[android-developers] Re: My first android program
Thanks so much for your input! I've just had my final exam today, so I'm back into it. It's my final year in medicine actually, the only programming experience I have is in VB6 from a few years back (I loved it!). I'm familiar with the concept of OOP but haven't used it much. I think I'll take your advise and look for some online tutorials on java first, then look at android. To answer your questions, I was thinking of having an sqlite table (FTS) with the URL, title, and body of the html files (on sd card) (made on the device using Jericho HTML parser). I took the Searchabledictionary example app (in android SDK) for the top level part, and intend to change it so that when you search it shows the title in the listview and you click and it opens a web browser in the corresponding URL. It's pretty simple in theory, harder to actually start! Thanks again for all your help. It looks like there's a lot to learn. Richard On May 4, 9:57 am, Kristopher Micinski krismicin...@gmail.com wrote: On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 7:50 PM, Miguel Morales therevolti...@gmail.comwrote: So, what, you wouldn't learn it by practicing? You can only learn it by reading the spec? Of course not that's silly. Furthermore, he is taking final exams so I assume he is familiar with the concept of programming. Also, while Java is in many forms the primary Android development language, in many cases it isn't. If your objective is to make apps for Android learning things like thread locks, blocking queues, etc while it's ok will be superseded when you learn that Android has a bunch of nice helper classes (handler, looper, etc) to integrate better with its lifecycle methodology. Obviously the best would be to learn the spec AS you work on a project. Time spent learning or memorizing some silly spec is better spent making an app that follows to Android standards and practices. Sounds good to me. But note, I never said spec anywhere, (really, you can check), I simply said to *learn* Java. If you don't know OOP, then jumping into Android will be difficult, but I'll agree, it's best to learn as you go. (And yes, unless his tests aren't in programming, I suppose he already does.) Kris -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
[android-developers] Re: My first android program
Thanks for your reply Miguel, Like everything I guess, you learn from experience. I'm looking forward to get into it soon! (I have my final year exam in a week, I find myself always working on projects just before exams!) Cheers, Richard On May 4, 7:37 am, Miguel Morales therevolti...@gmail.com wrote: Honestly, the best way to learn what you would do is to get your hands dirty and do it yourself. Research different methods of implementing what you want, and you'll probably fail a couple of times but will learn a lot in the process. That's how most of us gain experience in programming. You won't gain much experience with somebody holding your hand all the way. Perhaps if you had a more specific question we could provide better help. On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 3:11 AM, res_au richard.shan...@gmail.com wrote: Hi guys, I'm ideally looking at making an app that searches 2 local folders of html files (1000s) and then lets you go directly to the search result you click on. I'm guessing I could do it in two ways, by firstly indexing the folders (they won't change, it's a reference book) and then using sqlite to search the index database, or maybe even actually searching each time? they are maybe 60mb. I guess I just was wondering if anyone could help point me in the right direction. I really have no idea what I'm doing. Any help at all would be much appreciated. Cheers, Richard -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -- ~ Jeremiah:9:23-24 Android 2D MMORPG:http://solrpg.com/,http://www.youtube.com/user/revoltingx -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
Re: [android-developers] Re: My first android program
Remember that memorizing things is useless, practice, practice, practice. The time you spend on your projects will probably help you more than memorizing some silly exams. On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 3:02 PM, res_au richard.shan...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks for your reply Miguel, Like everything I guess, you learn from experience. I'm looking forward to get into it soon! (I have my final year exam in a week, I find myself always working on projects just before exams!) Cheers, Richard On May 4, 7:37 am, Miguel Morales therevolti...@gmail.com wrote: Honestly, the best way to learn what you would do is to get your hands dirty and do it yourself. Research different methods of implementing what you want, and you'll probably fail a couple of times but will learn a lot in the process. That's how most of us gain experience in programming. You won't gain much experience with somebody holding your hand all the way. Perhaps if you had a more specific question we could provide better help. On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 3:11 AM, res_au richard.shan...@gmail.com wrote: Hi guys, I'm ideally looking at making an app that searches 2 local folders of html files (1000s) and then lets you go directly to the search result you click on. I'm guessing I could do it in two ways, by firstly indexing the folders (they won't change, it's a reference book) and then using sqlite to search the index database, or maybe even actually searching each time? they are maybe 60mb. I guess I just was wondering if anyone could help point me in the right direction. I really have no idea what I'm doing. Any help at all would be much appreciated. Cheers, Richard -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -- ~ Jeremiah:9:23-24 Android 2D MMORPG: http://solrpg.com/,http://www.youtube.com/user/revoltingx -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -- ~ Jeremiah:9:23-24 Android 2D MMORPG: http://solrpg.com/, http://www.youtube.com/user/revoltingx -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
Re: [android-developers] Re: My first android program
