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Android Studio 2.2

android-developers.blogspot.com

31–40 of 81 posts

Re: Android Studio 2.2

#31
post #3

I tried many times to get into android development but everytime I get put off by the complexity of the api. The amount of digging in documentation you need to do in order to implement the simplest functionality scares me. Is anyone else feeling the same way? And does anyone know if it gets better with time or is it a constant struggle?

It'd be helpful to have more context about your development experience. I've done some iOS development in the past, and as spapas82 mentioned once you understand the core Android concepts it's easy to pick up. The docs are good, and there's a lot of tutorials and small articles to get you going. If you've never done native mobile app development (e.g. you only have background in web dev), then regardless which platfo…

I misread thinking he said iOSs XML system and not Androids. Original comment below.

-----

> .. View XML abstraction is not that far off from HTML/CSS.

Do you mean the underlying structure of xibs and storyboards? I don't think this is something anyone looks at willingly, much less actually work with.

Re: Android Studio 2.2

#32
post #2

I've dabbled in Android dev, but have always lagged due to not really liking Java. Android Studio was a pleasant experience for me when I tried it this year, and now that C/C++ NDK support is better in this release I am going to give it another go. I almost feel like I should just go completely Android given the numbers of devices out there is overwhelming compared with Windows/iOS/OS X combined. I will keep up with…

Just be aware that C and C++ are really meant for programming games, bringing code from other platforms or improve performance.

Trying to write an app that isn't a game will make you enjoy the pleasures of JNI calls, given the APIs exposed to the NDK.

Re: Android Studio 2.2

#33

C++ Code Editing & CMake Support. Been waiting for this. Love that android studio is getting better.

Yes, the experience is much better. Sadly the NDK APIs are still the same.

Also be ware that at least during the beta period, the CMake build files had better support than Android.mk ones.

Re: Android Studio 2.2

#34
post #3

I tried many times to get into android development but everytime I get put off by the complexity of the api. The amount of digging in documentation you need to do in order to implement the simplest functionality scares me. Is anyone else feeling the same way? And does anyone know if it gets better with time or is it a constant struggle?

... and than you need to do the same thing for iOS, which is a totally different eco-system. I've been using the known multi-platform tools for a few years now, like Cordova and Haxe+OpenFL. Haven't typed a line of Java since...

Re: Android Studio 2.2

#35
post #3

I tried many times to get into android development but everytime I get put off by the complexity of the api. The amount of digging in documentation you need to do in order to implement the simplest functionality scares me. Is anyone else feeling the same way? And does anyone know if it gets better with time or is it a constant struggle?

... and than you need to do the same thing for iOS, which is a totally different eco-system. I've been using the known multi-platform tools for a few years now, like Cordova and Haxe+OpenFL. Haven't typed a line of Java since...

Re: Android Studio 2.2

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd be helpful to have more context about your development experience. I've done some iOS development in the past, and as spapas82 mentioned once you understand the core Android concepts it's easy to pick up. The docs are good, and there's a lot of tutorials and small articles to get you going. If you've never done native mobile app development (e.g. you only have background in web dev), then regardless which platfo…

I misread thinking he said iOSs XML system and not Androids. Original comment below. ----- > .. View XML abstraction is not that far off from HTML/CSS. Do you mean the underlying structure of xibs and storyboards? I don't think this is something anyone looks at willingly, much less actually work with.

I think the parent is talking about android views. which are XML documents and almost everyone writes the XML instead of mucking about with the visual editor.

Re: Android Studio 2.2

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd be helpful to have more context about your development experience. I've done some iOS development in the past, and as spapas82 mentioned once you understand the core Android concepts it's easy to pick up. The docs are good, and there's a lot of tutorials and small articles to get you going. If you've never done native mobile app development (e.g. you only have background in web dev), then regardless which platfo…

I misread thinking he said iOSs XML system and not Androids. Original comment below. ----- > .. View XML abstraction is not that far off from HTML/CSS. Do you mean the underlying structure of xibs and storyboards? I don't think this is something anyone looks at willingly, much less actually work with.

The parent seems to be talking about the Android layout XML, which is a much saner format than xibs and is actually quite nice to work with by hand.

Re: Android Studio 2.2

#39
post #5

You need a pretty powerful machine to run Android Studio. It lags when I run it on my laptop with an i5 and 6 GB ram. I wonder if upgrading to a SSD will increase performance.

It wants about 2.5GB of RAM for itself, so you might be running out of RAM.

Re: Android Studio 2.2

#40
post #3

I tried many times to get into android development but everytime I get put off by the complexity of the api. The amount of digging in documentation you need to do in order to implement the simplest functionality scares me. Is anyone else feeling the same way? And does anyone know if it gets better with time or is it a constant struggle?

Some things are much more sane and well thought out than iOS. Styling and layouts, for example, are so much better than Interface Builder, which is pretty much just a toy for demos. Other things like the way events are handled and some of the native widgets are clunky. Some of us are fed up enough with all the incidental complexity Apple puts in your way every day as a developer (provisioning, in particular), that we…

IB is perfectly fine for most apps. When you feel constricted it is easy enough to accomplish what you want in code.
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