i want to learn how to develop apps

[mdhuber25]

is there a good resource that everyone recommends to get me going? either a website, a program, or just to DL the dev kit and toy around, whatever. i dont have any development or programming experience, i just want to start teaching myself. any tips would be appreciated, i just want a point in the right direction.

 

[icculusX]

Bumping this out of curiosity

(please don't be one of those that floods the market with crappy apps that look awful or porn viewing applications, i am starting to hate the open market)

 

[Erron]

The Developer's Guide | Android Developers

There you go!

 

[mdhuber25]

i got my droid not too long ago (maybe a month back) and love it. so many more options than blackberry OS and more open than iphone OS. but as customizable as it is, there are little things that bother me that would make the UI perfect for me and have yet to be developed, or at the very least i cant find them. like, i would love to have a simple note taking app with a large widget interface, like writing on a legal pad. i'd love for it to take up the whole screen or maybe half the screen. i'd love to have a good speed dial application, something as easy as creating a contact shortcut on the home screen but that takes up less space; if there's a way, i'd love to have more than 4 contacts on a row and maybe a long press option to choose between texting and calling. i dont know, i just want to be able to know how to put stuff together for whatever issues i may encounter, you know?

 

[mdhuber25]

thanks erron, checking it out now

 

[rcfx]

I use colornote, you described it almost perfectly, it does not have a widget but it's full screen and easy to use.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[Yodes]

if there's a way, i'd love to have more than 4 contacts on a row

Oh shoot, I had an app back in January that did exactly that, I think you could have up to 16 icons in the space of what would normally be for, I rack my brain to try and remember, or maybe someone can help me out with the name

 

[rcfx]

I think your talking about the app More Icons.

 

[mdhuber25]

wow that icon app is awesome, thanks yodes and rcfx. im going to toy around with the free version before committing to the paid version.

 

[PolyOlefin]

Developing apps is going to require commitment. It'll take you months (at least) to become proficient enough with Java to build an app people will want to use.

Do you know what an "object" is? How about "class"? What about "inheritance"?

Sun Microsystems is your friend. Better get busy!

 

[dot]

First you need to get your environment setup ... Eclipse IDE, Android SDK, ADT plugin for Android, etc.

The Android Developers blog does an okay job of describing the process, but it's convoluted and has a couple of repetitive tasks due to the order they define. Greg and I identified an optimal path through the process that is straight forward and describes everything click by click:

How to Setup Android Development Environment | Android Code Monkey

Once you have your environment setup you can hit this post to apply a darker theme to Eclipse:

Applying Themes to Eclipse | Android Code Monkey

From there you'll find a couple of tutorials on his blog. O'Reilly media is hosting a FREE development tutorial beginning this month. It will walk through the creation of a Twitter app. I bought their 1st series and am going through the ~12 hours of video now. They're done very, very well.

Developing Android Applications with Java, Part 1

Part 2 hasn't "aired" yet, but they have it in their store for purchase. The class can be take FREE! Training - O'Reilly Media

Developing Android Applications with Java, Part 2

Hope to see some of you there!

Bill M

 

[PolyOlefin]

The OP has no programming experience whatsoever. I think he/she is far from the point of being able to learn from watching how other Android apps are made.

Seriously, OP, you should go to your local bookstore, find a comfortable seat, and flip through a "Java for Dummies" or something. Without knowing the basics, even Google's Android Developer site will seem like pig latin. Having the Eclipse IDE is worthless if you don't know the foundations of Java.

 

[dot]

I couldn't agree more.

I almost bought "Head First Programming" for my son, but I wasn't interested in him learning Python. "Head First Java" really wouldn't be a bad place to start. I'm an old school procedural programmer and have a love-hate relationship with interpreted languages. That said, I don't want my kids to learn that. I want them to start with OO.

In the end, you have some sound advice in your post. Go to your local bookstore and get comfortable. Not that you're going to learn a whole lot in that way, but it might help you decide on what you don't know

Bill M

 

[chilin221]

It depends..

on how much programming experience you have. If you are decent at programming in any language, you could just go to the android developer page and learn from the documentation, but that takes a lot of reading and can be boring. Some of the descriptions on that site are hard to understand if you aren't a veteran programmer.

If you have little to no experience, or even if you have programmed before, but don't know how to develop android apps, I would start with mybringback's tutorial. (C Programming Course| Beginner Java Tutorials |Ios Tutorials). They have awesome video tutorials that are free, and the guy that teaches the course makes learning fun which your son probably love. Here is where you need to start for learning the basics of android.

Hope that helps. I had no experience before I finally found that site, and now I have developed a couple of simple apps. The key is to never give up!

 

[Vanya_S]

Try WikiHow, it may help you.