Hi all, I have recently developed an intense interest in learning about computer programming/hacking/rooting etc. (with a particular interest in rooting). I was wondering how you went about learning all the skills that you have? Did you have formal education for things like coding, customizing ROMs, etc? (What types of classes did you take?) Did you learn it on your own through ways such as the internet, or another person to guide you?
I am by no means asking for a "quick fix" in ways of rooting, customizing, etc. I want to learn how different things work together and develop. I'm in my second year of university at the moment and although I took computer programming in high school, I didn't take it seriously and therefore hardly remember it. I am now approaching this interest of mine with a newfound respect and vigor.
I would appreciate any feedback you could give me of your experiences and learning processes. I know this isn't a device specific or development related request so I apologize if this is an inappropriate post, I'm just trying to gather a better understanding of how I might be able to go about learning these different skills. Thank you for your time and all the hard work you do for XDA and the general community.
Related
Hey guys,
I realize this might not be a correct section but there's not a Q&A section on android as a whole. I've had a G1 since it's release date, and since then am now on a vibrant, so i've experienced Android for a considerable amount of time. Over this time, I've flashed a lot of roms, and used a lot of mods that come through these forums. I'd say I have well above average knowledge on android and how to utilize the devices to their fullest potential over anyone who simply buys a phone and uses it.
That said, I've become interested in taking this passion to a new level and joining app, and maybe even ROM developers in the future. Now I know there's a lot to read on these forums about particular problems and solutions, but I'm looking for direction on where I can find sources to kind of introduce me to app development and explain the Android OS on a much deeper level, whether it be a huge guide, website, whatever. I want to take this head on and not half ass so simply searching through the forums for thousands of things just doesn't seem like the most efficient way to truly understand how everything comes together as a whole on app development. Truthfully, I really don't know any details on the process of signing up etc etc. It's also not like I can look up a class to take (which I would actually prefer) so I can really get a grasp and not have to come crying to these forums every time something tedious gets in my way, ya know?
So any app devs, I'd greatly appreciate any guidance to how you got started. I'm not a total geek by nature so it's not like I really understand things that some people might call common sense about linux/android. Whether you copy and paste a link, or give me some advice, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks guys.
Greetings
I am in the situation of needing to learn a lot more about what I am doing here and am having a hard time finding the information at a level I can understand,if some of you can help me I would be very appreciative
(1) how do I tell the various versions of Odin apart and what each one of them does
(2) how do I learn about flashing all the various other things that goes with the various roms IE: modems,themes,and so on
(3) how do I learn what the various things are and when to use them IE:kernals and stuff
yes I know I am new here,I also have add ( and I am also very unfamiliar with the inner workings of programming in general,,I was going to learn more about computers while I was in high-school but the instructor felt punchcards were above his abilities to instruct us on {slight exaggeration not much})
thanks in advance
charles
and I have been “lurking” here for about a month,spending between 2 and 8 hours a day reading/studying on this site,,honestly
[edit] I am able to find themes kernals and whatever but I have no idea what to do with them,,some sources say to flash with clockworkmod but I have no idea how to do this,I am sure it is easy if you know hope,unfortunately I do not
Read the Linux bible, that's a great start.
thanks for taking the time to reply,,not sure that reference will be of assistance but will attempt to check it out
It will be more efficient to read the sticky GUIDE in the forums of a specific model.
thank you for taking the time to post a comment,,I have read the stickies in all the captivate forums and general forums,, I am trying to get directions to someplace that can be just a little more clear,, but am beginning to understand why so many people ask questions that seem "stupid"
i want to get involved in the community and help bring great things to this device and any other that i can. i have a degree in computer information systems, do systems imaging, and know enough to get by, tweak, and customize, but linux was never taught to me . it is pretty straight forward. i understand the concept, language, and most of the commands, but i am not a programmer by trade. i do know that you don't even have to actually know a lot of languages because, in many cases, there is another program that you can tell what you want to happen and it will write the base language for you. if somebody can point me in the right direction and/or give me a task to help them with, i would love to do so.
thank you
don't mean to sound ignorant. just wanna help.
