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So I've been palying around with the Android SDK. I've done a bit of developing before, but never in Java. The Android APIs are pretty well documented, but I'm missing the basics of Java programming (data types, declaring variables and constants, file operations, etc.).
Does anyone have any suggested references? I've been digging some myself but it's slow going.
If you haven't already, check out http://www.helloandroid.com , http://www.anddev.org , and look for O'Reilly books on Java or skip the first five chapters of "Java for Dummies."
Both of those are really focused on Android specifically. Anddev.org is really for developers while HelloAndroid.com is more of a blog and not much technical info.
Here's the best site I was able to find about the Java basics.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Java_Programming/Overview
After that it just learning the APIs, and I think Anddev is really going to be the site to watch on that.
I thought I'd share in case there are other aspirng developers watching.
Developing Thread
I didn't know where to add this, but if you need to move it to the right thread please do.
I want to start developing, but I don't know any Java. I'm sure that you guys probably know some books that I can pick up to start learning. Actually any advice or resources would be great since.
Ever since i got the G1 and seeing everybody speaking code it realy started to interest me. So any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
I heard the dummy books aren't that good to start off with, but thanks I'll still look at it.
Bump,
Come on people i know you have some ideas, so i can learn java or anything to develop for Android.
Im also thinkin about starting or trying to develop for Android, like how would I start off makin a custom rom build?
Come on guys
See here
Christopher3712 said:
Come on guys
See here
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that would have worked great if you spelled develop right LOL
The thing with programming textbooks is no one can ever agree on what book is "best". Some people like books that are basically just giant lists of functions and their syntaxes, some people like books with a lot of examples, some people like books that primarily explain the most basic functions in plain English. Some folks don't like to use books at all and learn programming purely from studying others' source code.
A lot of the Java-specific books written in the past decade are written without requiring pre-existing knowledge of C++, which would be good if you have never programmed in any language before. I think the "Headfirst Java" volume is supposed to be well-regarded, but I can't say that from personal experience.
Of course, you could always just find your local community college/adult school/vocational center and sign up for Java classes. Some community colleges might place Java far down in the CS track and make you take prerequisite courses. Depending on how the course is set up, what text it uses, and how much ground it intends to cover, it may or may not have prerequisites.
Good luck
neoobs said:
that would have worked great if you spelled develop right LOL
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lol, i'm just all over the place today! no matter, i made my point
Christopher3712 said:
lol, i'm just all over the place today! no matter, i made my point
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I wasnt referring to apps, but thanks?
Christopher3712 said:
Come on guys
See here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG hahahahaha i love it!
Learning to Develope on Android
I want to learn how to develop apks, use the SDK to its fall extent. I put Debian on my phone and windows x , made a couple of my own themes. However, i want to do more i just don't how the knowledge to do so. i tried to read on how to use java, c++, c.net, etc but I'm just not picking it up all to well. I just installed Ubuntu on my computer but my knowledge of Linux is very little. I'm welling to put the time and effort into learning how do these thing but I'm getting no where. Watching people like JK come out with roms just makes me want to do the same. i also just updated to the new SDK but for some reason it won't work (haven't gone around to find out why thou). Can anyone help me out, maybe point to toward some good sources, books, or whatever. i love messing with me G1 i just want to take it to the next level. i finish school on the 20th of this month and i have till July 15th of free time ( i leave for Basic Training). so i would like to get started between these times.
If a similar thread was already made i'm very sorry i searched like crazy to find one but had no luck, so please don't get made if there is one just point me to it.
THANK YOU
www.android.com
find source code to play with and read, read, read!
dead2hill said:
www.android.com
find source code to play with and read, read, read!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have read so much my head could explode, but i think I'm reading from the wrong sources or just not getting it at all. I'm reading some books i got from friends with Master Degrees in this stuff and they are just confusing me.
The major problem is I'm a fantastic hands on learner but i have no one with the spare time to help on any of these. I've been taking the Cisco Academy Online and didn't get any of it until i had someone help with a hands on learning and it all just flowed right into me easily now i'm close to getting my CCNA.
But i'll keep reading till i get it, some day
fankly i would say if you wanna make apps then read a buch of tutorials, stare ata lot a source code. and create a few simple things first. i have not bothered with any of the sample's with the SDK because i just don't like them. i do however read lots of code daily and am currently trying to find the best way to get my app running. i am one of those people that if handeed source code i could tell you what it does and when, but if told to write a program that does something it will take ages for me to figure out. even with a year of both java and VB .net under the belt i still don't know much since those classes where a long time ago. read lots of code and you could probably benefit from having a java book around too
I found the sample code and tutorials shipped with the SDK very educational, and would recommend the soon-to-be Android developer to plow thru them. They give you (at least they gave me!) a basic understanding of how Android apps are supposed to work.
If you're not used to general Java development at all, I recommend starting out with a beginners book on Java development first.
/Mats
@hellsonlyangel - I have the same desire to learn how application development as you, particularly Android development. I've done the same as you over the years, reading tons of books and online tutorials on programming, but learning very little. I am taking a very general, but comprehensive, scripting course right now as a part of my Network Admin degree program, and I fell that I understand more after 2 weeks in this course than I did from all of my self study attempts. Sometimes, there's just no substitute to structured learning programs. The ISBN for the book that my course is using is 1418836338. It can be had on the cheap, used for around $8, just in case you want to check it out. Good luck.
hellsonlyangel said:
I want to learn how to develop apks, use the SDK to its fall extent. I put Debian on my phone and windows x , made a couple of my own themes. However, i want to do more i just don't how the knowledge to do so. i tried to read on how to use java, c++, c.net, etc but I'm just not picking it up all to well. I just installed Ubuntu on my computer but my knowledge of Linux is very little. I'm welling to put the time and effort into learning how do these thing but I'm getting no where. Watching people like JK come out with roms just makes me want to do the same. i also just updated to the new SDK but for some reason it won't work (haven't gone around to find out why thou). Can anyone help me out, maybe point to toward some good sources, books, or whatever. i love messing with me G1 i just want to take it to the next level. i finish school on the 20th of this month and i have till July 15th of free time ( i leave for Basic Training). so i would like to get started between these times.
If a similar thread was already made i'm very sorry i searched like crazy to find one but had no luck, so please don't get made if there is one just point me to it.
THANK YOU
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So the best way I found to learn this is through trial and error. I will write code for a simple program, for instance a clock app. I will work on it until it does what I want it to then I will trash the code and build it again using what I just learned. It's just a lot of practice and don't get too deep until you have a full grasp of the concepts behind programming. You'll just get stuck and frustrated.
So, I am interested in making a soundboard for the movie super troopers... Just curious if anyone has any experience making soundboards? Or, would I be better off pulliing a soundboard apk from my phone and just swap out the sounds I want? If anyone has any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it, thanks!
I don't have any soundboard experience...
But just taking an apk and replacing sounds is definitely not something someone should suggest.. Pulling OS information and cooking roms is a little different than taking an app and releasing a dev's work with different .wmv's, that's a little thing called plagiarism..
