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could i make this app

hi. so first off i have never made an app or anything. i am a winemaker. we use a lot of equations in the winemaking process. i know the has an app that is pretty much a calculator for winemaking. i was wondering if it would be even possible me to give it a shot to make(since i have never even tried and do not even know where to start). would it be easy for me to try. it does not have to be pretty. any feed back would be great and how to get started would be even great. if someone would be interested in helping me with, i know about 30 other wine make that would pay good money for an app like this. any suggestions. thanks

Making basic applications isn't that hard if you know what you're doing. Especially if it doesn't have to have pretty graphics and a clever interface, that's even easier. That said, programming does take a while to pick up and get to grips with. The best thing to get you started is to have a project to do, and in that sense, you're well set. If you want to experiment for yourself, I'd suggest going to the Android Developers' official website as it has all kinds of tutorials and basic information to get yourself started and write very simple applications.
That said, if you're serious about paying someone to write this for you, I'm interested. How much did you have in mind? If you want to have a look at my past work, I've written a game for the Android Market; you can have a look at it and see the standard I'd provide. It's called Spectrum Puzzles, a fun jigsaw puzzle game with lots of high quality images and an easy-to-understand interface.

For someone with no programming experience whilst I'm sure you could dive straight in, it might prove off-putting or result in slow progress. If you have no experience whatsoever, you need to get to grips with programming, Java, the Objected Oriented approach & Android.
Personally, I'd suggest installing Java & the integrated development environment Eclipse & using these to allow you to work through some programming tutorials in Java, which will give a more gentle introduction to programming & OO via Java, all of which you'll directly need for Android development.
Others might even suggest you take a seemingly longer route & first learn programming using a language other than Java, but hopefully that won't be necessary.
Once you feel more comfortable - which might not take long if you have plenty of spare time & find yourself suited to thinking like a programmer - you could then begin to learn how to apply all of this to the Android environment.
Of course there's no reason why you couldn't compromise & slide from the former to the latter that bit earlier so you can start on your project which will help maintain motivation when your head starts to hurt
[Edit:] If you're willing to make your offer of payment a subject for public discussion I'd certainly be interested, if only in learning what kind of rates are considered acceptable for such projects. I'm not in a position to take up your request myself & it seems you already have someone with sufficient experience who's interested, but I hope to be up for such projects in the future. As an aside, I'm a former C programmer who's just getting into Java & Android now.

iam trying to learn java and i must say its kinda hard

You need to learn the basics of object oriented programming before you even think about teaching yourself JAVA. Once you learn the meaning of object oriented programming then you could pick up a Java book .

ilmar72 said:
You need to learn the basics of object oriented programming before you even think about teaching yourself JAVA. Once you learn the meaning of object oriented programming then you could pick up a Java book .
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It can be done incrementally. Some aspects of the language can be taught to introduce general programming concepts such as sequence, selection & iteration. OO concepts can then be introduced, followed by their implementation in Java & this can then be built upon.
The biggest risk to this approach is that of establishing a functional programming mindset before getting to the OO meat, however that's no worse than learning programming first through a non OO language. As long as the student understands to some degree how much they don't yet understand, as they proceed, imho this is workable.
The alternative of going straight into OO is going to require a fair bit of theory before getting into coding & while this might work in a classroom with plenty of teaching resources, someone reliant on self study could lose motivation.
I'd be interested in any opinions on this?
FAO the OP: If you like having a physical book to work from, rather than relying on online material solely, I am finding Eckel's Thinking In Java to have been a good choice. Of course you should check out alternatives, multiple reviews etc & look for something to fit your style of learning. I hope you don't give up - programming is a very satisfying skill to develop & use

Where is all the open source software for android?

Okay, this will be more of a rant.
So on non-android linux there are about 10000000000 useful, top-notch, cutting-edge, great, perfect and all round ass-kicking programs around. You can download all sorts of crazy super cool stuff for free because the free software and open source software community is producing awesome things. In many cases the open source and/or free alternatives are much better than the proprietary ones. I can't really think of a need when I couldn't find a really great open source library or full program to do the job.
But with android it's different. On Google Play there is all sorts of crap, feature-less and expensive stuff, the free version of a program is typically unmitigated ape****, the reviews/ratings/etc are useless. There are some exceptions like the terminal emulator, or sl4a, but for gods sake where is the geek community here? With fedora/ubuntu/debian/arch/etc we didn't need a centralized crap store and fancy useless ratings/reviews/etc and everything was still wonderful and you could actually get things done. In android, not so. There isn't a single fully functional open source and free GUI for browsing webdav or files over scp, but that's just the latest frustration of mine. Whenever I think of a program I'd love to just search for, download, install and use in 5 minutes which is the norm in a usual linux environment I know in advance that 8 out of 10 cases it won't be that easy on android.
And so where did all the non-free stuff get us? Now everyone is offering crap for money, all ****ty stores incorporate this supposedly to create incentives for developers to innovate because you know, without money there is no innovation at all on the face of this Earth but let's face it, when things were open source and/or free things worked (i.e. ordinary linux) but now they don't. Seems like the model is just not working.
Why can't I have the same linux experience on my bloody phone as the one I have on my laptop and desktop?
Who screwed this up and when?
Can we still fix it?

