# Android programing



## junglevip (Jun 1, 2012)

Just wondering if there are any Android programers on here. I have just started looking at the the api, run a few examples in eclipse for mobile phones ans wondered if there a is anyone that does it as a hobby or commercially. Is anyone interested in discussing, app making, code reviews howto's or collaboration.


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## FridgeMagnet (Jun 1, 2012)

I don't specifically write for Android, but I do develop mobile apps using Unity, which is a cross-platform games system. (Well, it will compile for iOS and Android, at least.)


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## junglevip (Jun 1, 2012)

Nice one.  What language do you use for that then?  I am interested in doing some games at a later point because of the challenge it represents.  I have only done business stuff; but I am gonna be doing map stuff in the first instance


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## FridgeMagnet (Jun 1, 2012)

junglevip said:


> Nice one.  What language do you use for that then?  I am interested in doing some games at a later point because of the challenge it represents.  I have only done business stuff; but I am gonna be doing map stuff in the first instance


You write in (slightly customised) C# or Javascript, though it seems to be moving more and more towards using JS for everything. Which is good for me, though you still have to know a little about C#/.NET classes for some functions. It's quite straightforward to learn the coding part, the tough bit is learning to write for a real time game environment, which isn't traditional programming. I had already spent a lot of time scripting in Second Life, which I found very useful, and also general event-driven work using JS on web pages was handy.


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## junglevip (Jun 1, 2012)

Yeah, I did games on the Sinclair Spectrum. I learned OO on Smalltalk IV, I havent done much graphics or multithreaded though I have done lots of messaging and using raw sockets that can be tricky.

Do you use the free or posh versions?


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## junglevip (Jun 1, 2012)

In the old days I got an RS232 cable (a null modem in old money) and jumpered the pins so that i could write serial comms stuff whilst smoking soap bar.

These android phones are blooming great with the services that they offer.  I'd like a go at bluetooth comms as a way of bypassing the mobile network for when the mobile networks go down at protests etc.  Not that I have ever been to one


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## FridgeMagnet (Jun 1, 2012)

junglevip said:


> Yeah, I did games on the Sinclair Spectrum. I learned OO on Smalltalk IV, I havent done much graphics or multithreaded though I have done lots of messaging and using raw sockets that can be tricky.
> 
> Do you use the free or posh versions?


I mostly use the Pro version, though the licence is owned by my main client. There's not a vast amount of difference between them, but there are a few really useful things that you need Pro for (e.g. playing iPhone video). There are also normal and pro export plugins for iPhone and Android - as standard you can export as standalone Windows or Mac apps, or as an embedded version that loads in web pages with a plugin.

Unity is pretty high level really - it couldn't really be otherwise given how cross-platform it's supposed to be, I suppose. You can do some quite sophisticated stuff when coding in the knowledge that all the rendering is going to be a thousand times more computationally intensive than your logic is.

I also write some JS/HTML5 games sometimes, which is a lot more low-level and a lot more of a pain in the arse  It does work on modern mobile browsers, though, as well as on Linux, for which there isn't a Unity plugin yet. Obviously this is not Blackberries here.


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## Mr Smin (Jun 1, 2012)

junglevip said:


> These android phones are blooming great with the services that they offer. I'd like a go at bluetooth comms as a way of bypassing the mobile network for when the mobile networks go down at protests etc. Not that I have ever been to one


 
Hope you post back here when you go beta as that sounds pretty interesting.


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## gentlegreen (Jun 1, 2012)

I'm starting to get interested in using mobile phones as datalogging / control devices as the price comes down - though I'm guessing there are big reasons why this might be difficult to do / deemed suspicious ...


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## junglevip (Jun 1, 2012)

Mr Smin said:


> Hope you post back here when you go beta as that sounds pretty interesting.


 
Thats a bit of a way off Mr Smin but I will give you the source code if/when it happens. I was into comms in college and I have access to expertise in the RF area. That said the open source crowd are very good at helping each other out.

