programmer skill-wise, and can write some serious software on PCs. A month ago, the "talkers" were popular, but are quickly fading from market (a few of them made millions). Live wallpaper continues to be one of the hottest app types on the market and will remain to be so because they are an Android system feature. That's two immediate failures out of my very first two "beginner" apps I wanted to jump on - apps I should have been able to code up in a weekend. "WHAM!" (brick wall):BangHead: - B4A doesn't monitor microphone levels (and if not for XverhelstX, didn't have the ability to record anything at all). ![]() I'll just whip up a "talker" app that trigers from microphone levels and. Since the microphone is a basic function of every android device back to the beginning, this should be no problem. On to the next idea - making some of those talking character apps that do so well and are making a killing on the market, also easy to write. So then I decide "ok, well, got my butt kicked on that one, and besides, live wallpaper is a fiarly new feature on the Android." This just seems like such a simplistic thing to me, was really surprised to see there's no way to do this without having to become a Java guy. WRONG - Brick wall (WHAM!):BangHead: B4A doesn't tap into live wallpaper functionality (thanks to XverhelstX, at least the ability to change wallpaper from within an app now exists). Cool, no problem, I can code that up quickly, nothing to it! Woo Hoo! So I then jump on Android Market to see "what's hot" - live wallpaper does well (and always will) and those "talking character" apps were doing really well. When I saw B4A, I got excited and immediately bought it, thinking I was going to be able to use my VB skills to write Android apps, enhanced by the fact that I have access to a professional graphics guy. To answer your qestion, "What features are you missing except for live wallpaper", I'll answer it this way: However, what I'm describing and wanting to do is nothing more than anyone else getting into even the most simplistic and popular "marketable" apps will want to do - start with what would seemingly be the most simplistic of apps and move up from there - and live wallpaper is where most people think they will be able to start. To be sure, what you have done is WONDERFUL, and I know everyone that logs onto this forum is in agreement. Please forgive my noobness in advance for the questions I am getting ready to ask (which I will ask in the proper area on this forum). ![]() As a total Java noob, I will be asking LOTS of questions on how to make libraries for B4A and try to add to the product, which I do really like and would prefer to use if possible. Hopefully I will not be doing so, but I do not have a full understanding of how hard it is to create libs for B4A. Please know that the last thing I want to do is cause any problems for anyone. I'm very busy with school, a company I work with and my own apps." XverhelstX: "I'm going to take a look at this WallpaperService, but I won't promis anything. They are way too popular and $uccessful of an app type to be missing from B4A capabilities. And right now, I want to write live wallpapers that make use of looping movie clips or animated GIFs. I want to continue using B4A, but I also want the ability to code up a missing library when I need one. I'll need some help getting my feet wet in writing libs for B4A from you gurus. In the process of loading up the whole Eclipse/JDK/ADT kitchen to try my hand at cooking up some libs for B4A. ![]() In both cases, you will become a more competent coder/developer. Then you can either continue developing with Eclipse and Java or your could write your own wrapper-libraries to implement features that might be missing. So yes, I think if you decide to start studying Java, that can only be a good thing. It should be said that some of those features were thereafter implemented by Erel or by some other library-developer. I hardly know any Java but still I have written a few libraries for my own use (some have also been published here on the forum) in order to use some features in Android which were missing in B4A. We must remember that B4A is a still a very young product and I am sure it will get even more full-fledged - just give Erel some time. While most important things are already covered in B4A, it is obvious that it can't cover everything that is "doable" with Eclipse and Java although I must say with the help of the libraries that Agraham and others are implementing, B4A is getting better for each day. I don't think you should consider B4A as a full replacement for Android-development but call it a playtoy seems a bit too strong. ![]()
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