Ask HN: Jumping into Android Development

Re:Ask HN: Jumping into Android Development by heliodorj on Friday May 14, 2010 @10:16AM (#1347382)

I'm not a fan of learning from technical books, but that's just my style. I like figuring out exactly what I need to do and Googling it one piece at a time, side-by-side with having the docs as reference.

You could start by reading the dev guide from the top: http://developer.android.com/guide/basics/what-is-android.ht....

You should read the Activity lifecycle some ten times at least: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity..... To avoid countless headaches at the beginning, clamp your app to only portrait or only landscape mode if it makes sense.

Also read over the Intents doc a number of times as they are another crucial part of the system: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/intents/intents-fi....

The Android SDK contains various samples that will get your going quickly.

Having a G1 to test with is a good idea. They are painfully slow, so if you get the G1 right, everybody else will be happy. Quick stat: devices by platform: http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-ve....

Designing the interface layout is pretty painless. The framework is well thought out.

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Re:Ask HN: Jumping into Android Development by wallflower on Friday May 14, 2010 @11:42AM (#1347589)

Thank you for the tips on intents. I second you on the books as I like to exercise my Google foo; I don't read those books I buy - most are pure reference. I think I've gotten the books simply to feel like I'm becoming X (in the geek friends over, coffee table sense). And there are times where bringing the book(s) to a park sans computer makes me realize the concepts better. I didn't realize the G1 was so slow! But if it works on the G1, then I'm golden.

Going to use my dead tree allotment and print out the Activity and Intents reference documents you highlighted. Thank you.

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