There has to be a way to put technology to use in this area. The other idea is to use auxillary, mic's cameras and power. Spec out a kit that videos/broadcast events in a hands free/stealth/secure/reliable (broken network connections) etc

I recon that could be done off the shelf. I have only ever seen occupy vids, never been to one, I am too chicken

EDIT: Securing the data if it were to fall into the ownership of the untrustworthy for example


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## junglevip (Jun 1, 2012)

gentlegreen said:


> I'm starting to get interested in using mobile phones as datalogging / control devices as the price comes down - though I'm guessing there are big reasons why this might be difficult to do / deemed suspicious ...


 
What leads you to think its expensive? As I understand they are easy to interface with and come with a fair few sensors built into the modern phones. They will interface with Arduino too

EDIT:

Not having a pop, just interested


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## gentlegreen (Jun 1, 2012)

junglevip said:


> What leads you to think its expensive? As I understand they are easy to interface with and come with a fair few sensors built into the modern phones. They will interface with Arduino too
> 
> EDIT:
> 
> Not having a pop, just interested


 
I'm thinking of installing them in the wild and getting them to phone home - so they may get nicked ...
I've mused about modifying a non-smart phone to act as an alarm on my bike by interfacing with the keypad ...

A shame they don't have a thermometer built-in ...


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## junglevip (Jun 1, 2012)

Using a smartphone for that could be expensive.  If you were to use other gear you would probably lose the nice programing and integrated features of the things.


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## junglevip (Jun 1, 2012)

I ought to point out that my previous ideas were just that and I am currently chewing my way through some books and the online docs


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## junglevip (Jun 2, 2012)

This chap is has helped me get re-inspired by computer architecture and software



No joke


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## junglevip (Jun 3, 2012)

As I look more into the Android architecture I am finding that It is pretty serious stuff.  I thought it would be a case of sling some components on the form and away to go.  To work whithin the Android framework is quite involved.  I quite impressed with it.

Anyone done any Objective C? I was wondering how that is and how it compares maybe


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## junglevip (Jun 5, 2012)

gentlegreen said:


> I'm thinking of installing them in the wild and getting them to phone home - so they may get nicked ...
> I've mused about modifying a non-smart phone to act as an alarm on my bike by interfacing with the keypad ...
> 
> A shame they don't have a thermometer built-in ...


 

Just talking to one of my associates and they suggest a raspberry pi maybe (as the base for all the peripherals)?


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## kalmatthew (Jun 6, 2012)

junglevip said:


> Just talking to one of my associates and they suggest a raspberry pi maybe (as the base for all the peripherals)?



You could use a rasbery pi, but for data logging I'd be looking at audrino. You can get modules that plug together for most sensors you'd want (including a giger counter! ) and other boards that handle RF (zigbee, GPS, GPRS, amongst others)


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## junglevip (Jun 6, 2012)

kalmatthew said:


> You could use a rasbery pi, but for data logging I'd be looking at audrino. You can get modules that plug together for most sensors you'd want (including a giger counter! ) and other boards that handle RF (zigbee, GPS, GPRS, amongst others)


 
Id appreciate couple of links if you have any please


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## kalmatthew (Jun 6, 2012)

I'm on my phone so can't do many but this place has loads of boards and shields as well as some hints and tips


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## junglevip (Jun 6, 2012)

kalmatthew said:


> I'm on my phone so can't do many but this place has loads of boards and shields as well as some hints and tips


 
Thanks very much.  I dont think I'll be doing anything adventurous any time soon though.  I am surprised at how involved working with android is tbh


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## kalmatthew (Jun 7, 2012)

junglevip said:


> Thanks very much. I dont think I'll be doing anything adventurous any time soon though. I am surprised at how involved working with android is tbh


None of that is Android, its Audrino.  Its a microcontroller based solutions that has been designed to be used by hobyiests, rather than a mobile phone OS!


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## grit (Jun 7, 2012)

junglevip said:


> Just wondering if there are any Android programers on here. I have just started looking at the the api, run a few examples in eclipse for mobile phones ans wondered if there a is anyone that does it as a hobby or commercially. Is anyone interested in discussing, app making, code reviews howto's or collaboration.


