How the Programmers do it.
An Android application begins as a design idea or sketch on the back of a napkin. To make an idea or a lunch time sketch a reality has until recently, meant meeting some pre-requisites. An Android application developer had to have a solid and thorough knowledge of computer science concepts and mobile computing concepts. He or she also has to know how to program in Java. And then the developer desiring to make an Android Application has to become very familiar with the Android SDK. The SDK is the tools and Android specific functions that allow a programmer to make a phone do “stuff”. It contains such mysteries as classes, functions, methods and calls that let the developer manipulate the hardware of a smartphone. Using software tools such as Eclipse and ANT (Mysteries upon mysteries,) a developer writes Java code that looks like this:
public class AlarmReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver{
@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent){
NotificationManager nm = (NotificationManager)
context.getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
nm.notifyWithText(R.id.alarm,
"Alarm!!!",
NotificationManager.LENGTH_SHORT,
null);
}
}
This code gets compiled to Dalvik byte code (the underlying language for applications in the Android Applications universe,) and then installed on a cellphone. If the developer doesn’t like what he sees, then it’s back to the drawing board for another shot at the design goals.
Now some of that code looks like real words but obviously there are things going on there that most of us just don’t have time to understand or learn. Luckily for us there has been a group of educators working at MIT that seem to agree with the rest of us that learning to program a computer shouldn’t be akin to magic where only wizards know the right words and incantations. We will look at some of the early history of App Inventor next time.
I am also agree with your opinion Android application developer should have a fantastic idea about mobile application.Nice post.
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