But if you ask the dev prior to that, I guess it would be ok.. You just need his source..
*edit
look what google found me...
http://www.myandroidsoundboard.com/
azyouthinkeyeiz said:
Not all that advanced..
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Not advanced at all. There's a reason there are so many soundboard apps on the market. It's just about the easiest, most no-brainer app you can write that actually does anything. Even if you've never even written a basic "Hello World" app, it shouldn't take more than 2 or 3 hours running through the tutorials on the android sdk site to be able to whip up a soundboard.
subliminalurge said:
Not advanced at all. There's a reason there are so many soundboard apps on the market. It's just about the easiest, most no-brainer app you can write that actually does anything. Even if you've never even written a basic "Hello World" app, it shouldn't take more than 2 or 3 hours running through the tutorials on the android sdk site to be able to whip up a soundboard.
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lol yeah after I posted this, I got on google, found a tutorial for it... For the previous post, wasnt looking to plagiarize anyones work, at all... Working on my soundboard now
subliminalurge said:
Not advanced at all. There's a reason there are so many soundboard apps on the market. It's just about the easiest, most no-brainer app you can write that actually does anything. Even if you've never even written a basic "Hello World" app, it shouldn't take more than 2 or 3 hours running through the tutorials on the android sdk site to be able to whip up a soundboard.
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Hmmm. Maybe THAT'S the problem....all those soundboard makers heard that they were no-brainers to make, and decided not to turn on their noodles before creating and releasing their monstrosities upon the world. (not meant as a dig @ OP)
tejasrichard said:
Hmmm. Maybe THAT'S the problem....all those soundboard makers heard that they were no-brainers to make, and decided not to turn on their noodles before creating and releasing their monstrosities upon the world. (not meant as a dig @ OP)
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none taken, I didnt write any of those monstrosities... Just want one for myself lol
tejasrichard said:
Hmmm. Maybe THAT'S the problem....all those soundboard makers heard that they were no-brainers to make, and decided not to turn on their noodles before creating and releasing their monstrosities upon the world. (not meant as a dig @ OP)
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Well its usually for people that want experience in coding apps, and haven't been through A+ Cert or the like, and want to learn...
But thanks for generalizing...
azyouthinkeyeiz said:
Well its usually for people that want experience in coding apps, and haven't been through A+ Cert or the like, and want to learn...
But thanks for generalizing...
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Click to collapse
Oh, I don't think he meant anything derogatory by it. I've been writing code for 20+ years, but I'm still doing a couple crazy simple Android apps just to get myself familiar with the new platform.
There's nothing wrong with writing simple apps as a learning experience. Even experienced coders have to do it from time to time when learning a new language or new platform.
The only part that's a little ridiculous is posting these "Java 101 homework assignments" on the market. Does the world *really* need 5 dozen collections of SpongeBob sound clips?
(No offense intended to anybody, but people should maintain a sense of reality about how appealing their app really is to the general public... I think it's awesome when people post things like this with source code and complete Eclipse project files so that other people can use them as a learning tool, I just question whether simple stuff like this really belongs on the market as a "product". It tends to clutter up my search results when I'm looking for useful stuff....)
subliminalurge said:
Oh, I don't think he meant anything derogatory by it. I've been writing code for 20+ years, but I'm still doing a couple crazy simple Android apps just to get myself familiar with the new platform.
There's nothing wrong with writing simple apps as a learning experience. Even experienced coders have to do it from time to time when learning a new language or new platform.
The only part that's a little ridiculous is posting these "Java 101 homework assignments" on the market. Does the world *really* need 5 dozen collections of SpongeBob sound clips?
(No offense intended to anybody, but people should maintain a sense of reality about how appealing their app really is to the general public... I think it's awesome when people post things like this with source code and complete Eclipse project files so that other people can use them as a learning tool, I just question whether simple stuff like this really belongs on the market as a "product". It tends to clutter up my search results when I'm looking for useful stuff....)
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What he said! Wasn't making fun of anyone wanting to learn or anything like that a all. Hell, I'm working my way through the "how to make a calculator" guide, myself, lol! I know jack about coding! I was more referring to the fact that some of these guys don't seem to ask themselves weather or not the world really needs "Rosie O'donnel: Bathroom Sounds v.17" before they slap it in the market. I tried to be clear that I wasn't picking on the OP, guess I could have been more explicit? Sorry if there was confusion.
I havent taken any offense here... some soundboards are retarded, and I will be the first to agree... I am just shocked that, with the amount of 1 liners in the movie super troopers, there arent any soundboards for it... (of course, I may be biased, as some people may think this movie was stupid, but I loved it lol)... I have no programming experience, only video/audio editing experience... I found the link "azyouthinkeyeiz" maybe 20 minutes before he replied to this thread, and am trying that tutorial... I am definently looking forward to learning more, and if anyone out there has any websites they can suggest for learning programming, I am more than down to learn!
All I wasn't to know is, who wants a mustache ride?!?
tejasrichard said:
All I wasn't to know is, who wants a mustache ride?!?
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LOL See? especially all the crap Farva says... Awesome!
tejasrichard said:
All I wasn't to know is, who wants a mustache ride?!?
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Click to collapse
http://moustache-ride.ytmnd.com/
and
http://igotyougood.ytmnd.com/
jtmercutio said:
I am definently looking forward to learning more, and if anyone out there has any websites they can suggest for learning programming, I am more than down to learn!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try This
tejasrichard said:
who wants a mustache ride?!?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"I vaunt one... I do I do" lmfao
ok so I got my first board together... From House, MD. Pretty neat, I'd say.
Now what I want to know is this: how can I get them ads on there like all the other apps have? I can send a zip if someone feels spunky enough to help me
does anyone know how to get the "/" symbol to work in terminal emulator? i tried softkeys, special keys. No luck. Im so close to installing modaco 4.0.0.9
for the final step i need the "/" symbol. i can use the "\" symbol but that's not the right symbol. please help.
Honestly you guys, I do search alot before I post anything. I never thought to use the on screen keyboard. I found out how.. I've been on this site for days and days researching, everything. I always use the hardware keyboard. Never the on screen keyboard. (sighs...sorry)
[email protected] said:
Honestly you guys, I do search alot before I post anything. I never thought to use the on screen keyboard. I found out how.. I've been on this site for days and days researching, everything. I always use the hardware keyboard. Never the on screen keyboard. (sighs...sorry)
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Yeah, it is a bit of a pisser that key doesn't work correctly in terminals.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17724216&postcount=5
Lol. I did get it to flash modaco tho. Just finished back up with Titanium. Hopefully now i should be able to flash a rom. O ya... When im in Hboot the screen will tell me no image..no image.. no image..no image. It will auto run this in green all the way down the screen. Why?
[email protected] said:
Lol. I did get it to flash modaco tho. Just finished back up with Titanium. Hopefully now i should be able to flash a rom. O ya... When im in Hboot the screen will tell me no image..no image.. no image..no image. It will auto run this in green all the way down the screen. Why?
