I like big books, I cannot lie

Earlier this week two books arrived that I had ordered on Amazon UK. They are Beginning Android 4 (ISBN13: 978-1-4302-3984-0) and Pro Android 4 (ISBN13: 978-1-4302-3930-7).

I’ve already started reading the first one and so far I’m relatively content with the book. That is, the presented material is easy to follow (seeing that I have a solid Java background) and the information is presented in a logical order. I also like writing style of the author. As far as I can tell, all the basics are covered, including both things you need to know and thing you don’t actually need to know (IMHO).

But so far the book has not been very challenging because there simply aren’t any exercises or quizes to complete. One can simply read the book without having a computer nearby. So, to make sure all the new information ‘sticks’ is to maybe read texts a couple of time. And probably simply perform the steps in the book yourself.

The book does use Eclipse as the IDE of choice, but also provides instructions/hints for using the console tools supplied by the Android SDK. It also mentions MOTODEV, a complete development bundle comprised of Eclipse plus Android SDK and such.

Bonus tip: when working on a project, at one point it might be the case that the automatically generated class ‘R’ doesn’t match the contents of the XML-files anymore. To resolve: try to solve all compile errors if they exists. If that does not help, you can additionally try to ‘Clean’ the project (choose ‘Clean’ in the ‘Project’ menu).

Posted in Android, Books by

Enter: Kitchen Timer

Years ago I taught myself to program PHP by focusing on both reading the PHP manual and simply starting to write. The goal was creating my own forum software (like everybody else was doing at the time) and by doing so, learning everything I needed about PHP (and MySQL for that matter).

Fast forward to now and I find myself in the same situation: I want to learn how to program for Android and I need a goal, or rather a means, to achieve that. I decided that (also like to many others are doing now) I want to write a kitchen timer.

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A start

If there isn’t already, there ought to be a saying: any great program starts with its first steps. Or keystrokes. Or bytes.

 

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am attempting to teach myself to develop for Android. Today I endeavoured on this journey, first stop: http://developer.android.com/

This is the official Google website for everything related to developing your Android applications. They have an installation guide, a development guide, tutorials, etc. If you ever wish to start developing, I suggest you first follow the installation guide and after that, simply read the entire development guide. In my opinion, if  you’re an experienced Android user and programmer, you should have no problem reading it from A to Z, without interruption.

So, to summarize;

  • installed Eclipse
  • installed the Java SDK
  • installed the Android SDK
  • installed the Android plugin for Eclipse
  • started reading the guides
  • installed blogging software on website to keep track of developments

I have only fired up Eclipse and the SDK to check if no errors are produced, but a bit later I’ll try the samples to broaden my understanding. For now I’ll simply continue reading the guides.

PS: And yeah, I already have an idea for an application I want to develop. It would be a bad idea to simply start this project while not knowing what the goal would be.

Posted in Android, Development by

Hello Android

It’s been years since I blogged anything, but I’ve decided to start anew, this time with a new CMS and a new found interest.

In my job I am a Java programmer. Besides this I’ve always had a keen interest in Android. Given the fact that Android development is in essence a whole lot like Java development, do you get where this is going?

I’ve taken it upon myself to teach myself Android development and among other things I will be blogging here about my findings and experiences.

Note that there are no scheduled updates and no promises, only Intents (pun Intented).

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