 
I've written several Android apps. Whats your question?


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## junglevip (Jun 7, 2012)

kalmatthew said:


> None of that is Android, its Audrino. Its a microcontroller based solutions that has been designed to be used by hobyiests, rather than a mobile phone OS!


 
Yeah I appreciate that; I was hoping that android would be easy enough to learn alongside arduino.  I probably could do it but I am efficiently lazy in that respect

I thought this was interesting.  google chooses android, android meets arduino


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## junglevip (Jun 7, 2012)

grit said:


> I've written several Android apps. Whats your question?


 
Nothing in particular; what have you done, is it open source, what books you have on the subject etc


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## grit (Jun 7, 2012)

junglevip said:


> Nothing in particular; what have you done, is it open source, what books you have on the subject etc


 
None are open source, or available on the market as they are for government/corporate workers and thus deal with some sensitive information. I have been working on some games recently which is really cool seeing the possiblites these days. As fridgemagnet pointed out Unity is a possibility and does have the advantage of being cross platform. For that you literally pay a steep price and have the trade off that its quite high level, no access to direct OpenGL calls for example. I've evaluated a few Android/Java game frameworks recently, AndEngine looks good but stay away, its fragile as fuck and documentation is non existent. The forums are the worse case of the blind leading the blind I've ever seen. Libgdx, is what I've settled on and I highly recommend it. Its a wrapper for LWJGL, which is a wrapper for OpenGL so you get access to all the low level calls along with some well designed framework features such as including Box2d physics out of the box, there is also a great dynamic lighting engine Box2dLights for it (writing physics or lighting engines are not for the average person imho) . 

Generally when doing an app, you want to keep processing OFF the device as much as possible. For example lets say you wanted to parse train times and offer search and some other value added features to the data. Where possible pre processing should be performed on a remote server that the app requests from, such as indexing the records or doing complex calculations. Essentially we have come full circle back to the thin client when dealing with mobile in many aspects. Battery life and speed is king here. 

I've never bought any books on the subject, if you are comfortable with Java you should be able to jump in and have a basic CRUD app up in a few hours. The only two resources you need is developer.android.com and stackoverflow.com and the odd specific google search.


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## junglevip (Jun 7, 2012)

Yeah!  I'd agree with all of that pretty much.  I have done a few things just to get used to eclipse and I like the framework. I am just trying to get into good habits from the of.  I am currently looking at broadcast recievers and intents to decouple components rather than specifying the class.  I need to work a few examples really; then get fluent

I wont be trying games for a little while; thanks for the engine tip off


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## grit (Jun 7, 2012)

junglevip said:


> Yeah! I'd agree with all of that pretty much. I have done a few things just to get used to eclipse and I like the framework. I am just trying to get into good habits from the of. I am currently looking at broadcast recievers and intents to decouple components rather than specifying the class. I need to work a few examples really; then get fluent
> 
> I wont be trying games for a little while; thanks for the engine tip off


 
FWIW, I suggest finding a free API like one of the governments open data ones and writing an app that connects to the feed parses the XML and displays it on the screen. That process will let you see a lot of the lifecycle.

One extremely important thing to note, the main thread in Android is for the UI, its really really important to spawn off another thread using ASyncTask to do any background processing such as connecting to a server or doing any heavy duty parsing. If you dont do this the UI thread gets blocked and it appears the app has crawled to a half, which it hasnt. Consdering that you are learning I strongly recommend using some sort of source control. You will fuck something up (we all do!) and then need to restore a previous version. Go to the eclipse market place (help -> Eclipse Marketplace) and install Mercurial, then register for a free account on bitbucket.org and setup a repo so you can roll back any fuck ups.

Please feel free to shout with any questions.


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## junglevip (Jun 7, 2012)

Many thanks, that's good to know.


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## elbows (Jun 7, 2012)

grit said:


> As fridgemagnet pointed out Unity is a possibility and does have the advantage of being cross platform. For that you literally pay a steep price and have the trade off that its quite high level, no access to direct OpenGL calls for example.


