Android Applications and Java

[Chrystal Carlson]

I'm interested in writing android applications, however am not very good at Java, do you think I can learn Android Application development without first having a better understanding of Java?

[robi sen]

What is your current understanding of Java? If you have little to none and have little other programing experience you will find it somewhat frustrating. If you really just want to make straight forward apps with little programing check out the Android App builder that allows you to build android apps with little programing http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/.

Now if you have a basic understanding of Java I say just go for it. As long as you are not trying to make something like a very sophisticated video game or something very complex Android is pretty straightforward to develop once you understand its development paradigm.

[Michael Rivera]

I suggest you read on with the fundamentals of Java and after that dive into OOP and read some codes about it .
Also if you are confident enough you can now read the online docs about Android and everything else will follow after that!


Good Luck!

[Daniel Trebbien]

Chrystal Carlson wrote:I'm interested in writing android applications, however am not very good at Java, do you think I can learn Android Application development without first having a better understanding of Java?

Are you familiar with Javascript and web development? If so, you can program some apps in a web app-style environment. Take a look, for example, at the PhoneGap project.

At this point in time you will not be able to do everything using only Javascript, but PhoneGap provides Javascript hooks for accessing a number of native features all within Javascript.

Just last week in this forum, the authors of Pro Android Web Apps were answering questions about programming Android apps using web technology. You may want to look back a few days in this forum's archives.

[Chrystal Carlson]

Thank you to everyone for your help.

I do have a basic understanding of Java, and I don't have any plans for making anything complex, so from what you've told me I think I can get the hang of it. I also have some trouble with OOP though, and am unfamiliar with Javascript. If I do get to a point where I want to make something a little more in depth will this be a problem?

[Michael Rivera]

Chrystal Carlson wrote:Thank you to everyone for your help.

I do have a basic understanding of Java, and I don't have any plans for making anything complex, so from what you've told me I think I can get the hang of it. I also have some trouble with OOP though, and am unfamiliar with Javascript. If I do get to a point where I want to make something a little more in depth will this be a problem?

you dont need javascript!

[Daniel Trebbien]

Michael Rivera wrote:you dont need javascript!

Michael is correct. You don't need Javascript to make an Android app. It's just an option, but it doesn't sound like that's the route that you want to take.

[Hauke Ingmar Schmidt]

Chrystal Carlson wrote:
I do have a basic understanding of Java, and I don't have any plans for making anything complex, so from what you've told me I think I can get the hang of it. I also have some trouble with OOP though, and am unfamiliar with Javascript. If I do get to a point where I want to make something a little more in depth will this be a problem?

Yes.

Software development is not an easy task that can be learned in 24 hours or 21 days. You need to learn a lot of different "things" because you will design systems that interact with other systems. You need to learn first, otherwise you will waste a lot of time and will have to revert/delete most of what you done at a point in the future because you will learn about fundamental mistakes you made earlier. If you don't have this knowledge you can't even know if what you want to do is complex or not.

I don't want to discourage you. But if you want to do this, you have to do it right. This is more important in SE than in other craftmanships.

[Chrystal Carlson]

Alrighty, thanks again to everyone for all your help!