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All hboots do that. My g2 does that and my wifes MT4G as well.
Sent from my Undeadk9's Senseless ROM using xda premium
Undeadk9... what an honer to reply to you. I've read all your posts. I wanna flash your latest Senseless..Sounds fast. I myself would like to thank you for all the hard work you put into this forum. You do a wonderful job. Your posts and comments mean alot. I'm such a noob but love phones and cpu's. I really would love to fluently learn how to do anything that involves those things,but have no idea where to begin. What would you suggest I learn? I ask because you know what your talking about. Do you mind if i contact you in a pm or something just to bleed your brain sometime? Think about it. Thanks again!!
The problem is the question mark key.
Check all your other alt keys in terminal emulator - they all work except for the darned question mark key - both regular and alt read as a tilde.
I guess that having the question mark as a hardware key is something that terminal emulators aren't coded for...very few phones have that actual hardware key.
I got a feeling that if you remap the alt character to another key it'll work - it may or may not, but that's where i'd start.
This is one of those "I should look into that" but haven't found the time to do so, maybe check the keylayout mod guide in the dev section to start tinkering with it.
It's on my long list of things to do with this phone, my recent obsession with trying to overclock without kernel source kinda pushed everything else to the side.
Someone will probably get around to this before I do, but if not sooner or later i'll puzzle it out.
Thanx buddy for the reply!! My obsession is this forum... and my daughter of course
I hope you figure out the OC as well! Boy I wish I could help but I don't know how to. Where do you think I should start? Where should a noob begin to learn how to do anything...o_0 lol
You're honestly in the best place to start. XDA is home to some...thinking about it i'd say most... of the people online across all the random messageboards, news postings and whatnot who are all into the same thing and realize that by sharing what we know we can all work on bits and pieces of the larger picture.
Ever since I found XDA, I realized this was the place I was always looking for on the internet. Some of the most learned and skilled people i've met across the internet are scattered around these forums, and I found their works here.
The best advice to anyone new coming to XDA or trying to learn here, specifically, is that since so many people share so much, it's absolutely overwhelming the first time you wander around the XDA forums.
Use the search feature, as everyone rightly suggests, but the one thing that people never get right is managing their excitement.
You're home, you found the place where there are so many answers to and relating to your question, you get giddy. I know I did.
Resist the urge to just dive in and start asking questions. Put away your need to have the answer right now - I know it's just your nature, it's the tendency of people...any people...to just act like that. It's how we've progressed as a species, the aggresive need to know, solve, conquer...right this second.
That's wrong. When I found XDA, I browsed here for a while...sometimes for specific answers, other times just randomly through all the forums looking at...well...whatever random stuff I could find.
The thing about search is, it's great if you want a specific answer, because you keep finding more keywords and phrases to track down that will eventually lead you to the information you seek.
If you can't find the answer here at XDA, your quest to find it on your own without asking will turn up the people you could ask to help figure it out - something you miss just asking for it or exclusively using search.
Basically, just don't be too eager. The boards are way too big, populated by people that want to share what they know, so the amount of information here is too much to get through in one sitting. The first time I found this place I didn't leave my keyboard for more then a few minutes for almost 6 days.
I registered because I finally had something that I could share. My first device was the Nook Color, and by the time I got one the forums were jumping and so many choices for what you could do and how to do it were there ... it was my first android device and development was progressing so fast I couldn't keep up with learning it all from the ground up.
I stopped and focused on some topic I could expand on or in some way contribute, and it ended up being pretty in depth testing on MicroSD cards. I had a handful laying around, and running the Nook Color from the memory card instead of the internal memory will pass or fail depending on the memory card...and the one you instinctively want is wrong.
So, use the search function before posting something specific, don't forget to browse sometimes if you have some free time, it's like treasure hunting.
When I realized what this device ( MT4GS ) was capable of after coming to the MT4GS forums here to research if I really did want it or not...the TV-OUT thread was my seller. I am spellbound by this device, there's nothing else like it on the market at the moment.
I just couldn't miss out on playing with what I think will be the prototype model of what all phones will strive to do as technologies get assimilated across phones and carriers.
Being able to walk up to a TV and use the phone as not only an interactive game controller, but the console itself as well - with the TV bit being done so well that it's something you don't even have to think about other then if you want to or not. No special set up, just plug and play. I'm a fan.
But you know what? It's an unlisted feature that's rumored/probably true/unfinished in the phone.
( haven't looked into this in a while, maybe untrue but I found out about it here at XDA and remember reading that somewhere...every T-mobile rep i've seen has this phone, I talk to every one, and not a single one of them knew they could plug their device into a TV, let alone have some intense gaming experiences.
Not bad for something that's not mentioned - this should have been the selling point for the phone.
Thing is, without XDA, I wouldn't know how to do a fraction of what I know how to do with Android. Just sifting through everything here has taught me so much, but you have to have the patience to sit and take your time learning. Otherwise, even if you pull it off, six months from now you'll have to probably start over tracking down what you read before to do it again.
The more detailed and accurate the information that everyone posts, the more we all learn together.
Know what the big secret is, that I try to tell everyone?
The best way to cement the knowledge you've gained into your brain is to try to teach it to someone else. They'll think of questions you might never, approach from different perspectives with different tactics, and challenge you to know it well enough to be able to answer something you haven't thought about before on the spot.
I've been studying my whole life to be a teacher when I get older and can't hack physical stuff anymore, and try to freely teach anyone anything I know. The more I educate others, the more they educate me, and the more instinctively I know whatever we were working on.
Let me reiterate, again from a different perspective with different reasoning, the only way you learn something is to have the patience to do it - but the same goes for teaching. You have to have the patience to sit there and let the student get the answer, and the restraint to not give it to them and make them work for it so they remember it longer.
Analogies are king in getting through to people, but to be able to use analogies effectively for random people you have to be at least semi-educated on, well, everything.
Take a job in a retail store, any local big box popular electronics store. Sell computers, smart phones, or things like that. Then try to relate how the computer works to everyone you explain it to. Once you know some subject they are familiar with that you know, you can compare like functions to give them understandings.
Do yourself a favor - the next time you go to sit down in front of a television, pick up a book instead. (bonus points if you also grab a thesaurus)
Vocabulary and the contents of the thesaurus are the primary tools you need to use well for search. Forget all the ways a search engine works for you and remember that you need to not only search what you're looking for, but all the other ways of saying or describing what you want.
If you search fire, you get one set of results. What about ember, blaze, smolder, incinerate, char, smoke, fuel, tinder...etc...
If you have to look up all those synonyms every time you want to search for something, not only does it take longer (impatience again) but you are less likely to actually do it because of all the extra steps you have to take.
Phrase your posts well, try to punctualize, capitalize, and generally make what you're saying presentable. It takes me longer to decipher some internet shorthand, because they aren't acronyms I study. It hurts me on messageboards, but helps keep my vocabulary instinctively clean elsewhere.