 
You only pay a steep price under certain conditions (e.g. if you need the unity pro features) and if we'd been having this conversation earlier in the year then I'd have been recommending picking up the free android etc licenses they were giving out, just in case it was ever of use, but its too late for that now.

It is rather high-level in a way that can pose challenges and make it less than ideal for a range of scenarios. Sometimes this stuff can be overridden, at least to a certain extent, e.g. some direct OpenGL calls can be made, but probably only on certain platforms and if you have unity pro. Unity has its quirks and annoyances and its obvious strengths, especially for certain kinds of apps. Its UI & editor, development asset store etc make it an easy choice for people who aren't comfortable with all the aspects of programming, structure, compilers, etc, and just want to start messing around with stuff such as gameplay mechanics.

On the flip side if you are comfortable working with well-structured code, don't have a deep need to create scenes using a GUI, aren't teaming up with others who are using Unity, then there is no particular reason I can think of why Unity would automatically make any sense. Especially if your aim is to learn a lot of 'proper programming' from scratch, you don't have much in the way of game-like 3D requirements that you want to delve straight into, or you want something very tight in terms of tiny file size, best possible device efficiency, etc.

So it could also be something of a last resort, e.g. if you end up overwhelmed by the amount you need to know to get something working, then Unity can be a great way to shortcut certain bits of that pain.


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## grit (Jun 7, 2012)

elbows said:


> You only pay a steep price under certain conditions (e.g. if you need the unity pro features) and if we'd been having this conversation earlier in the year then I'd have been recommending picking up the free android etc licenses they were giving out, just in case it was ever of use, but its too late for that now.
> 
> It is rather high-level in a way that can pose challenges and make it less than ideal for a range of scenarios. Sometimes this stuff can be overridden, at least to a certain extent, e.g. some direct OpenGL calls can be made, but probably only on certain platforms and if you have unity pro. Unity has its quirks and annoyances and its obvious strengths, especially for certain kinds of apps. Its UI & editor, development asset store etc make it an easy choice for people who aren't comfortable with all the aspects of programming, structure, compilers, etc, and just want to start messing around with stuff such as gameplay mechanics.
> 
> On the flip side if you are comfortable working with well-structured code, don't have a deep need to create scenes using a GUI, aren't teaming up with others who are using Unity, then there is no particular reason I can think of why Unity would automatically make any sense. Especially if your aim is to learn a lot of 'proper programming' from scratch, you don't have much in the way of game-like 3D requirements that you want to delve straight into, or you want something very tight in terms of tiny file size, best possible device efficiency, etc.


 
Yeah its a great product, but its particular to the situation. I know a bloke who is very active in the London community. He was telling me that the original dev team is from the old demo scene in the 90s so there is a lot of great engineering talent there. One of the annoyances he spoke about which seemed ridiculous when I was evaluating it was being unable to rebind keys at runtime.... That sort of thing is a deal breaker for me.


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## junglevip (Jun 8, 2012)

Not sure what you mean is it this?
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/remap-reassign-your-android-devices-keys-with-buttonremapper/  This one is rooted mind, it might come in a later version.  The asynctask() did'nt come in until api 11 (I got a deprecated warning) iirc


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## elbows (Jun 8, 2012)

grit said:


> Yeah its a great product, but its particular to the situation. I know a bloke who is very active in the London community. He was telling me that the original dev team is from the old demo scene in the 90s so there is a lot of great engineering talent there. One of the annoyances he spoke about which seemed ridiculous when I was evaluating it was being unable to rebind keys at runtime.... That sort of thing is a deal breaker for me.


 
Yeah, for me the worst thing about any system like Unity is that you know there are a range of quirky brick-walls just waiting to smack you in the face if you try to do something that may either be exotic or something so fundamental you can't believe Unity doesn't handle it well. There's quite a number of things it does quite poorly, but happily its strengths still make it a useful enabler for a range of scenarios.

