App Programming

[MysterE]

Hi all -

Can anyone recommend a good resource for learning how to program apps on either Osx or Android? We have developed a great idea for an app but aren't sure of the best way to find the resources to learn how.

Best

[pastelpony]

For Android, you should check out the Android SDK.

http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

[dmaciel10123]

Yeah use the android sdk. It ends up being a decently sized install but it's basically eclipse with all of the android plugins installed, packaged alongside the tools to develop on android. There's also an emulator included so you can run virtual android devices for immediate testing on any screen size and hardware configuration.

[hardcopi]

If you know html and javascript (or don't really) try http://platform.telerik.com

It runs in your browser (or standalone) and they have a free version for 2 projects. You can create Android, iOS, Windows Phone 8, Blackberry all in it seamlessly. Don't have to write different versions.

The Android SDK is good but if you are new and the app doesn't have 3d graphics then it might be a good alternative.

[dcarr]

Yeah use the android sdk. It ends up being a decently sized install but it's basically eclipse with all of the android plugins installed, packaged alongside the tools to develop on android. There's also an emulator included so you can run virtual android devices for immediate testing on any screen size and hardware configuration.

Just an FYI, Eclipse/ADT are deprecated. Android Studio is the future of Android development - and you definitely want to use it.

https://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/studio.html

In regards to learning - the best way, of course, is learning by doing. Android's documentation is pretty well done, but picking up a book is probably not a bad idea. I don't have any specific recommendations.

[raystubbs]

Hi all -

Can anyone recommend a good resource for learning how to program apps on either Osx or Android? We have developed a great idea for an app but aren't sure of the best way to find the resources to learn how.

Best
Android is very well documented and easy to learn. I would recomend downloading an ebook to learn the basics then rely on the official documentation. I learned android programming by starting a project I was interested in, this kept me motivated to learn. It only took me about a month (that is, about 48 hours, as I only had a few hours an evening) to learn both java programming and android development.

"Android Application Development for Dummies" is a pretty good book for getting started, but after learning the basics, I would recommend you find a few books and skip through them, learning and applying the parts that relate to your project.

[AquaMorph]

Yeah use the android sdk. It ends up being a decently sized install but it's basically eclipse with all of the android plugins installed, packaged alongside the tools to develop on android. There's also an emulator included so you can run virtual android devices for immediate testing on any screen size and hardware configuration.

This is all about to be outdated. Google is making the switch from Eclipse to IntelliJ (Android Studio). There new program is out in beta now and I in the middle on switching over. I don't see any point on learning a soon to be outdated development setup. To prepare for the change Google put together a good tutorial series online. https://www.udacity.com/course/ud853 It is free to go through but if you want to actually have someone grade your stuff and one on one there is a $150 a month charge. This actually does an excellent job of not only teaching Android Studio but also the basics of programming for Android. Assuming you know some basic programming already.

[Shrub]

I second(or third or whatever it may be) Android Studio. My brother just entered a programming competition and made it wholly far with that even with knowing just HTML (he was of course in a team with other programmers so that may have helped).

[raystubbs]

If you are wondering which IDE to use I agree that Android Studio is better than eclipse. It runs much smoother than eclipse even in beta stage, and will continually be updated to fix bugs, while eclipse will be left as it is.

[Katie_UPS]

Android developement has a lot of walk-throughs that are mostly helpful. You'll have to know XML on top of java to use the android studio (or atleast you did in spring when I used it).

If you want to dual-create an app for both andriod and iOS there is a framework that allows you to do that in java without buying the iOS developement kit. I don't have first-hand experience with this though, but TA'd some students working on it. I think they used this: http://www.appcelerator.com/titanium/

[Moebee2]

I personally recommend ios programming from Big Nerd Ranch. They teach you everything you need to know. By the first chapter you will know how to create an app.

Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/iOS-Programming-Ranch-Edition-Guides/dp/0321942051

[weaversam8]

I would highly recommend PhoneGap paired with jQuery Mobile.

Phonegap is a platform that allows you to write apps for iOS and Android, using HTML5, CSS, and Javascript. It is very flexible, and jQuery Mobile will allow a very extensible UI and you can manage functionality in Javascript. I can't code native to save my life, but Phonegap is easy. There are plenty of tutorials online.

[matthew_martin]

I definitely agree with everyone else. The Android SDK with Android Studio is definitely the way you want to go, and if you need to learn how to program Android Apps, use Udacity. They ask that you have a decent knowledge of Java as well (because Android apps are programmed in Java and XML), but I've just been learning it along the way. I actually took the AP Computer Science class at my school just so I could learn Java to make a scouting app for competitions. Good luck!

[plnyyanks]

Once you get through reading some of the resources mentioned above, find a project to work on and just dive in. It's one thing to read about how to do something, and it's a whole other thing to implement them on your own.

If you don't have any ideas for your own apps, poke around GitHub, there are plenty of existing projects that would love to take on new developers and be happy to help walk you through getting started. I work heavily on FRC Notebook (https://github.com/phil-lopreiato/frc-notebook) (for Android) and The Blue Alliance (https://github.com/the-blue-alliance/the-blue-alliance) (which has apps for both Android and iOS) and would be more than happy to take some time and help get somebody acquainted with contributing to any of those projects. Shoot a PM my way if interested.