On that turn, i'm more likely to read and/or respond to someone who actually took enough time to write their post, instead of just scratching out the first string of letters that looked close to some resemblance of the words they were trying to write.
( I know that's extreme, but that's another teaching tool, exploring extremes and understanding boundaries and capability - the foundation for your ability to reason )
So, you caught me at a time where i'm writing a curriculum for learning how to learn, techniques and approaches and such for someone I am going to start teaching android to. As much as it seems like i'm rambling here, all my postings tonight have been sprinkled with little methods or things to do to increase your speed, accuracy and ability to learn itself because that's what i'm working on right this minute.
It's been a long, hard, physical week at work. While rewarding and I feel great about what i've done, my body is not so happy at the moment. Trying to get into a new project with my MT4GS tonight is probably pushing it, so instead i'm just sitting here writing up what i've learned about learning, typing to me is very relaxing and keeps me active in spirit while mostly resting in the physical sense.
This is why they say knowledge is power, because you have to build knowledge on other knowledge. The more you understand and exploit the learning process to work for you, consciously and directly, the more natural and fluid it becomes.
If you learn what you need to learn to learn better (say that 3 times fast) you will become more efficient - and that's part of why we all get together here to do this stuff to our phones.
It's challenging, it's fun, it's a never-ending exercise in discovering cool new things or flat out creating brand new ideas of your own.
Part of what's been feeding my excitement with this phone, besides it's indisputable awesomeness, is the fact that it's new and there's an air of freshness to all the time being put into it. It's not like my last device where I showed up and found all the answers, this time I get to find and share some of them.
But that's the constant state of learning, the browsing all over XDA, setting up specific projects (tonight i'll learn how to make a livewallpaper, etc...) and creating manageable, short term goals along the road to a bigger destination.
The destination is reached much more interestingly with others, and when we all get there it's one big party together. This goal is made easier and sooner the more people that play.
Another thing is, I try to share what I post as thoroughly and accurately as possible. 2 Great reasons to take an extra minute and check something, or look it up again to make sure that it's right.
1-Someone else can build off your solid base, and spend less time learning what you were trying to convey
2-If i'm wrong, someone will speak up. There are so many learned people here, someone will see what I did wrong and if not why, someone else can probably explain it or get us started on finding out why.
So please, don't hesitate to correct me on something if you know i'm wrong. we all benefit from it, and is part of the motivation to be as thorough as I try to be.
Hope that the length of this post is justified by the content I tried to convey, you caught me in a typing mood with an open-ended question.
Blue6IX said:
You're honestly in the best place to start. XDA is home to some...thinking about it i'd say most... of the people online across all the random messageboards, news postings and whatnot who are all into the same thing and realize that by sharing what we know we can all work on bits and pieces of the larger picture.
Ever since I found XDA, I realized this was the place I was always looking for on the internet. Some of the most learned and skilled people i've met across the internet are scattered around these forums, and I found their works here.
The best advice to anyone new coming to XDA or trying to learn here, specifically, is that since so many people share so much, it's absolutely overwhelming the first time you wander around the XDA forums.
Use the search feature, as everyone rightly suggests, but the one thing that people never get right is managing their excitement.
You're home, you found the place where there are so many answers to and relating to your question, you get giddy. I know I did.
Resist the urge to just dive in and start asking questions. Put away your need to have the answer right now - I know it's just your nature, it's the tendency of people...any people...to just act like that. It's how we've progressed as a species, the aggresive need to know, solve, conquer...right this second.
That's wrong. When I found XDA, I browsed here for a while...sometimes for specific answers, other times just randomly through all the forums looking at...well...whatever random stuff I could find.
The thing about search is, it's great if you want a specific answer, because you keep finding more keywords and phrases to track down that will eventually lead you to the information you seek.
If you can't find the answer here at XDA, your quest to find it on your own without asking will turn up the people you could ask to help figure it out - something you miss just asking for it or exclusively using search.
Basically, just don't be too eager. The boards are way too big, populated by people that want to share what they know, so the amount of information here is too much to get through in one sitting. The first time I found this place I didn't leave my keyboard for more then a few minutes for almost 6 days.
I registered because I finally had something that I could share. My first device was the Nook Color, and by the time I got one the forums were jumping and so many choices for what you could do and how to do it were there ... it was my first android device and development was progressing so fast I couldn't keep up with learning it all from the ground up.
I stopped and focused on some topic I could expand on or in some way contribute, and it ended up being pretty in depth testing on MicroSD cards. I had a handful laying around, and running the Nook Color from the memory card instead of the internal memory will pass or fail depending on the memory card...and the one you instinctively want is wrong.
So, use the search function before posting something specific, don't forget to browse sometimes if you have some free time, it's like treasure hunting.
When I realized what this device ( MT4GS ) was capable of after coming to the MT4GS forums here to research if I really did want it or not...the TV-OUT thread was my seller. I am spellbound by this device, there's nothing else like it on the market at the moment.
I just couldn't miss out on playing with what I think will be the prototype model of what all phones will strive to do as technologies get assimilated across phones and carriers.
Being able to walk up to a TV and use the phone as not only an interactive game controller, but the console itself as well - with the TV bit being done so well that it's something you don't even have to think about other then if you want to or not. No special set up, just plug and play. I'm a fan.
But you know what? It's an unlisted feature that's rumored/probably true/unfinished in the phone.
( haven't looked into this in a while, maybe untrue but I found out about it here at XDA and remember reading that somewhere...every T-mobile rep i've seen has this phone, I talk to every one, and not a single one of them knew they could plug their device into a TV, let alone have some intense gaming experiences.
Not bad for something that's not mentioned - this should have been the selling point for the phone.
Thing is, without XDA, I wouldn't know how to do a fraction of what I know how to do with Android. Just sifting through everything here has taught me so much, but you have to have the patience to sit and take your time learning. Otherwise, even if you pull it off, six months from now you'll have to probably start over tracking down what you read before to do it again.
The more detailed and accurate the information that everyone posts, the more we all learn together.
Know what the big secret is, that I try to tell everyone?
The best way to cement the knowledge you've gained into your brain is to try to teach it to someone else. They'll think of questions you might never, approach from different perspectives with different tactics, and challenge you to know it well enough to be able to answer something you haven't thought about before on the spot.
I've been studying my whole life to be a teacher when I get older and can't hack physical stuff anymore, and try to freely teach anyone anything I know. The more I educate others, the more they educate me, and the more instinctively I know whatever we were working on.
Let me reiterate, again from a different perspective with different reasoning, the only way you learn something is to have the patience to do it - but the same goes for teaching. You have to have the patience to sit there and let the student get the answer, and the restraint to not give it to them and make them work for it so they remember it longer.
Analogies are king in getting through to people, but to be able to use analogies effectively for random people you have to be at least semi-educated on, well, everything.
Take a job in a retail store, any local big box popular electronics store. Sell computers, smart phones, or things like that. Then try to relate how the computer works to everyone you explain it to. Once you know some subject they are familiar with that you know, you can compare like functions to give them understandings.
