Programming languages from the past such as Visual Basic may seem outdated now, but many programmers see the value of using the best that old programs had to offer in current programs. Leonid Radvinsky is one of these people. Leo, a technology entrepreneur and investor, understands that looking to the past can improve the future.
Old Programming Languages Do Not Have to Become Obsolete
Once technology surpasses an old program’s capabilities, information technology (IT) departments often leave them languishing in their infrastructure without considering the need to update them. As Leo Radvinsky has discovered in his work, several old programs hold the key to creating the most efficient programs available today.
A common practice in the past was to design programming languages for specific uses. Hardware limitations meant that programmers had to optimize languages for a few set purposes. If they did not, they would not be able to obtain adequate performance from them.
Erlang, a program popular in the 1980s, is a prime example of this. Even with the more primitive coding options available at the time, Erlang could handle multiple requests at the same time without affecting performance. The flip side was that the developers of Erlang did not factor in ease of use when creating it.
Visual Basic, another long-forgotten programming language, presented the opposite issues. Programmers could not depend on Visual Basic to support a high volume of requests, which meant companies chose not to use it for projects at an enterprise scale. What Visual Basic offered instead was making code simple to learn.
As a technology entrepreneur, Leo Radvinsky depends on software languages that offer reliability and high performance. He needs software that also offers elegance and usability at the same time. Leo has discovered these standards in two types of open source software, Elixir and B4X.Â
Understanding Open Source Software
Open source software provides programmers and developers with publicly available code. Any person with an interest in a project can contribute to it by adding new code or editing existing code. Since open source software is free to use, it attracts everyone from those just learning to code to people who have made it their career for decades.
There is no need for any party to purchase a license when using open source software. This approach promotes a unique sense of community among programmers and developers instead of competition. Using open source software can be especially beneficial to people who want to focus on developing software that interests them the most, rather than their employer limiting them to only certain programs. Leonid Radvinsky feels highly encouraged by this because he sees it as an important catalyst to help the market grow.
Why Leonid Radvinsky Uses Elixir and B4X Open Source Software
One of the things Leo appreciates the most about Elixir is that its high fault tolerance prevents crashes that can be problematic with other programs. He also feels that the ability of Elixir to run hundreds of thousands of programs at the same time increases rather than decreases security. People from all over the world can see what is going on with a program and spot errors before they make their way into the final release of the software.
Leo Radvinsky enjoys using Elixir so much that he has invested considerable efforts to expand its reach across the globe. He supported the Elixir Conference in 2019 and has invested in several smaller operations using Elixir with their startup organizations. Leo feels that the cross-platform capabilities of Elixir will only increase its popularity in the coming years.
B4X is both a programming language and a source of high-level development tools. This combination of features makes it simple for programmers to develop new and innovative software that makes a significant difference in people’s lives. B4X is especially useful when working on Internet of Things (IoT) projects because it contains four additional components. These include B4A, B4I, B4J, and B4R, each of which offers the ability to work with different platforms.
Anytime Software first released B4X as proprietary software that people had to pay to use. The company was able to convert B4X to open source software with the help of Leo Radvinsky’s investment and guidance. B4X has become exceptionally popular due to its open source availability, a fact that has also increased the diversity of projects developed with the software.
The close-knit community of open source software programmers and developers are thankful for Leo’s investment and appreciate how it changed the course of Elixir and B4X forever.