That's a fantastic attitude, and welcome to the doubleshot forums.
The MT4G Slide Compendium is a sticky at the top of general here, and is a great starting point to familiarize yourself with the doubleshot forums. It has links to a lot of the relevant threads scattered around here, as well as some explanations of terminology and so forth. It's designed to help orient you with everything we have going on here.
Here is a link to my Guide Index, which is a collection of tutorials and such i've put here and is also in my sig. The bottom of the post has links to a lot of information about the device off-site, manufacturer and so forth.
One of the best things you can do if you aren't contributing code is to contribute documentation. How to do basically anything you want to do is spread out all over XDA as a whole. If information can be referenced and concentrated here into the MT4GS sub-forums, it would make it easier for people to develop for the device.
Not having to scour XDA at large to figure out how to do something, and someone taking the time to explain how to do it here and provide links to track down more information is always helpful.
I know in searching XDA to learn how to do these things, it's been helpful for others to have been making summaries and guides on how to do them - sharing it here paves the way for others who come behind you and want to learn how to do what you're learning.
And if you aren't interested in posting guides on how to do the things you've learned, then just taking the time to answer questions people ask on the board about the device if you know the answer is a way to be helpful. The longer you hang out here, the more you learn, and the people coming behind you are curious too.
The longer you hang out here, too, you come to learn where information is and in what threads - you can direct newer people by answering questions with links to the relevant threads or posts since you already know what they are. It only takes a few minutes to track down the information if you have a good idea of where it is.
Because XDA is pretty much where we figure out a lot of the new stuff, the board grows randomly, and information gets scattered with pieces here and there in threads to solve problems and such. When people ask questions you can link to the scattered pieces and by doing so it helps index everything we are learning.
Basically, the desire to help is all that you need and these are some ways people can do so without in-depth technical knowledge. You're probably combing the boards learning things anyway, so when people have similar questions explaining what you know helps us all.
We all have different ways of learning, so sharing how you did can teach others new methods and ways of doing beyond just how to do the specific thing itself.
It sounds like you are as excited about all this as some of us are here, and with a device like the doubleshot in your hands I don't blame you.
Any questions just ask, as long as you aren't posting random questions in the dev sections it's all good.
Once again, welcome to the MT4GS forums, you'll have a blast with us here.
Edit:
Kernel stuff is in C flavor language, Android stuff itself is mostly Java, and if you don't have the program Notepad-plus-plus you should pick that up for making mostly all of your general coding edits on the computer with.
Thank you. I am excited. My first device that I toyed with was an htc leo 1024 (us), so I had an edasy entry into the world just because there are so many resources available for it. I will start by posting a couple of guides about things that I know were difficult to grasp/follow when I first started. Thank you very much for the directions and taking the time to post them and reply to me. Time to study...
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using XDA App
That's fantastic.
This is my second Android device, first phone - the other one is a Nook Color.
Much like how you say having a lot of dev interest in the device you came from helped you (and man, does it ever) the advantage the Nook Color had was it's unbrickable. It boots from the MicroSD first, before internal memory, and you can run a self-contained copy of Android from the MicroSD card.
I got a chance to break it in so many different ways, (who needs a build.prop ... let's just delete that) and all I had to do was pop out the memory card and flash a fresh copy of CM7 onto it.
The internal memory is still the stock Barnes & Noble skinned operating system, hasn't been rooted or anything, yet I was still able to get the full-on Android experience in a safe play zone.
Coming to this phone, it's taught me ahead of time what I can and can't mess with before bad things start to happen, and it's a lot easier to play with this stuff if you know where the lines are. The ones you get in trouble if you cross.
It really wasn't until I got my hands on this device that I started to get into a lot of dev work on Android - but now i'm having an absolute blast with it and this device is pretty impressive.