Do yourself a favor - the next time you go to sit down in front of a television, pick up a book instead. (bonus points if you also grab a thesaurus)
Vocabulary and the contents of the thesaurus are the primary tools you need to use well for search. Forget all the ways a search engine works for you and remember that you need to not only search what you're looking for, but all the other ways of saying or describing what you want.
If you search fire, you get one set of results. What about ember, blaze, smolder, incinerate, char, smoke, fuel, tinder...etc...
If you have to look up all those synonyms every time you want to search for something, not only does it take longer (impatience again) but you are less likely to actually do it because of all the extra steps you have to take.
Phrase your posts well, try to punctualize, capitalize, and generally make what you're saying presentable. It takes me longer to decipher some internet shorthand, because they aren't acronyms I study. It hurts me on messageboards, but helps keep my vocabulary instinctively clean elsewhere.
On that turn, i'm more likely to read and/or respond to someone who actually took enough time to write their post, instead of just scratching out the first string of letters that looked close to some resemblance of the words they were trying to write.
( I know that's extreme, but that's another teaching tool, exploring extremes and understanding boundaries and capability - the foundation for your ability to reason )
So, you caught me at a time where i'm writing a curriculum for learning how to learn, techniques and approaches and such for someone I am going to start teaching android to. As much as it seems like i'm rambling here, all my postings tonight have been sprinkled with little methods or things to do to increase your speed, accuracy and ability to learn itself because that's what i'm working on right this minute.
It's been a long, hard, physical week at work. While rewarding and I feel great about what i've done, my body is not so happy at the moment. Trying to get into a new project with my MT4GS tonight is probably pushing it, so instead i'm just sitting here writing up what i've learned about learning, typing to me is very relaxing and keeps me active in spirit while mostly resting in the physical sense.
This is why they say knowledge is power, because you have to build knowledge on other knowledge. The more you understand and exploit the learning process to work for you, consciously and directly, the more natural and fluid it becomes.
If you learn what you need to learn to learn better (say that 3 times fast) you will become more efficient - and that's part of why we all get together here to do this stuff to our phones.
It's challenging, it's fun, it's a never-ending exercise in discovering cool new things or flat out creating brand new ideas of your own.
Part of what's been feeding my excitement with this phone, besides it's indisputable awesomeness, is the fact that it's new and there's an air of freshness to all the time being put into it. It's not like my last device where I showed up and found all the answers, this time I get to find and share some of them.
But that's the constant state of learning, the browsing all over XDA, setting up specific projects (tonight i'll learn how to make a livewallpaper, etc...) and creating manageable, short term goals along the road to a bigger destination.
The destination is reached much more interestingly with others, and when we all get there it's one big party together. This goal is made easier and sooner the more people that play.
Another thing is, I try to share what I post as thoroughly and accurately as possible. 2 Great reasons to take an extra minute and check something, or look it up again to make sure that it's right.
1-Someone else can build off your solid base, and spend less time learning what you were trying to convey
2-If i'm wrong, someone will speak up. There are so many learned people here, someone will see what I did wrong and if not why, someone else can probably explain it or get us started on finding out why.
So please, don't hesitate to correct me on something if you know i'm wrong. we all benefit from it, and is part of the motivation to be as thorough as I try to be.
Hope that the length of this post is justified by the content I tried to convey, you caught me in a typing mood with an open-ended question.
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You are king of long statements.
Sent from my Undeadk9's Senseless ROM using xda premium
[email protected] said:
Undeadk9... what an honer to reply to you. I've read all your posts. I wanna flash your latest Senseless..Sounds fast. I myself would like to thank you for all the hard work you put into this forum. You do a wonderful job. Your posts and comments mean alot. I'm such a noob but love phones and cpu's. I really would love to fluently learn how to do anything that involves those things,but have no idea where to begin. What would you suggest I learn? I ask because you know what your talking about. Do you mind if i contact you in a pm or something just to bleed your brain sometime? Think about it. Thanks again!!
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Honor? Im just an every day joe with ubuntu 11.04 and rom kitchen sprinkled with java on my laptop. that also makes roms. Lol.
Sent from my Undeadk9's Senseless ROM using xda premium
The only way I got around not being able to type the / character on my mt4gs keyboard in the terminal emulator when I flashed modaco was to type out the command line in a text message, copy, then paste in the emulator. Works like a charm.
Sent from my Xoom using xda premium
Bravo Blue6lX. That was very well written. Amazing. I personally can relate to a majority of what you spoke of in this post,my favorite being,"the one thing that people never get right is managing their excitement". I am a poster boy for that very same thing. Even in the real world I struggle with that. I have to take a second to breath,lol. When I signed on to this forum I read the rules and began my quest to further educate myself in Android... baby crying gotta run thanks again your posts are very inspiring! I enjoy reading them very much, your a wise man. Thesaurus on the list for the day!! Have a great day
[email protected] said:
Bravo Blue6lX. That was very well written. Amazing. I personally can relate to a majority of what you spoke of in this post,my favorite being,"the one thing that people never get right is managing their excitement". I am a poster boy for that very same thing. Even in the real world I struggle with that. I have to take a second to breath,lol. When I signed on to this forum I read the rules and began my quest to further educate myself in Android... baby crying gotta run thanks again your posts are very inspiring! I enjoy reading them very much, your a wise man. Thesaurus on the list for the day!! Have a great day
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Glad you got what I was trying to say. Looking back at it now that i've slept, showered, and got a pot of coffee in me i'd have written that a lot differently. I passed out right after posting that, when I got home I was so physically exhausted...yet too mentally awake to sleep. Normally i'd just browse around learning stuff on the computer and be rested, but I really needed to actually sleep.
I figure as long as I make sure anything I post in the developers section is as concise and clear as I can make it, what gets posted in these other sections can be a bit more general, but that posting was a bit convoluted even by my standards.
Not to drag your thread too far away from the original question, but once you free yourself from the "answer right now" impulse, XDA has several lifetimes worth of stuff to learn how to do just sitting here waiting for you to discover it.
The best way to get started is to just pick something, something small, and learn how to do it completely. Then go on from there. The other day I wanted to spend like a half an hour getting some icons...but one thing led to another which led to photoshop and a few hours later I had a new boot animation for my device I made from scratch.
It's not what I came here to do or to learn, wasn't even in my head when I sat down at the computer. But, I let myself just wander and followed the direction my interest evolved in and that's where I ended up. Sometimes that's the way it goes, and it was a fun experience.
You lose the opportunity for something like that to happen when you just ask a question and get spoon-fed an answer. I'm a big fan of the idea that if you really want to get something done, then just do it yourself. Why sit and wait for someone else to do it, while you could be spending that time doing it yourself. You need knowledge to be able to do that, though, and that's what XDA is a place to share.
The more quickly and completely you can process and assimilate the knowledge, the more you can learn in a shorter time with less frustration. It really pays to take the time to develop good habits and methods for learning.