I was certainly very happy to see such a tool get to the level Unity has, as I never banked on such a development environment/engine/toolset getting good enough to be useable. Im pretty envious of teenagers these days since Unity is a pretty good match for how well my brain can cope with programming, and I wasted a lot of years not doing a lot in the way of development because I kept running away from stuff that was a bit too heavy for me to get my bonce round.

Im in a bit of a pickle at the moment and actually being able to make something in Unity in the next 7 weeks is one of my few ways out of financial doom. But I look at what I've done since losing my job, and all I've got is loads of fragments which have given me the confidence that I can actually make a variety of things work quite nicely in Unity, and adapt some non-Unity solutions to work within that environment. But nothing that actually resembles a nice portfolio or an app or game I am likely to make any money from quickly. Having the right idea to doggedly focus on would help, but the older I've got and the more the net & mobile scenes have matured, the less I think I see gaps that it would be useful to fill. I had a bunch of kinect-related ideas but enthusiasm went droopy due to the limitations of the tech. And I always thought Id got ideas for multitouch but since the app store got so large my mind went horribly blank.


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## grit (Jun 8, 2012)

junglevip said:


> Not sure what you mean is it this?
> http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/remap-reassign-your-android-devices-keys-with-buttonremapper/ This one is rooted mind, it might come in a later version. The asynctask() did'nt come in until api 11 (I got a deprecated warning) iirc


 
No, I'm referring to Unity when talking about the key rebinding issue.


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## grit (Jun 8, 2012)

elbows said:


> Yeah, for me the worst thing about any system like Unity is that you know there are a range of quirky brick-walls just waiting to smack you in the face if you try to do something that may either be exotic or something so fundamental you can't believe Unity doesn't handle it well. There's quite a number of things it does quite poorly, but happily its strengths still make it a useful enabler for a range of scenarios.
> 
> I was certainly very happy to see such a tool get to the level Unity has, as I never banked on such a development environment/engine/toolset getting good enough to be useable. Im pretty envious of teenagers these days since Unity is a pretty good match for how well my brain can cope with programming, and I wasted a lot of years not doing a lot in the way of development because I kept running away from stuff that was a bit too heavy for me to get my bonce round.
> 
> Im in a bit of a pickle at the moment and actually being able to make something in Unity in the next 7 weeks is one of my few ways out of financial doom. But I look at what I've done since losing my job, and all I've got is loads of fragments which have given me the confidence that I can actually make a variety of things work quite nicely in Unity, and adapt some non-Unity solutions to work within that environment. But nothing that actually resembles a nice portfolio or an app or game I am likely to make any money from quickly. Having the right idea to doggedly focus on would help, but the older I've got and the more the net & mobile scenes have matured, the less I think I see gaps that it would be useful to fill. I had a bunch of kinect-related ideas but enthusiasm went droopy due to the limitations of the tech. And I always thought Id got ideas for multitouch but since the app store got so large my mind went horribly blank.


 
Indeed, the thing that worries me to an extent with Unity is if you come across something they didnt provide for, you have to hack in a solution, if its possible. The comfort in using libgdx/XNA/whatever you know that if the shit hits the fan, you can drop a lower level and sort it out.

I think we have finally gotten to a stage in the last 2 years, where most hardware is "good enough". Seeing the Unity flash exporter render complex scenes on integrated graphics at a reasonable frame rate, frankly blows my fucking mind. To think what we were dealing with 10 or 20 years ago (remember buying your first Voodoo card?  ), we are truly living in a magical time. I suppose thats always the thing of hindsight, you always get this feeling to the new generation of "you have no idea how lucky you are". Then they get to repeat the process a decade later 

That said there is still the concern that the flash exporter needs the latest version of flash. While Unity's web player deployment numbers are nothing to sneer at. You can still end up with a situation where the bounce rate from the average user when they see a 3rd party player required is an issue.

