Android developer and techie

[andjarnic]

Hey all,

Wanted to say hi... been posting here since Saturday I believe. I am a software engineer by profession, been writing code for about 26 years now, Java for the last 12 in all areas the language is used in from desktop apps to web apps to JEE and even some old J2ME mobile stuff (ugh.. thank God for Android!!). I build computers, do networking stuff, work with Ubuntu Linux as my primary OS these days, but also with Windows Vista (soon to be Windows 7), and OSX (my least favorite), and Solaris when necessary.

I joined this forum due to my initial problem with my Droid, where it would just randomly get stuck and nothing I did would wake it up. Battery replace was the only thing that did it. Still not sure why this happens, but got a new phone on the way to replace this one. Hopefully it goes away!

I am in the process of learning to use my Java skills writing Android applications. It's a fun and wild ride! This platform is so freaking robust for a phone it's insane! Having done some J2ME stuff a few years ago, this is what I and many other developers have been waiting for. J2ME was a joke, still is, compared to what Android offers and all the hassles dealing with variosu phone companies, tests for your app to possibly make it on the phone, etc.. you can't even imagine!

I hope to be of help as I learn more about Android development and the Droid phone in particular as that is my phone of choice right now. Feel free to shoot me any private messages if you are stuck, I check the forums several times a day. I'll do my best to reply quickly and to the best of my knowledge.

Lastly, if there are any Android developers out there that read this, hit me up, I'd love to converse with some of you about development with Android.

Thanks all, take care and look forward to sharing the Android and Moto Droid ride with you all.

 

[Earthwalker]

That is really awsome. My experience is in HTML and PHP. Would love to learn how to write a few programs for the Droid. I am going to download the new Android 2.0 dev kit. It would be awsome to have somebody here to help out with that.

 

[andjarnic]

Sure.. might I suggest you start with Eclipse IDE and the ADT (Android plugin for Eclipse). Follow the instructions on how to install ADT and it will show you how you can download all the SDKs including 1.1, 1.5, 1.6 and 2.0. It's really nice, you can set up run targets to test your app in all environments. When you plug your Droid (or any Android device) in via USB, then run your app, it detects it (usually.. little work on Linux to get the Droid to work) and you immediately have the option to debug or run your app on your Android device. It's really impressive how easy/quick it is to get going.

Keep in mind tho, that you do have to know the Java language. Do you know much of object oriented programming, such as with C++, Java, Object Pascal (Delphi), Ruby, etc? If not, you may be in for a steep learning curve to get going and honestly I wouldn't be able to help much with learning Java. Your best bet there is to get a couple books on OOP and then learning Java and go thru those. It's all good fun tho.

 

[HEMDROID]

I think it should be easy and profitable to design an app the uses the camera lens to operate as a magnifying glass. Imagine how great it would be to tap the mag app and wha la you have a magnifying droid, you could read micro text, use it for a jewelers loop or pick a sliver... whatever. [Pat pending] lol