The answer to whatever you want to know in most cases is not nearly as worthwhile as knowing how to figure out that answer.
Sometimes you just need a quick solution to fix something broken, the HTCLoggers security vulnerability is a great example of a valid "need a fix now" situation. Much thanks to undeadk9 for a quick resolution to that issue.
...but if it's not mission critical to do whatever it is right this second, why rush?
The easier you come by the answer, the easier you forget it.
That's why knowing how other related activities can help you across the spectrum of things you get involved in is important. Reading is a great example.
If you read books by a variety of authors, you pick up different ways of saying the same thing, are exposed to different words and so on. When you sit down to search for something, you now have many more avenues to travel in the breadth of keywords and phrases to use before hitting a dictionary or thesaurus or something. Consciously encouraging that fringe benefit of the activity of reading compounds it's effectiveness, because you will intentionally seek out authors that write differently then each other and maximize your gain for time invested.
Back to the subject at hand, the issue with terminal emulator. There are a couple of threads about this issue right here in the MT4GS section of XDA. If you browse through them, you will find different pieces of the puzzle sitting there.
Furthermore, you'll find people who have tested different terminal emulators, so you can ask them what they've found, or encourage them to share their findings to add information to the issue. You'll also find the other people interested in solving the problem, so sooner or later the right combination of people with the motivation, skills, and time to invest will come together in a thread and generate a solution.
...and that's why I love the open source community mindset of XDA. The gratification of "hey, look what I found!" is here, because it's all worthwhile. The puzzle isn't put together until we have all the pieces, and each one that is found and shared is one less to find. For the community as a whole, what you've found is just as important as how you share it.
Some people are great at figuring out what the puzzle pieces are. Others are great at creating those pieces. Other people shine at putting those pieces together to finish the picture. All those talents are expressed to some degree by the people coming through here, this place is amazing.
Now consider, if you just ask a question and get an answer, well, that's great for you or anyone with that exact problem. But for other people in the future trying to figure out that problem, that may not be so helpful.
What if someone comes through with the same problem, but a new firmware version or something where the solution doesn't work anymore. Generally speaking, the method used to find that solution would work again to generate a new, updated answer, but since only the answer and not the method was given...
So the "need it now" attitude really just impairs everyone's ability to move forward past a certain point, because then it gets into people asking questions that have already been answered...sometimes on that very page in the forum...because they didn't take a minute to see if the question had already been fielded and resolved.
I know XDA is huge and can be overwhelming, but having been with the MT4GS since there weren't many posts in this section of XDA, I already see it happening here too. It's just human nature, and some people don't even realize it.
So i'll leave it there, since you were asking about how to get the most out of using XDA, and this is just something i've observed in my time here.
"The answer to whatever you want to know in most cases is not nearly as worthwhile as knowing how to figure out that answer".
"The easier you come by the answer, the easier you forget it".
"So the "need it now" attitude really just impairs everyone's ability to move forward past a certain point".
Your a great teacher Blue6lx! I read your comments that you posted on this page more than a few times. I would have replied sooner if my daughter would've let me
I would like to know more of anything you want to say,so I'll be hearing from you! One way or another!
I ended up sliding the keyboard in and out for that since I am able to use the onscreen keyboard to use the "/". I Slide out for faster typing for everything else.
[email protected] said:
I ended up sliding the keyboard in and out for that since I am able to use the onscreen keyboard to use the / Slide out for faster typing,on screen for"/"
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While that works, it's an ugly solution. Don't worry, it's what I do too.
I remember reading a while ago here...someone swung by and asked if there had been any problems with the cable that carries the information from the keyboard half of the phone to the screen half.
Sliding in and out wears that cable out over time, and while it's way too early to see any issues arising from that cable wearing out yet because of how new the phone is, it's something to keep in mind.
It's a moving part, a piece of metal that bends (the wiring) when it's slid up and down. Even though it's designed to do it, from everything i've ever learned about physics and metal fatigue I know it'll wear out one day if the phone lasts that long.
I don't mind using it, it was made to take some amount of sliding, but as a developer using the phone in ways it wasn't exactly intended for, you have to be aware of the ways you create additional stresses on the device.
Do you think a normal user slides the phone out as much in a whole weeks worth of playing with it the amount of time you do in a single day working with terminal emulator?
Everything (except the stock battery) about this phone is pretty top of the line, I highly doubt that HTC cheaped out on a part they knew would wear out eventually on it's own, so don't think you're gonna break your cable tomorrow because you slid the keyboard out.
Just be aware of the above-normal stresses you can put on your device over the long term once you become more then a consumer-grade user.
So, yes, it's a solution, but not very elegant in it's execution.
My thoughts are the same. "Ugly solution".
From what I have observed, the text savvy user loves sliding that keyboard in and out. I have no doubt they realize this and built it to last... Let's hope they did not skimp in that area of their development
No one has said it. Try swype. I've used it a few times to get some unresponsive or jumbled as in getting ~ instead / to work or a pesky capital to stay lower case as in I and i .
Sent from my MyTouch 4G Slide using xda premium
I really want to learn how Android works. I want to be able to build Android from source, and compile Roms. The goodies. But anytime I try, it's end up horribly. I just want to know where to start! Should I make a stock based Rom, and learn how to tweak it out? Should I buy a certain book, or read some threads! I don't know Xo I really want to become a Dev. Android is my life, and I want to be able to do what Strapped, XMC, and Tbalden do. Any tips are good tips.
I sure do wish you all the luck in the world Agent. And you certainly want to fashion yourself after three mighty fine developers too. I've had some of those same desires myself after seeing what someone that knows their stuff can do. I had so much trouble with HS Spanish and a few AutoCad Lisp routines that I can't even imagine biting off C++ or some of the other programming languages!
My youngest son though.....now that's a completely different story. :good:
WeekendsR2Short said:
I sure do wish you all the luck in the world Agent. And you certainly want to fashion yourself after three mighty fine developers too. I've had some of those same desires myself after seeing what someone that knows their stuff can do. I had so much trouble with HS Spanish and a few AutoCad Lisp routines that I can't even imagine biting off C++ or some of the other programming languages!
My youngest son though.....now that's a completely different story. :good:
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I wanna learn while I'm still young, I'm out of school for the time being. I really want to take advantage of these couple Months before life is all about business, and how to properly Manage/Own a T-Mobile.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk 2
NOW is the time my friend before life gets in the way of your youth and ambitions. It WILL distract you and before you know it spare time will seem like it never comes often enough. I admire ALL of you that persue what interests you and learn while that mind is still fresh. KWIM?
WeekendsR2Short said:
NOW is the time my friend before life gets in the way of your youth and ambitions. It WILL distract you and before you know it spare time will seem like it never comes often enough. I admire ALL of you that persue what interests you and learn while that mind is still fresh. KWIM?