I hear you, about having lots of fragments but not a full app. Its the age old thing, the last 20% takes 80% of the effort. Particularly if you are dealing with 3d assets. The workflow overhead of producing assets makes it feel difficult to produce something impressive in 3d without an artist(s) behind you. Regarding generating revenue from it, I think you need to be a dedicated game/app shop to really try and crack that consumer market.That or its an application that is being funded for a marketing campaign or something similar, where there is no pressure on the financial side (i.e during a gold rush, dont mine, sell shovels). Thankfully I think there are a lot of non game applications that Unity could be really great for, once its users can really break out of the game mindset.

Friends who are doing game development full time send me some of the user reviews. While many are great, some really display how fickle consumers can be. I've seen shit for games that was "Played it for 4 hours, good fun, but not worth the money"..... The fucking game was 99c!!! Not to mention the fact that people are hesitant to pay 99c to load an app on a device that cost the guts of a grand  Throw piracy and the average Android user demographic and it can be quite depressing. However over the states, the Kindle fire is the beacon of hope for Android developers judging by the numbers I've been seeing. However due to the region locking, getting on there as a european developer is not a simple task. iOS is the obvious cash cow, but with a pool that large, the business end (marketing, promo etc) I think are now more important than any code. That raises the barrier of entry and you need some serious cash behind you to push you to the front. Seeing some iOS development budgets in the low-mid six figures is shitty.

I've seen some people make good progress with the Windows phone, however I dont feel confident committing resources to that platform. Those that are prepared to do that, are getting some nice results due to being a big fish in a small pond.

As things progress seeing where the gaps are, to fill is extremely difficult, its a situation where technical knowledge I believe is actually a hindrance. Its far too easy to end up in a situation as a geek, where you cant look at something objectively as a regular consumer anymore. I think the key at this stage in the lifecycle is not trying to do something completely unique. Its identifying niches that have been addressed, but just not to a very high standard. Google wasnt the first search engine, ditto to facebook with social networks. They just executed the same concept better than everyone else at the time.

edit: fucking hell that was a ramble, its late, apologies if this post makes no sense. I'll check it again tomorrow and clean it up if needs be!


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## Barking_Mad (Jun 8, 2012)

junglevip said:


> Just wondering if there are any Android programers on here. I have just started looking at the the api, run a few examples in eclipse for mobile phones ans wondered if there a is anyone that does it as a hobby or commercially. Is anyone interested in discussing, app making, code reviews howto's or collaboration.



I'm currently on the long slog of learning Java, from scratch. I have a couple of app ideas which are not in use anywhere. One a basic sports app which i could probably pull off with a relatively basic knowledge of java and android. The other a photography based app which is way beyond me producing any time soon. 

All my good ideas involve stuff i have no knowledge of!  :-(


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## junglevip (Jun 8, 2012)

Java is not too bad to learn.  Programming is a grind, just sweat it


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## junglevip (Jun 8, 2012)

elbows said:


> Yeah, for me the worst thing about any system like Unity is that you know there are a range of quirky brick-walls just waiting to smack you in the face if you try to do something that may either be exotic or something so fundamental you can't believe Unity doesn't handle it well. There's quite a number of things it does quite poorly, but happily its strengths still make it a useful enabler for a range of scenarios.
> 
> I was certainly very happy to see such a tool get to the level Unity has, as I never banked on such a development environment/engine/toolset getting good enough to be useable. Im pretty envious of teenagers these days since Unity is a pretty good match for how well my brain can cope with programming, and I wasted a lot of years not doing a lot in the way of development because I kept running away from stuff that was a bit too heavy for me to get my bonce round.
> 
> Im in a bit of a pickle at the moment and actually being able to make something in Unity in the next 7 weeks is one of my few ways out of financial doom. But I look at what I've done since losing my job, and all I've got is loads of fragments which have given me the confidence that I can actually make a variety of things work quite nicely in Unity, and adapt some non-Unity solutions to work within that environment. But nothing that actually resembles a nice portfolio or an app or game I am likely to make any money from quickly. Having the right idea to doggedly focus on would help, but the older I've got and the more the net & mobile scenes have matured, the less I think I see gaps that it would be useful to fill. I had a bunch of kinect-related ideas but enthusiasm went droopy due to the limitations of the tech. And I always thought Id got ideas for multitouch but since the app store got so large my mind went horribly blank.