Though at the same time, getting a good grade on an exam may be important for your future job / school prospects, and I doubt your professor is going to like the some guy on a mailing list told me to excuse *again* :o) To add some real advice, do you know Java? If not, time to learn that first. (If you try to just start programming without actually learning Java, this is going to be tough.) Picking it up from C++ is fairly easy, so that also might work for you. Next all you have to become familiar with is the execution model on Android: views, intents, etc... Basically, the most important concepts are the big categories on the main android documentation page. So read through this page: http://developer.android.com/guide/index.html This main developer guide is actually pretty short and you can pick up what you need to know quickly enough if you read through it. This project looks like it has a fair number of moving parts: accessing files (where is it stored?) and using content providers and/or SQLite stuff. Along with that, you'll want to thing about the design of the toplevel app as well. You seem to have compiled your app description to a high level view of how you think it will be implemented, but what do you actually want to do? Make a searchable table of contents for a reference book or something? A specific book? An arbitrary book? Will the indexing be done offline, or online? (I.e., can you compile the indexes using some other code on another machine and then load the database, or do you need to write the indexing code to run on the Android? I guess this is fairly batch, so maybe it doesn't matter much.) Anyway, that should point you in the right direction. If you want to google some things: -- Views android -- Content providers android -- sqlite android -- accessing files android -- (How are you going to implement clicking things and displaying a list? Perhaps look at ListView for a prototype, which I use a good amount more than I should.) Kris On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 6:22 PM, Miguel Morales therevolti...@gmail.comwrote: Remember that memorizing things is useless, practice, practice, practice. The time you spend on your projects will probably help you more than memorizing some silly exams. On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 3:02 PM, res_au richard.shan...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks for your reply Miguel, Like everything I guess, you learn from experience. I'm looking forward to get into it soon! (I have my final year exam in a week, I find myself always working on projects just before exams!) Cheers, Richard On May 4, 7:37 am, Miguel Morales therevolti...@gmail.com wrote: Honestly, the best way to learn what you would do is to get your hands dirty and do it yourself. Research different methods of implementing what you want, and you'll probably fail a couple of times but will learn a lot in the process. That's how most of us gain experience in programming. You won't gain much experience with somebody holding your hand all the way. Perhaps if you had a more specific question we could provide better help. On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 3:11 AM, res_au richard.shan...@gmail.com wrote: Hi guys, I'm ideally looking at making an app that searches 2 local folders of html files (1000s) and then lets you go directly to the search result you click on. I'm guessing I could do it in two ways, by firstly indexing the folders (they won't change, it's a reference book) and then using sqlite to search the index database, or maybe even actually searching each time? they are maybe 60mb. I guess I just was wondering if anyone could help point me in the right direction. I really have no idea what I'm doing. Any help at all would be much appreciated. Cheers, Richard -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -- ~ Jeremiah:9:23-24 Android 2D MMORPG: http://solrpg.com/,http://www.youtube.com/user/revoltingx -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -- ~ Jeremiah:9:23-24 Android 2D MMORPG: http://solrpg.com/, http://www.youtube.com/user/revoltingx -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe
Re: [android-developers] Re: My first android program
Right, don't slack on your exams, but nothing beats practice. Sure you might get a job just because of your degree but you might suck as a programmer. On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 3:32 PM, Kristopher Micinski krismicin...@gmail.comwrote: Though at the same time, getting a good grade on an exam may be important for your future job / school prospects, and I doubt your professor is going to like the some guy on a mailing list told me to excuse *again* :o) To add some real advice, do you know Java? If not, time to learn that first. (If you try to just start programming without actually learning Java, this is going to be tough.) Picking it up from C++ is fairly easy, so that also might work for you. Java is extremely easy to pick up, you don't need to know java to start developing for android. It would be a waste of time. Learn as you go, make mistakes, improve on them. Next all you have to become familiar with is the execution model on Android: views, intents, etc... Basically, the most important concepts are the big categories on the main android documentation page. So read through this page: http://developer.android.com/guide/index.html This main developer guide is actually pretty short and you can pick up what you need to know quickly enough if you read through it. This project looks like it has a fair number of moving parts: accessing files (where is it stored?) and using content providers and/or SQLite stuff. Along with that, you'll want to thing about the design of the toplevel app as well. You seem to have compiled your app description to a high level view of how you think it will be implemented, but what do you actually want to do? Make a searchable table of contents for a reference book or something? A specific book? An arbitrary book? Will the indexing be done offline, or online? (I.e., can you compile the indexes using some other code on another machine and then load the database, or do you need to write the indexing code to run on the Android? I guess this is fairly batch, so maybe it doesn't matter much.) Anyway, that should point you in the right direction. If you want to google some things: -- Views android -- Content providers android -- sqlite android -- accessing files android -- (How are you going to implement clicking things and displaying a list? Perhaps look at ListView for a prototype, which I use a good amount more than I should.) Kris On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 6:22 PM, Miguel Morales therevolti...@gmail.comwrote: Remember that memorizing things is useless, practice, practice, practice. The time you spend on your projects will probably help you more than memorizing some silly exams. On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 3:02 PM, res_au richard.shan...