Android was meant for consumers as an option to the iPhone. Not for people to get all techy with it.
And most Android users ARE simply consumers who want a smartphone with "app and games," internet browser, texting, email, facebook, and calling
Ask that same consumer about computers, and I can almost guarantee they think its a Mac and PC (in which they mean Windows) battle. Mention Linux, and they'll look at you puzzled.
Sent from my DROID2 using xda premium

Android isn't totally open source. Still better than apple though.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Exhibit 4G running Cyanogen Mod 9.

We are not limited to the Play "crap store" since we can sideload .apk files from alternative stores, or from wherever you get them. Also, I wouldn't call the Play store's reviews "useless;" I actually think they're generally helpful, and certainly better than the reviews in the Ubuntu "store."
Also, remember that Google built it's empire on selling advertising, and selling access to analytical data. The general *nix community doesn't have that. That's the difference between "open source" & "free."
-- Sent from my TouchPad using Communities

Yes, we don't need to use google play, but how many software packages are out there for android outside of google play? Not many. Certainly orders of magnitude less than ordinary free software available for desktop linux.
I see the fact that google invented android in order to make money, sell ads, etc. That's clear, so I agree with a commenter that android is not really techy from the get go. But why isn't there an ordinary linux based phone? I hear meego is dying, but why is that? Or why isn't there an alternative to meego which follows the ordinary linux philosophy, being community driven, perhaps with a corporate sponsor like redhat or canonical?
The same path that worked for the desktop is currently does not seem to be there for the phone although I'd think it's just another computing platform, not much different after all.

I honestly think we will never see a true open source phone. There are carriers that have to carry that phone and they want users to be able to have the latest and greatest when it comes to their phones and they want it to be easy for them to use. Android & IPhone both offer that experience a full functional Open Source phone would not offer that experience, you would have to build the source from scratch and flash it to your phone which wouldn't be fun for most users. Plus android has the full source code available here http://source.android.com/source/index.html which is how you get Cyanogenmod builds most of the time, they use google source to build that ROM.

tortib said:
I honestly think we will never see a true open source phone.
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The Openmoko-Project has grown very far,
the FreeRunner is pretty cool:
> www.openmoko.org
not only the software development is open, you can already even print your case at home if you own a 3D-printer:
> projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-main/page/CaseDesign/

Android for Windows - BlueStacks

Good day community,
Over the past several months, a few of us have been working on a projerct some may be familiar with. We have bundled an add-on to specific BlueStacks versions to allow for a complete Operating System environment, full of communications tools.
We didn't "develop", any of it. We have taken the time to scour the internet and primarily this site to garner the education, information and knowledge to actually bring it to fruition. We would like to say a big THANK YOU to the entire community here. We feel this is am important piece to a software life-cycle where developed information is compiled into a fully functioning system, exposing your people's craftsmanship.
The motive here is a moral one. I have been a communications engineer for 22 years and have seen and done things I thought weren't possible. I have been tasked with trying to develop an education platform technology matrix for schools. Specifically using my innovation abilities to solve problems. I am not a coder, I am more of a script writer. I have found success in making disparate hardware and software work together, and producing middle-ware scripts and functions to technologically solve challenges. In every sector.
I believe I have identified one of the major issues related to student success rates. Basic communications is hindered in many schools, internet cut out, and dictator like classroom regime. I feel communications is the king of industry and whomever has the information the fastest, cheapest, and accurate, wins. This is proven time and time again in capitalism. I feel students should be able to sms, or exchange pictures and peruse social networks, both to each other and their teachers. These are real-world tools, and the primary back-bone of a child's social life. But students need to learn to be accountable for they digital actions,
This "OS" changes things ever so slightly., not every student can afford the gear required to have that type of communication. If every kid could afford an iphone and ipad, than I don't need to do this project. Android on the other hand, little or no cost at all.
I will be deploying Android for Windows across the board. Students will have to setup a Google account and online storage. Copies of AW can be had for their home computer. The environment is the environment kids all love and use, the emulated touch interface is "cool" and the kids can support it and maintain it mostly themselves, and sync it to their PC phones or other devices, but those are NOT required. And no need to upgrade the PC's for a while, BlueStacks is Linux(ish), it's hardware demands are low, and I can keep the PC's at there current level.
I distribute it on thepratebay, another long story for another day, but this is the best way to ensure it stays out there, and the price is right to be able to push it out to the world. We have tirelessly worked to ensure compatibility with the apps the devs release and I know this particular release of AW has restored many of the items BlueStacks cripples
We have started a mini marketing campaign to drum up interest, although modest. And for you devs, this open an ENTIRE new revenue stream you didn't even have before. Making Android the primary OS used.
---------------------------
That's the agenda, I would like to open a support thread for it somewhere on here. I have an armada of info, tools, rootkits, tricks and troubleshooting information that we feel can be valuable to the community. I'll get things posted here ASAP. Anyone that has played with this at all before will be able to appreciate all of the challenges we had to solve.
We did not knowingly disassemble or modify any of the original distribution files of any applications, staying in accordance with about every license agreement on earth.
--------------------------
Looking for some feedback, questions, thoughts, ideas.. have to get 10 posts or something anyway...
Thank you to everyone!
-js

