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"Android Tools Are Horrendous, OS Is Hideous," FB iPhone Dev Joe Hewitt Tweets

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Re: "Android Tools Are Horrendous, OS Is Hideous," FB iPhone Dev Joe Hewitt Tweets

#51

Post by astrange »

ww520 wrote: post #50

I've started developing a side project for Android. My experience is very positive so far. (I'll do a Show/Ask HN when the app is done.) The tools and SDK are pretty good. I mainly use the command line tools and Emacs. That setup works great. The API and UI framework are fairly well-thought out. I like the Activity/View/Intent constructs, encouraging modularity and failure recovery. The graphic API are well-designed,…

> Since Android is kind of an embedded device, I want the compiler to catch most of the silly mistakes before running the app on it.

Sorry, but what do the two clauses in this sentence have to do with each other? Do you mean as opposed to writing all the apps in Python?

Re: "Android Tools Are Horrendous, OS Is Hideous," FB iPhone Dev Joe Hewitt Tweets

#53

Post by tejaswiy »

joehewitt wrote: post #33
ergo98 wrote: post #12

Reading his comments, he sounds like many developers when faced with tools they aren't accustomed to using languages they aren't competent at: Instead of acknowledging confusion and ignorance (in the polite way of saying it), turn it into criticisms of the externals. Look at virtually everyone new to JavaScript and web development as a great example of this. Even brilliant minds, when first introduced to the surprisi…

I never said it was "hard", just that I was surprised that the simple task of "get me this URL" required me to work with some abstract classes for "async tasks". Strikes me as overengineering. The networking classes could easily encapsulate the threading stuff and let me just stay on the UI thread, as every other networking library I've ever worked with has done. I've found other places in the Android SDK when, rathe…

Completely agree. I'm faced with the relatively simple task of accepting a self-signed certificate. The things that HttpClient is making me do ...

Re: "Android Tools Are Horrendous, OS Is Hideous," FB iPhone Dev Joe Hewitt Tweets

#54

Post by sukuriant »

gte910h wrote: post #6
listic wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any indication that Google might change the Android release model when faced with competition? Maybe in 3.0 or 4.0? If they maintain their development speed, they may release Android 4.0 in about the same time with competitors' next major release.

I don't think they can due to licencing issues, although they could offer an optional service which would GREATLY help.

Could you elaborate on that point? I'm unfamiliar with any licencing issues that would restrict this activity. I'm not an android developer, though.

Re: "Android Tools Are Horrendous, OS Is Hideous," FB iPhone Dev Joe Hewitt Tweets

#55

Post by kefs »

ydant wrote: post #48
starnix17 wrote: post #5

On a more positive note, does this mean he is working on Facebook's Android app? If so, that's great, it's really _really_ terrible.

Have you used it recently? It's really improved over the last couple of updates. It still randomly opens my browser instead of doing things in the app, but it's added a lot of features that brought it a lot closer to the iPhone one.

All I ask is that they fix this one simple issue for us devs..

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3077289/facebook-android-...

Re: "Android Tools Are Horrendous, OS Is Hideous," FB iPhone Dev Joe Hewitt Tweets

#56

Post by ydant »

kefs wrote: post #55
ydant wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you used it recently? It's really improved over the last couple of updates. It still randomly opens my browser instead of doing things in the app, but it's added a lot of features that brought it a lot closer to the iPhone one.

All I ask is that they fix this one simple issue for us devs.. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3077289/facebook-android-...

Well, judging by the amount of progress on the application recently, I imagine they would be receptive to fixing it. Assuming someone has pointed the issue out to them.

I haven't tried to implement any intents targeting their application.

Re: "Android Tools Are Horrendous, OS Is Hideous," FB iPhone Dev Joe Hewitt Tweets

#57

Post by ww520 »

astrange wrote: post #51
ww520 wrote: post #50

I've started developing a side project for Android. My experience is very positive so far. (I'll do a Show/Ask HN when the app is done.) The tools and SDK are pretty good. I mainly use the command line tools and Emacs. That setup works great. The API and UI framework are fairly well-thought out. I like the Activity/View/Intent constructs, encouraging modularity and failure recovery. The graphic API are well-designed,…

> Since Android is kind of an embedded device, I want the compiler to catch most of the silly mistakes before running the app on it. Sorry, but what do the two clauses in this sentence have to do with each other? Do you mean as opposed to writing all the apps in Python?

Everyone is comfortable with different language. I prefer statically typed languages because I have been burnt by my silly mistakes before. Compilers that help me in catching my mistakes go a long way. Note that I do use scripting languages but those tend to be short and throw-away-able codes. If the Android SDK requires a dynamic type language, I would have to write a lot of boiler plate unit tests to catch my mistakes. That's just my programming style, might not applicable to others.

Android being a semi-embedded device implies that application deployment is more difficult compared to web apps, where the developer can upgrade anytime he wants. That puts pressure on getting things right with fewer release iterations.

I don't mean to start a language war. I just want to give a data point on what works for me.

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