I can't wait to read about what tricks you've picked up along the way, i'm always looking for an opportunity to be educated. Take some time and see what we've got laid out here, in some cases you may be able to add to existing threads instead of making new ones for duplicate topics.
The MT4GS is what, 6 months old now? We'll keep getting more people in here as they come to their upgrades or get warrantied up to this device. I'm eagerly awaiting more devs to end up in our corner of the forums, i'm curious to see what kind of cool things people can make the device do.
The more information we have organized and mapped out about the device and how to do things with it, the easier it gets for people who come behind because they don't have to re-invent the wheel just to get something done.
It's mind boggling to me how much i've learned in the past year here at XDA, especially in the last few months. It's all because people take the time to sit down and explain how they've done the things they've done and are excited to share their discoveries.
Having this device since before root was viable, i've watched this section of XDA grow from literally just a handful of threads into what it is now - pretty soon we'll have a majority of the resources right here for people to just show up and get work done with minimal fuss.
I know my dev time is hit or miss, sometimes I have days on end, other times not - one way i've been trying to help when i'm not around is leaving how-to's and guides behind me that people can reference while i'm gone.
There's still a whole lot that I haven't even gotten into yet, and i'm very appreciative of people taking the time to share some cool discovery or trick that's made their life a lot easier.
(sometimes I ramble a bit, especially when on boring conference calls)
I came to XDA to learn how to do some fun stuff with my Nook Color, and maybe learn how to write apps for the market. Here I am writing ROMs and nowhere close to putting any apps in the market. With the library of knowledge that XDA is everytime I sit down at the keyboard I learn something new, I wish i'd found this place a long long time before I did - it feels like home.
that's pretty cool about the nook color. i may have to pick one up to play with. i'm sure there are all kinds of neat things to be figured out (and easily implemented) with a device that boots from an external source before the internal.
i got pretty lucky with my hd2. as soon as i saw that there was a way to do it, i had to figure it out (of course). however, instead of reading all of the instructions and bulletins on correct procedure, like an intelligent person... you can probably guess where i'm going with that... and VIOLA! an expensive paperweight.
i was very lucky that phone is setup the way it is and for resources like you and some of the other devs and especially the others that learned by trial and error and took the time to post their experiences.
Hello, I am new to this forum. I am looking for an answer to a question, I looked it up online, but that was only helpful to a certain degree, so I decided it would be better to actually ask a developer.
I understand that to become a developer, a degree in computer science is recommended, but is it absolutely necessary? I have recently become interested in developing, but I am already messing about with codes, making simple scripts, and I'm also learning C++, too. I am a very fast learner with this sort of thing and seem to be able to (somehow) keep it all stored in my head. So do you think that somebody who is a fast learner would really NEED a degree in computer science?
Also, just so you know, I am not talking about development of platforms, it is developing applications that I am interested in, so I hope that I am asking this question in the right place (I've already copied it just in case, so I can paste it in the right place if it is mis-posted.
Thank you.
I am new to the world of android development since I have learned what rooting is, how it can be used, and the potential to help others is unlimited in the world of development. I am looking to start a career in the world of development, and Android development has me extremely interested in what I can possibly do with such a useful and necessary skill set. I know basically nothing at all, but I can read fairly well and follow basic instructions within a set of guidelines. I am sure most of the developers that post in xda forums are busy with actual careers and lives of their own, but if anyone is willing to teach me what I should know to become a developer, I would be extremely appreciative. I am looking to learn the basics of how android works, how devices communicate, how apps are made and interpreted by the operating systems that use them, and much more. Anything is helpful, even if someone can teach me which questions I should actually be asking. Needless to say that this is kind of embarrassing to be asking, but someone Please teach me if your time permits. Everyone has been extremely helpful and understanding. Help me work next to some great minds so I can hopefully reach the same level myself. Thanks to everyone reading this.