What's the difference between your project and the Android x86 project?

syung said:
What's the difference between your project and the Android x86 project?
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AFAIK Bluestacks has its own VM, so you doesn't need to install Virtual Machine any more.
I used this for a several months and it helps me to try an application without to send it to any Android device.
If you use Android x86 project, yo need to install it inside a Virtual Machine or make a USB Bootable, and as far I know it has limitations in the Play Store. Only some application that supports the architecture can be downloaded..

The Android x86 project is a piece of this absolutely. What BlueStacks is and what they have done is this:
Taken x86 gingerbread and ad an arm translator inside there. This is very unique, all of the other arm emulations fail out there after you even try to put them to the test with heavier use or apps. Basically the compatibility is just not there.
BlueStacks then added the vm player which is the most sophisticated player there is. Network mounts to shared fordler without installing drivers, and opengl support for limited HD graphics.
What we did
BlueStacks also crippled the hell out of the original ROM. All kinds of things missing that had to be put back in piece by piece, and still ensure compatibility. Some things fine to leave out, other maybe useful.
poring over the information, rooting bluestacks came easy, so we rooted every single v7.x of bluestacks, and began the mountain task of building compatibility. The winners are 7.4 for SD and 7.8 for HD. 7.8 handle the interface scrolling operations WAY better than later revisions. I can tell it was after this rev they forced on Surface Pro support, not back checking compatibility. And 7.4 installs on any machine but drops the arm translator. Still a nice product to put on an old machine, but little support for modern apps, and there won't be
Then doing a fair assessment of applications to do all the tasks one needs, file manipulation, printing, music, calling etc, We've spent over 200 hours trying to get a reliable lock screen, failed on that But we got most of it.
Finally adding and getting gapps to fully function was about like trying to drink a beer while standing on your head, it was like a marathon game of whack mole, we'd fix something, then something else friggen slam us over the head. Then we got to writing script, and adding widows apps like virtual keyboards and mouse to basically be able to run the entire OS with 1 finger as if you were Stephen Hawking.
We had an excellent response to the initial concept stuff version 1.1. It held on to around 400 seeders and 1000 user swam for about a week then began to fizzle. We expect that to triple and estimate 100,000 downloads in the first week. It is my opinion thepiratebay is the most accurate source for demand of anything digital, people that keep a copy and seed, actually really like something, versus an artificial "like" that other sites have and profit from. That's all Trip9d0zen stuff, about removing fake values and replacing it with real information exchange freedoms, so actually all financial can get to a creator, don't want to digress to far in this thread, but there is an ideology we have in common with thee twitters and thepitatebay's who have just the extreme basics of censorship, only to ensure safety, but never manipulated the information. We have evidence and models to change current businesses, and put the devs out in-front of these projects (or the artist selected agents). The more systems Android runs on, more success one can have. And Windows being the biggest, hands down, why not?
We feel this is by far the most compatible Android environment one can use, and can actually be used by anyone as an effective tool.
We know full well that once released, the ungodly amount of app work requests will be at its highest, but that's why I am here, where the devs are.. is this a revenue stream they want to suppport,?
I am personally using it exclusively for all my communications, social media and document creation, I only use windows for video playing files.
Hope that helps answer, here is the info to commercials for it, as our lil-1337s eloquently cranked out, smartasses...
youtube search for js99912
-js

It looks interesting, i'll check that up!

