Learning to Develop for Android... and blogging my progress as I go!

tonyyeb

tonyyeb

tonyyeb

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31 May 2006
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I've decided to Learn to Develop for Android but to try and motivate myself i'm also blogging about my progress. For anyone interested in following me then here is the link:

http://tonyyeb.blogspot.com/

Feel free to comment or send me suggestions about the blog or tutorials on the net that you have found useful. Oh don't let me stop you clicking the Google Ads too! ;)
 
Not wanting to be mean but I think you wasted your money buying that book, or any Android book for that matter, it moves forward so quick that by the time they're in print they are already out of date. I would bet it doesn't cover 2.2 and even if it does 2.3 / 3.0 will be out by Q1 next year, making the book obsolete.

I learned Android development by following the tutorials on the dev site then writing an app I wanted to use by diving into the docs and cruising SO.
 
You are probably correct HumbleCoder but I struggle to use online tutorials most of the time. The book covers API Level 7 so 2.1 is in there. The book will hopefully get me a leg up and then ill be using more online sources to bring my skills in line with the latest SDK/Android version.
 
The important thing is getting in amongst It, more than always being bang up to date.

"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" as it were.
 
Bookmarked, I'm just about to start doing the same as you mate so comforting to see this thread!

Have you ordered any more books, or just running with the Sams book at the moment?
 
@randal24

No more books as yet. The plan is to do my best with this book and the internet. If a beginner to advanced type book is recommended then I will happily purchase it and give it a go once this one is complete (and completely understood!)
 
Nice one, I've ordered the "Teach yourself in 24 hours book" but I'm expecting to struggle a bit as my Java development knowledge is very limited.

I'm not a lover of the "Dummies" series, but there is one for Android Development out on the 17th which is my backup plan. First things first though, I'm going to run through the tutorials you've posted up on your blog and see how I feel about it then. I suppose it's not until I really start trying to achieve things that the full scale of what I need to know will hit me.

What sort of things are you developing? Apps, widgets, games etc..?

Quick one - have you managed to get JDK 6 recognised as installed to other apps on Windows 7? I tried the other night and ran into a few problems, Eclipse wouldn't pick it up but have since seen some fixes/work arounds.

I'm tempted to create a VM of XP and run it up in VMWare player to contain my development environment...
 
I hope your blog is useful to other developers, try to be specific about the things you've overcome and maybe use it as a reference for yourself as well.

If you have any questions about Android or get stuck on something, post up. I've been developing Android for a while now!
 
@numnutz

Cheers for that, you might regret posting that soon! Lol

@randal24

Yeah I've seen that book is out soon, I've asked for it for Christmas.

The sort of stuff I want to develop will vary. I did a tutorial for creating a 'Days to Xmas' widget which was good apart from it didn't explain why various things were done and after being on my phone for about 2-3 days I noticed lots of lag. Uninstalled the Widget and my phone was normal again. Grrr. No idea why.

Not sure about the VM idea. USB passthrough has been flaky for me in the past. I have a development laptop which I have everything installed under Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.
 
Hehe, good old Christmas lists. I'm not sure if I can wait that long, I'm literally champing at the bit to crack on!

Got a link to that Xmas widget? Wouldn't mind giving that one a going over too, see if I run into the same weirdness you did. Well if I can code it!

I've just managed to get everything set up in an XP VM using VMWare Player, and so far so good. SDK 6 with Eclipse Galileo, Android SDKs etc.. all working well. Emulator is a little slow to boot, but once it's up it's fine. I probably should have installed the OS on a separate disk and dual booted, but I like the convenience of VM. :)

I'll see how I get on with the USB passthrough if I get that far, but so far getting on with the examples in your posted tutorials OK. Definitely going to need to do some reading when that book arrives, feeling very out of my depth.
 
Been delayed by various things. A few toys such as my Advent Vega Android based Tablet and I've been playing with custom ROMs on my HTC Desire. I got the new Android Development for Dummies book for Christmas so i'll be starting on that soon.

Watch out for a new blog post in the coming days! :D
 
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