[DavisDad]

Now it's time to actually do some work on program files. Up to now, I've only followed other's procedures and relied on the automatic features of Android Studio. I need to understand what I’m looking at in this Android Studio window. There must be over 100 buttons and thingies…

1. I started looking at the ton of directories and files generated by Android Studio (let’s shorten to AS). I’m wondering: “where’s the program code in all this mess”. I started reading here: "Your Android project is now a basic "Hello World" app that contains some default files. Take a moment to review the most important of these...".
   
   I’ve found Buckey Roberts’s tutorials really good at introducing me to the complexity of AS: "Android App Development for Beginners - 5 - Tour of the Interface" and "Android App Development for Beginners - 6 - Android Studio Tips"
   
   
2. When I had gotten to this point, I understood that the program code was here: C:\...\AndroidStudioProjects\HeloWorld\app\src\mai n\java\org\simhardware\heloworld\MainActivity.java. Then I did some study of Java for beginners. I got stalled with “object oriented”, “classes”, “methods”, “activities”, and a bunch of other concepts I couldn’t hold in my head long enough to see how this related to controlling a robot.
   
   I then went looking for “simple” source code for a program (app) to talk to the game controller (Logitech F310). I was looking for something that would connect and read input actions; analog values of joystick and digital button presses. I wanted it to simply write the data to a text screen on the ZTE. I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for, but did find this: "Supporting Game Controllers" and downloaded: " ControllerSample.zip " This is a simple game that looks like "Asteroids" that I played years ago at the video arcade. :-)
   
   
3. I'm now playing with stripping out the game stuff and writing the F310 inputs to a text screen on the phone. Progress to follow...