 

I learned some hard lessons as a programer a long time ago and one of those was 'finish the thing'.  A working prototype with a few bits missing or glitches might be enough to get you a paid project.  I think the open source people get hired by putting usable stuff up for free and this impresses people enough to want customization's etc.

I hated programming for years but I am rediscovering the love.  Maps is what I am trying to do


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## Barking_Mad (Jun 8, 2012)

junglevip said:


> Java is not too bad to learn.  Programming is a grind, just sweat it



Remembering syntax is the hard thing at first. Although learning guitar seemed impossible when i first started but i kept doing a little each day abd now im not half bad.


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## junglevip (Jun 8, 2012)

With re-factoring browsers the you get code completion and wizards .  I'd have a check on eclipse if your not using that


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## junglevip (Jun 8, 2012)

elbows said:


> Yeah, for me the worst thing about any system like Unity is that you know there are a range of quirky brick-walls just waiting to smack you in the face if you try to do something that may either be exotic or something so fundamental you can't believe Unity doesn't handle it well. There's quite a number of things it does quite poorly, but happily its strengths still make it a useful enabler for a range of scenarios.
> 
> I was certainly very happy to see such a tool get to the level Unity has, as I never banked on such a development environment/engine/toolset getting good enough to be useable. Im pretty envious of teenagers these days since Unity is a pretty good match for how well my brain can cope with programming, and I wasted a lot of years not doing a lot in the way of development because I kept running away from stuff that was a bit too heavy for me to get my bonce round.
> 
> Im in a bit of a pickle at the moment and actually being able to make something in Unity in the next 7 weeks is one of my few ways out of financial doom. But I look at what I've done since losing my job, and all I've got is loads of fragments which have given me the confidence that I can actually make a variety of things work quite nicely in Unity, and adapt some non-Unity solutions to work within that environment. But nothing that actually resembles a nice portfolio or an app or game I am likely to make any money from quickly. Having the right idea to doggedly focus on would help, but the older I've got and the more the net & mobile scenes have matured, the less I think I see gaps that it would be useful to fill. I had a bunch of kinect-related ideas but enthusiasm went droopy due to the limitations of the tech. And I always thought Id got ideas for multitouch but since the app store got so large my mind went horribly blank.


 
Got anything you could/would post up?


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## elbows (Jun 8, 2012)

Not just yet. I've got a number of things that should make fairly decent music visualisations, once I've tidied them up and brought them together. The rest is probably too half-baked to see the light of day, unless it get recycled into a future project.


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## junglevip (Jun 8, 2012)

elbows said:


> Not just yet. I've got a number of things that should make fairly decent music visualisations, once I've tidied them up and brought them together. The rest is probably too half-baked to see the light of day, unless it get recycled into a future project.


 
Oh thats a shame.  Ill probably post up my half baked stuff, if you describe them they can probably be peer reviewed.  You might find that what you have done impresses.  Especially if you qualify it.  Do you have an android?


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## grit (Jun 9, 2012)

junglevip said:
			
		

> With re-factoring browsers the you get code completion and wizards .  I'd have a check on eclipse if your not using that



Absolutely, varname. (ctrl + space) should give a list of fields and methods. If you are writing Android, eclipse is really the only proper option


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## Barking_Mad (Jun 9, 2012)

Yes I am using eclipse it seems to be very good I'm also working my way through the new boston java video tutorials. The simplest of my ideas is mostly a lot of calculations so actually doing programming it shouldn't be *too* difficult.


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## grit (Jun 9, 2012)

Barking_Mad said:


> Yes I am using eclipse it seems to be very good I'm also working my way through the new boston java video tutorials. The simplest of my ideas is mostly a lot of calculations so actually doing programming it shouldn't be *too* difficult.


 
If your are just starting out in programming Java, I really recommend Oreilly Head First Java (http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596009205.do).

You could eh.. source it if you know where to look.