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Hell Yeah, I'm considering taking classes at the local community college for Java. Apparently it's useful for learning Android. I go to a strictly business college. So I can't learn anything related to Android.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk 2
OK, so I have an Idea. I want to do what CM said, and learn the basic. I'm going to use Undeads Sense 3.0 Port as a base, and theme it to Sense 4.0. Remove the Bulletproof settings, and push over another tweak app. I want to make it as fast as possible, and have great battery. I always felt Sense 3.0 was the smoothest Sense rom we ever got. Zero Hickups, and No Lag. I'm going to at least do it on a personal level. Try to get a hold of Undead (he's IP Banned on XDA & Rootz), but it may be hard. Maybe even try and get the Amaze Camera Mod working. Just simple, basic things. Once I get used to the waters, I'll try something bigger. Like Paranoid Android.
I just found an Interesting guide about porting any Sense rom, to any Sense Phone. Pssshh, could you image Sense 2.1 on our phone. That would be sweet. The guide is boosted to be made for the most simplest of minds. So I feel I can take extreme advantage of it.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk 2
Keep on plugging - I admire your determination. And please keep letting us know how you're getting on - the start of a journey.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using xda premium
Alright agent since I can't quote your last post, I was on the inc2 forums and they have a wifi issue that's solved by turning the always on data off
Sent from my HTC MyTouch 4G Slide running MikXE
Where is Blue when you need him?
::Respect::
Hey guys!
I would say that making a post or thread like this is really the first step - knowledge can be gained, but the passion, that drive to work through all the tedious testing, retesting, writing and re-writing is not something that can be taught.
So start small.
We all have grand designs, plans and ideas - heck there's so much this device is capable of that I want it to do, starting everything at once just leads to unfinished projects and fragmented learning.
If you bring that excitement, that hunger for knowledge, then the rest falls into place but it takes time.
"I never let school interfere with my education"
...is such a fantastic quote. It's up to you to choose to take the time to sit down and read a technical document, white-paper or tutorial while your friends are out wasting time.
Definitely make time to walk away and socialize with real people, but remember that learning how to do this stuff takes a lot of time, effort and tons of frustration and dead ends.
I've been playing with software code for near 20 years now, and I still consider myself not much past amatuer status.
...and status means literally nothing. The only two things that matter are what you know, and what you don't.
So don't lie to yourself. Don't pretend to know something just because you are afraid of what people will think if they find out you don't. It's okay to say "I don't know"
In fact, it's essential to be able to say that not only to yourself, but to be able to admit that to the community, your friends, whomever.
If you don't, then you have no place to start learning. Pretending to know something just prevents you from actually being able to start learning how to do it.
So, after you are comfortable with a truthful assessment of what you can and can't do, the next step is to figure out how to go about learning what you don't know.
The biggest mistake everyone makes is taking on a huge project because that's what the end goal is.
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"
...another good one!
I'm sure we've all heard it before, but haven't pondered it so deeply. Another way to say it might be:
"The making of an awesome ROM begins with changing a single icon"
Break down the project you want to do into the smallest possible steps.
Can you decompile an app?
If not, definitely learn how to do that.
Once you have it decompiled, browse all the code. Especially what you don't understand or makes no sense. Don't try to understand it all, just absorb it and get to know what it looks like.
Now do that with every app on your device (play with all the stock apps first - they all came from the same place and reflect a certain coding style)
Now that you've browsed through all the code of all your stock apps, do it again. ...and again ...and again ... and again.
Sick of it yet? It's been a few weeks now and you've learned nothing you can directly use.
This part always separates the people serious about doing it from the ones turned off by all the tedious work with nothing concrete to show for it.
I mean, you've spent a couple of weeks just looking at code with no idea what you are looking at.
What you don't immediately notice is that you start to get a sense of the pattern, the layout, and what things are the same, similar, and completely different.
Now you start looking at tutorials you've read in the past and go 'wow, I know kinda what that means, I saw something like that in the code here!'
Ah - now it begins!
When it gets to be too much, do something you can handle from start to finish.
Change an icon, tweak the color of a font, something simple, but that you can feel the pride of success and accomplishment in.
Can you compile an app?
Decompile a working app - change nothing - then recompile it. Install it on your device.
Does it still work? Probably not.
Why?
Ah - the question that drives us.
9 times out of 10 someone releasing something cool is not because they wanted to make it, but because they wanted to learn how to make it.
One thing people forget all the time is that the stock software on the device is built by teams of people with delegated tasks and diverse talents that TOGETHER contribute to the success of the final product.
You? You're alone. You have to do it all. Graphics, sound, coding, planning, research, testing - you are taking a project that requires untold hours of dedication from a team of people ... Maybe just on the graphics alone. A whole other team is working on sound, another team is working on code, there is management to structure goals and delegate tasks.
Managers who may have no technical ability but a good handle on how to keep everyone moving and workikng cohesively. Other management that is keeping the teams on point with each other.
...and it still takes them lots of time to get things done. Not because it's some bloated over-staffed group with too much red tape (though that does happen) - but more because there is simply so much to do.
The next time I spend 40+ hours behind the keyboard with maybe not even a bathroom break won't be the first nor the last. I've sat down to do something on Friday and had someone stop by on Sunday night and I'm still in my work clothes from my day shift Friday, didn't even realize Saturday came and gone.
Does it all require that level of dedication - no, but, you get lost in it and that can happen. Never force myself to do it, just get caught up in learning it all.
Don't expect too much from yourself. You absolutely have the community behind you and so much knowledge here, tons of people willing to help, but in the end it's up to you.
You to do graphics.
You to do sound.
You to write the code.
You to compile it all.
You to figure out why it doesn't work ( and it rarely does).
For every success, you have many, many failures to get there. Especially starting out. Expect to get it wrong. Expect it to be broke just because you touched it. If it isn't, honestly, you're doing it wrong.
We learn so much less from success then we do from failure. If you aren't failing you aren't learning. If it always works the first time, then you are just doing the same tired stuff you always have.
You wanna learn how to code for Android?
Read everything you can, absorb the forums, go download source and browse it. Decompile all your apps and browse them. Start looking up what you don't know.
For every one thing you do learn, you realize there are ten new things you never knew you didn't know.
Now go learn about them, because each one of them will lead you to something else, or many something elses that you didn't even realize you didn't know.
...and did I mention put lots of time into ignoring what you want to do, and learning how to do it one tiny little piece ata time?
Patience is most important.
The patience to only change one variable, recompile, test, test, and test some more. Then, when you are satisfied with the result of one minor little change, make one more tiny change and repeat the process.
Learn the scientific method, and follow it rigorously. If you don't, might as well not bother getting into this stuff because all you will do is get frustrated.
You have to work slowly, patiently, one small step at a time. Try to predict the result of the tiny change you made, and then see if it was what you thought or a surprise. Why was it a surprise?
The question of why is the only thing that matters. Every one of those you answer is one more weapon at your disposal for the battle, one more tool in your box, one more pencil on your desk.