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks for your reply Miguel, Like everything I guess, you learn from experience. I'm looking forward to get into it soon! (I have my final year exam in a week, I find myself always working on projects just before exams!) Cheers, Richard On May 4, 7:37 am, Miguel Morales therevolti...@gmail.com wrote: Honestly, the best way to learn what you would do is to get your hands dirty and do it yourself. Research different methods of implementing what you want, and you'll probably fail a couple of times but will learn a lot in the process. That's how most of us gain experience in programming. You won't gain much experience with somebody holding your hand all the way. Perhaps if you had a more specific question we could provide better help. On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 3:11 AM, res_au richard.shan...@gmail.com wrote: Hi guys, I'm ideally looking at making an app that searches 2 local folders of html files (1000s) and then lets you go directly to the search result you click on. I'm guessing I could do it in two ways, by firstly indexing the folders (they won't change, it's a reference book) and then using sqlite to search the index database, or maybe even actually searching each time? they are maybe 60mb. I guess I just was wondering if anyone could help point me in the right direction. I really have no idea what I'm doing. Any help at all would be much appreciated. Cheers, Richard -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -- ~ Jeremiah:9:23-24 Android 2D MMORPG: http://solrpg.com/,http://www.youtube.com/user/revoltingx -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
Re: [android-developers] Re: My first android program
On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 6:40 PM, Miguel Morales therevolti...@gmail.comwrote: Right, don't slack on your exams, but nothing beats practice. Sure you might get a job just because of your degree but you might suck as a programmer. On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 3:32 PM, Kristopher Micinski krismicin...@gmail.com wrote: Though at the same time, getting a good grade on an exam may be important for your future job / school prospects, and I doubt your professor is going to like the some guy on a mailing list told me to excuse *again* :o) To add some real advice, do you know Java? If not, time to learn that first. (If you try to just start programming without actually learning Java, this is going to be tough.) Picking it up from C++ is fairly easy, so that also might work for you. Java is extremely easy to pick up, you don't need to know java to start developing for android. It would be a waste of time. Learn as you go, make mistakes, improve on them. Yup, I agree, Learning a language that is the main development environment on the Android platform would be simply a waste of time. Doubly so if you intend to develop good android applications. Kris -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
Re: [android-developers] Re: My first android program
So, what, you wouldn't learn it by practicing? You can only learn it by reading the spec? Of course not that's silly. Furthermore, he is taking final exams so I assume he is familiar with the concept of programming. Also, while Java is in many forms the primary Android development language, in many cases it isn't. If your objective is to make apps for Android learning things like thread locks, blocking queues, etc while it's ok will be superseded when you learn that Android has a bunch of nice helper classes (handler, looper, etc) to integrate better with its lifecycle methodology. Obviously the best would be to learn the spec AS you work on a project. Time spent learning or memorizing some silly spec is better spent making an app that follows to Android standards and practices. On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 4:35 PM, Kristopher Micinski krismicin...@gmail.comwrote: On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 6:40 PM, Miguel Morales therevolti...@gmail.comwrote: Right, don't slack on your exams, but nothing beats practice. Sure you might get a job just because of your degree but you might suck as a programmer. On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 3:32 PM, Kristopher Micinski krismicin...@gmail.com wrote: Though at the same time, getting a good grade on an exam may be important for your future job / school prospects, and I doubt your professor is going to like the some guy on a mailing list told me to excuse *again* :o) To add some real advice, do you know Java? If not, time to learn that first. (If you try to just start programming without actually learning Java, this is going to be tough.) Picking it up from C++ is fairly easy, so that also might work for you. Java is extremely easy to pick up, you don't need to know java to start developing for android. It would be a waste of time. Learn as you go, make mistakes, improve on them. Yup, I agree, Learning a language that is the main development environment on the Android platform would be simply a waste of time. Doubly so if you intend to develop good android applications. Kris -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -- ~ Jeremiah:9:23-24 Android 2D MMORPG: http://solrpg.com/, http://www.youtube.com/user/revoltingx -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
Re: [android-developers] Re: My first android program
On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 7:50 PM, Miguel Morales therevolti...@gmail.comwrote: So, what, you wouldn't learn it by practicing? You can only learn it by reading the spec? Of course not that's silly. Furthermore, he is taking final exams so I assume he is familiar with the concept of programming. Also, while Java is in many forms the primary Android development language, in many cases it isn't. If your objective is to make apps for Android learning things like thread locks, blocking queues, etc while it's ok will be superseded when you learn that Android has a bunch of nice helper classes (handler, looper, etc) to integrate better with its lifecycle methodology. Obviously the best would be to learn the spec AS you work on a project. Time spent learning or memorizing some silly spec is better spent making an app that follows to Android standards and practices. Sounds good to me. But note, I never said spec anywhere, (really, you can check), I simply said to *learn* Java. If you don't know OOP, then jumping into Android will be difficult, but I'll agree, it's best to learn as you go. (And yes, unless his tests aren't in programming, I suppose he already does.) Kris -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Android Developers group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