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## junglevip (Jun 9, 2012)

Yeah I use the Java in a Nutshell book.  I dug it out the other day; bought it in 2002.  I already new java then though and just used it as a reference.  Its a bit out of date now though.  When I studied java it was often easier to just look at the java docs or read the code in the sample apps.  Its not the easiest way to do things, I was pretty experienced by then and needed to get the stuff finished.

I am taking a more relaxed approach to new projects though.  I dont want to burn out


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## grit (Jun 9, 2012)

junglevip said:


> Yeah I use the Java in a Nutshell book. I dug it out the other day; bought it in 2002. I already new java then though and just used it as a reference. Its a bit out of date now though. When I studied java it was often easier to just look at the java docs or read the code in the sample apps. Its not the easiest way to do things, I was pretty experienced by then and needed to get the stuff finished.
> 
> I am taking a more relaxed approach to new projects though. I dont want to burn out


 
Dont use a book from 2002.............. really dont.


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## junglevip (Jun 9, 2012)

Its OK for somethings


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## grit (Jun 9, 2012)

junglevip said:


> Its OK for somethings


 
Its going to be mentioning deprecated APIs which are a *very bad thing* to be using. Its going to missing features like generics.. its just a bad idea unless you are really starting from scratch. So whatever value it may have, is going to be extremely short lived.


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## junglevip (Jun 9, 2012)

I was thinking more as a reference for bit manipulation and very basic graphics.  I would not recommend this for a junior programmer or as my only reference.  Just to have a flick through really; I certainly am not disputing what your saying


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## grit (Jun 9, 2012)

junglevip said:


> I was thinking more as a reference for bit manipulation and very basic graphics. I would not recommend this for a junior programmer or as my only reference. Just to have a flick through really; I certainly am not disputing what your saying


 
So much has changed, again for graphics if you use a ten year old text for reference, you are just going to have to un do all your work at some stage... sorry for ranting about it. If it was another language like C++ I'd say go ahead.


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## junglevip (Jun 9, 2012)

Thats alright bruv, I am glad of positive contributions; its what opensource is all about


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## Barking_Mad (Jun 10, 2012)

grit said:


> If your are just starting out in programming Java, I really recommend Oreilly Head First Java (http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596009205.do).
> 
> You could eh.. source it if you know where to look.


 
Ah I do actually have a special pdf version  I might try using it again alongside the videos.


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## mauvais (Jun 10, 2012)

I'm a professional Android software engineer. No Unity experience. What do you want to know?


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## junglevip (Jun 11, 2012)

mauvais said:


> I'm a professional Android software engineer. No Unity experience. What do you want to know?


 
Just having a general chat about things really.  I am not into Unity myself at this point more interested in the android framework.  Its nice to be made aware of this type of thing though.

Knowing about custom intents and broadcast receivers when to use them would be handy; as would using fragments properly


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## junglevip (Jun 11, 2012)

mauvais said:


> I'm a professional Android software engineer. No Unity experience. What do you want to know?


 
Oh yeah, got any opensource stuff that you have worked on or links to what you have published.  I havent done any of that stuff


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## elbows (Jun 11, 2012)

Thanks to people for the conversation and advice by the way, Im sure you'll hear more about my relatively fruitless journey again one day.


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## grit (Jun 11, 2012)

junglevip said:


> Just having a general chat about things really. I am not into Unity myself at this point more interested in the android framework. Its nice to be made aware of this type of thing though.
> 
> Knowing about custom intents and broadcast receivers when to use them would be handy; as would using fragments properly


 
Last year's Google I/O app is open source and makes extensive use of fragments, you should defo take a look.


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## soundsystem (Jun 10, 2013)

I've started playing around a bit with the Android SDK, having recently upgraded to a shiny new phone... Just doing it for something to do at the moment, don't have any great ideas for apps yet, although there may be some opportunities to write some apps at work at some point.

Currently working my way through Android App Development All-in-one For Dummies and Jave Programming All-in-one For Dummies, they're pretty good books. 

I've done some odd bits of programming over the years, from C64 BASIC to writing some simple VST audio plugins.


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