If you have little to no coding experience and expect to sit down and whip out a ROM, you are only setting yourself up for failure. But one day you can, with hard work, lots and lots of time, uncountable failures and hours of frustration and coding something just to have it not even compile, let alone work.
Have you taken the time to map the device?
When you got it stock, you should have put a file browser on it ( root explorer - just buy it already, you need it) and browsed the entire device.
Take a notebook and write out a full device tree on paper, everything you can see. Every folder, every file or folder in them, sizes, permissions, any detail you can see.
Why? Because it already works. You are lookoing at how a working ROM is structured.
I mean, how can you make something if you don't know what it is, looks like, how it acts?
Learned ADB and fastboot yet? Why not? You wonNt be successful if you don't.
This is a pretty long list already - and we've barely scratched the surface. A ROM is not a Sunday afternoon project - a ROM is a dedicated months and months long never ending project that eats up more time then you have every day.
So I'll leave you with one last thing before I go make a thread that people aren't gonna want to see - but I'm not leaving you guys, far from it.
Learn algebra, learn it well, or don't bother attempting to write code. (Or work in any construction trades/build anything professionally.)
Algebra is the single most important learned skill one can pick up across just about anything you can ever do with your life, and absolutely vital in computing.
There really is no "go here, learn this" method - you need to aquire the skills necessary to succeed in your project.
So go break something (minor - don't brick your phone) and then learn how to fix it. ...and pay attention in math class.
Sent from a digital distance.
Blue6IX said:
Huge Epic Post.
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It's like your a warlock and when I typed your name, POOF! :victory:
This post covers every aspect you could ask for, I'm sure Agent isn't the only one who will gain knowledge from this post, thanks Blue!:highfive:
CoNsPiRiSiZe said:
It's like your a warlock and when I typed your name, POOF! :victory:
This post covers every aspect you could ask for, I'm sure Agent isn't the only one who will gain knowledge from this post, thanks Blue!:highfive:
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Hell. Yeah. I'm just going to start theming. I want to make the ICS messaging Icon blue, and a blacked out UI.
Sent from my HTC MyTouch 4G Slide using Tapatalk 2
I just got ubuntu on my computer, spent an hour trying to install java lol. Now to figure out why adb doesn't work the way it does in windows haha.
edit: finally got adb working. i have no idea what i did, but after installing a bunch of different libs, time to start exploring haha =D
ekoee said:
I just got ubuntu on my computer, spent an hour trying to install java lol. Now to figure out why adb doesn't work the way it does in windows haha.
edit: finally got adb working. i have no idea what i did, but after installing a bunch of different libs, time to start exploring haha =D
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Java was a b***h when I installed an unsupported version for compiling. This is helpful though it will guide you through installing and it can even switch java versions if you don't like your current one
AgentCherryColla said:
Hell. Yeah. I'm just going to start theming. I want to make the ICS messaging Icon blue, and a blacked out UI.
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I saw this done on AOKP website as a mod, i think this plus built in messaging pop up like an MIUI thing would b beast
::Respect::
ekoee said:
I just got ubuntu on my computer, spent an hour trying to install java lol. Now to figure out why adb doesn't work the way it does in windows haha.
edit: finally got adb working. i have no idea what i did, but after installing a bunch of different libs, time to start exploring haha =D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man, i'll tell ya - if you had to pick the one thing someone would do to take a step into learning to bend android to your will, installing linux is the best reply possible.
Windows is great to get your feet wet, and can manage some things more easily - frilly stuff, eye candy type details.
If you want to talk about experiencing the thrilling joys of success all that invested effort brings - doing so on a linux box is so much more rewarding then on a windows box.
Definitely see about getting a second monitor if you can swing it. Working with two display panels more then doubles your productivity. You can have a tutorial on one screen and be following along on the other.
That aside, one reason the linux box is so much more rewarding is because of the range of things you can mess with.
You can't work with a kernel in windows. Already right there the most important part of the ROM is off limits to you in a windows box. (as I sit here typing this on windows - mind you.)
Another reason linux is so sweet to work on for coding android is that they speak the same language. Writing code is quicker and easier, connecting the device happens more seamlessly and swiftly.
All these little things add up to save you time.
...and time is your greatest hindrance. It slips by all too quickly and then you are obligated to walk away and do something else. So being able to squeeze more work into less time is the consistent refinement of what you know.
Rarely do you learn how to do something the most efficient way on your own, and really that is the heart of open source. You can see how someone else did something, and learn from how they got there.
I've communicated with people I couldn't speak the language of through code, sending changes back and forth without any written correspondence.
To be able to explain the various joys and experiences learning computer coding has brought me would be impossible. There is so much intangible awesomeness that comes from investing time into learning all of this.
Especially since cell phones are so popular and mobile computing is so easy any more. Being able to bend the device in your hand precisely to your will is ever becoming a more important skill to have.
For those wanting to invest that time into what brings us all here collectively, the rewards really are beyond what you would think starting out.
As much as I wanna delv into this as ACC, I simply have no time haha. However, learning this now will probably help me in the future, so why not.
At the very least I'll finally know what you guys are talking about in the dev section lol.
Blue6IX said:
Another reason linux is so sweet to work on for coding android is that they speak the same language. Writing code is quicker and easier, connecting the device happens more seamlessly and swiftly.
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This. Install Linux, learn to love it, and learn to customize it. A big part of setting linux up the way you want involves working in a command line, troubleshooting when errors come up, building, and compiling. The time you spend troubleshooting and customizing everything on your linux box will familiarize you with all the commands, shortcuts, quirks, and understanding of why this does that in a linux environment, and will help you to no end.
I'm going to get a new Laptop before school starts up again. Then I can finally get cracking
Hey guys, so I really want to get into programming and get good enough for Android Development and such, but I feel like I just don't have the mindset for it. There's kids my age already making apps and stuff, and I'm kinda haulted, having no sense of how I should start. Could anybody please help? Thanks a lot.
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wheelsXwilly said:
I feel like I just don't have the mindset for it.
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Why do you feel like that? Have you tried any programming before? It can certainly feel daunting to get started, but I reckon it's a skill that pretty much anyone can pick up if they're willing to learn. Some resources you might want to check out:
CodeAcademy.com -- has a couple of nice tutorials to get you started that you can run straight from your web browser
Udacity CS101 -- free online "Introduction to Computer Science" course. Covers a bit of programming in Python as well as some computer science fundamentals
Books/online tutorials -- can be of varying quality and many assume some prior programming experience. Because you mentioned you want to develop for Android, you might want to look at "Java for Dummies" or similar.
Hope that helps!
Yeah I went through about 40+ python tutorials on thenewboston, and I took a break because of school, and I didn't contain all the things I learned. So I'm a little discouraged. I'll check your suggestions out, thanks!
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wheelsXwilly said:
I didn't contain all the things I learned. So I'm a little discouraged.
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That's normal -- if you don't keep practicing, you'll get rusty. I recently had to brush up on C++ after having not used it for over 6 months. You should pick it up more easily the second time, and you might be surprised at how much you actually remember.
Good luck!