- creating a new project;
- basic GUI layout/properties/etc.
- where you write your code (onCreate()...);
- how to find your objects (findViewById);
- coding for events; and
- compiling/debugging/executing.
I hope to go through some simple demos, including a basic Hello World app, some interactions with pushbuttons, and an example of reading sensors.
Things I may also get to include:
- virtual devices (AVD) - so you can develop without an actual Android device;
- adb (Android Debugging Bridge) - really useful and fun if you do have an Android device;
- intents (e.g. receiving SMS messages);
- application lifecycle;
- string externalization; and
- database interaction (e.g. reading your contacts).
If you're interested in working along during this discussion, you'll probably want to have pre-installed Eclipse, the Android ADT plugin, and the Android SDK. This can take a long time, and I'm not really planning to discuss the details of it; excellent instructions are available at http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html I followed the instructions blindly, with very little understanding of what I was doing, and it worked out fine :)
DISCLAIMER: I've got a lot of programming experience in general (more than I care to admit), but I am not an expert Android developer, nor am I the least bit proficient at using Eclipse. I've learned enough to develop some simple apps of my own, but I still take some things on faith; I'm still working somewhat at the cut-and-paste level for certain things; and I don't know anything about "best practices" and so on. But I have figured out enough to get started and to navigate the SDK documentation, and given enough time and good fast techno music, I can generally get things working, eventually. My goal is just to help others get to that point.
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