Android

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Can anyone point me to a group for supernoob android developers?
I'm using eclipse SDK plugin, and having real problems even getting past
layout.

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

Can anyone point me to a group for supernoob android developers?
I'm using eclipse SDK plugin, and having real problems even getting past
layout.

See:
http://developer.android.com/resources/community-groups.html

But an Android programming question (assuming SDK not NDK) would
be on topic as well.

Arne

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

See:
http://developer.android.com/resources/community-groups.html

But an Android programming question (assuming SDK not NDK) would
be on topic as well.

Arne

It's just stupid stuff really.
Like I wanted to use Absolute Layout but find its deprecated.
So I want to be able to drag and drop button on *some* layout, but can't
find out how to do it.

Or, what's the equivalent of a list box? I want a list of items to
scroll through and a couple of buttons for up, down, ok etc? But can't
find a list box (ListView???) that will drag onto whatever Layout etc

I am trying to port some simple existing Java s/w to Android

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Yeah, the use of that type of layout is not encouraged in Java desktop
software either.


I'm finding that the most flexible layout, for many purposes, is a
RelativeLayout. You don't generally want to use absolute layouts when
you are not targeting a specific device. ("OK, am I on a 4.3" smartphone
or a 7" or 10" tablet?" If you use an absolute layout you may have to
make some adjustments for each device.)



ListView is what you want, IIRC.

Yes - but the Eclipse drag and drop seems unworkable.
Clearly I'm doing something wrong, but its not obvious what.
A lot of the examples I see start of with how the XML should be edited.
That's a bit like designing websites using Notepad.

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Follow up to this post. Switch to XML view, copy and paste the raw XML
into your followup and I'll take a look at it.

I do acknowledge that the Android GUI editor is rather weird sometimes.


Which, sometimes, I do. (Notepad++ on Windows, emacs on Linux)

But yeah, for GUI's, drag and drop is definitely preferable.

Eclipse with the Android SDK is a primitive nightmare compared to
Netbeans and Java SDK

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

See:
http://developer.android.com/resources/community-groups.html

But an Android programming question (assuming SDK not NDK) would
be on topic as well.

Arne

What's with the use of underscore, and banning capitals?
Is there a rationale for it, or just enforced nostalgia?

Dirk

 

[Lew]

What's with the use of underscore, and banning capitals?
Is there a rationale for it, or just enforced nostalgia?

How would that be nostalgic?

Now, requiring underscores and upper case could be seen as nostalgic, but
lower-case?

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

What's with the use of underscore, and banning capitals?

Where do you see that?

Arne

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Where do you see that?

Arne

Defining resources eg names of buttons, colors etc.

Dirk

 

[markspace]

Defining resources eg names of buttons, colors etc.

Some file systems on which Java is implemented may not be case sensitive
(Windows) so you couldn't determine the difference between two resources
thisone and thisOne -- the file system would not see a difference.

Ditto with underscores, file systems may not support them, so they can't
be used reliable.

If you're talking about Android specifically, I'd say it's for the same
reason: basically just the lowest common denominator. I'd guess not all
Android implementations could be relied to support those features, so
they had to cut them out.

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Some file systems on which Java is implemented may not be case sensitive
(Windows) so you couldn't determine the difference between two resources
thisone and thisOne -- the file system would not see a difference.

Ditto with underscores, file systems may not support them, so they can't
be used reliable.

If you're talking about Android specifically, I'd say it's for the same
reason: basically just the lowest common denominator. I'd guess not all
Android implementations could be relied to support those features, so
they had to cut them out.

Well, I certainly had not come across that on Netbeans using Java SDK.
In fact, the problem surfaced when I tried to port over some resources
eg icon names to Eclipse/Android

Its a real uphill struggle developing for Android, certainly compared
with doing iPhone/iPad stuff. Google really needs to put some serious
effort into the development tools.

 

[The Frog]

Have you tried App Inventor <sarcasm> ?

Cheers

The Frog

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

The tools are rather crude still, but I prefer to edit the XML
directly as it gives you more control and is more transparent. There
is a difficult learning curve to get started with Android but, for an
experienced programmer, you should be up and running soon.

For general help stackoverflow is good and there's plenty of stuff on
the official google site. There are quite a few gaps in the
documentation, but hopefully this will improve soon.

I'm hacking the XML.
Should have my first app, a replacement for an MS RC6 remote control,
running in a day or so.

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Have you tried App Inventor<sarcasm> ?

Cheers

The Frog

I think I would prefer Watson on the job...

 

[The Frog]

I was looking for similar bootstrapping into the Android dev world as
Dirk is and stumbled across App Inventor. Its an interesting idea if
it can be furthered from its already astonishing (to me anyway)
beginnings. I am wondering if that is where all Googles development
effort is being directed in terms of SDKs. It is great for kids and I
have seen some rather surprising apps developed with it, but IMO it
needs work still to be able to develop truly complex applications.

I could not for example imagine creating a spreadsheet (from scratch)
with App Inventor, but can think of a number of approaches one might
take using Java. And I am sure there are many other examples. Still,
it is an interesting toy.

Cheers

The Frog

 

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Ditto with underscores, file systems may not support them, so they can't
be used reliable.

Which present day filesystems don’t support underscores?

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

Which present day filesystems don’t support underscores?

MVS dataset ??

Arne

 

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

MVS dataset ??

Given that the original restriction seemed to be about the names of GUI
resources, limitations of MVS hardly seem relevant to that, somehow.

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

Given that the original restriction seemed to be about the names of GUI
resources, limitations of MVS hardly seem relevant to that, somehow.

The original question was about Android. And I am sure that
Android support on MVS is really lousy.

But the original question was about why underscores were being
used instead of capitalization, so I assumed the discussion
has broadened a bit.

Arne

 

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

The original question was about Android. And I am sure that
Android support on MVS is really lousy.

But the original question was about why underscores were being
used instead of capitalization, so I assumed the discussion
has broadened a bit.

Arne

Broadened to "why enforced rules on naming resources in Android that do
not exist in other Java environments"