Dexcellium said:
It looks interesting, i'll check that up!
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Me too. Thanks

Android for Windows 2.0
new version just went live..... can someone reply with a hot-link, thanks
thepiratebay.sx
/torrent/8440340

Adding Game Data / Mount SDcard.sparse BlueStacks
Ok, I have been asked about this more than anything,
Used to be the SDcard was a .fs file and could be manipulated easy, now it's a bit more involved, but none to difficult.
You need to download:
thepiratebay.sx/
torrent/8453985
This will get you to be able to mount the SDcard.sparsefs as a drive letter in windows... Nothing new, just consolidating info as I have been requested for this more than anything else. Enjoy!
-js

Seeking kind advice from experianced developers

Hi
I recently had a problem with one of the discs in my spinal cord, as a result its quite possible I wont be able to return to my work as an industrial electrician. I am looking for other avenues of employment, I have quite abit of time on my hands to educate myself. I have choosen to look into the app market, after all, smart phones are in the hands of many people. Correct me if I am wrong but a well made app that is very popular could return a healthy living.
I want to make games, I see IAPs, premium version, and advertising as the main avenues for generating cash. Is this correct? Please I would like to start with the question, if hard work and effort put in, can money come out? or is it abit of a minority that makes and ultimatly a waste of time?
My next questions are, where should I start? I have ideas for games and I plan to start small so my knowledge and skills grow, first learning the fundamentals. I have begun to read guides but as was in my trade the advice of an experianced electrician was priceless!
So what software should I use, I plan to make for android then if my apps are popular I would transfer to ios and windows. Is there a base program that I could use which would make it easy to convert from to the said operating systems. Is there no way round it but to start from scratch?
What route would you recommend I take?
I think this is enough for now. Please treat me like a complete noob and have abit of patience :x
Is there any website that explains all the jargon associated with app developing?
Also if theres anything else you think I should know please tell me straight I can take it.
Thanks for any replies!
I really want to make this appen

Game and mobile app designing
Before starting with your game designing job you need to have a good knowledge about language that includes assembly, c, c++, java, Eiffel, Smalltalk, Ada, Lua and Python, Fro the language like assembly, c, c++ and java you just need to have a basic knowledge but the main software designing language that are used today are Lua and Python. One you will have a knowledge regarding the basic language then these language and software are easy to operate. Answering to your question about whether you can make money with this, believe me I started as a beginner for the game designing but then today I have a good command over all the language, software and can also use my knowledge for the mobile app designing for the android, windows and apple platform. This field definitely has money.

Most of your questions aren't of the "do this, it'll be the right way' sort.
If you want to create games, look at the different game development kits around - they will take a lot of burden of you, and might even help you to become multiplatform more easily.
Don't underestimate graphics, sound - they are important key elements of games; you might need other interested people with skills in this areas to develop a good package.
Learn how to programm. Learn how the hardware you designed so far 'thinks' - how the software works, how everything is connected.
I wish you the best, and you might need to rethink your questions, so that people can help you better when you ask more specific questions...

AliciaWinslet said:
Before starting with your game designing job you need to have a good knowledge about language that includes assembly, c, c++, java, Eiffel, Smalltalk, Ada, Lua and Python, Fro the language like assembly, c, c++ and java you just need to have a basic knowledge but the main software designing language that are used today are Lua and Python. One you will have a knowledge regarding the basic language then these language and software are easy to operate. Answering to your question about whether you can make money with this, believe me I started as a beginner for the game designing but then today I have a good command over all the language, software and can also use my knowledge for the mobile app designing for the android, windows and apple platform. This field definitely has money.
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Click to collapse
There are two paths you can take. The scripting (using scripting engines) like quoted post or you can chose the native route. Android is natively written in Java with the java assembly; therefor, java will give you the best performance for an android application. Many openGL engines allow the use of c++ which is the next most common mobile development style with the same performace. I have not heard much on using python for mobile applications, but i know cocos2d was originally a python engine so i know its possible. You could make a million dollar app without knowing any assembly. Assembly was used to make the most out of registers and CPUs back in the days of NES and what have you. With the new tegra processors assembly is very unnecessary, but it never hurts to know it.
My personal recommendation, for the standpoint of a game designer and game engine designer, is to learn java first (it is a simple language) or c++ (more complex but still easier then assembly). If you chose to go the scripting route I would try to find a engine that allows that, there are many. As a side note most commercial games are written in c++ or C (or they are a scripting language that compiles to c++); however in androids case everything is compiled to java assembly.
Hope this helps. There is no wrong path.

Cross-Platform vs Native

Hey,
I'm a developer and I want to start with app development. No games, just productivity stuff. Without experience, I would tend to native apps, because you can use all api's, designs etc. I think cross platform frameworks is just a hype like java for web. HTML and CSS are the best choice for web and nobody is talking about java in web-dev. Now, I have a feeling that you're trying to use this technology in Apps because html5 and css3 a fancy. But this is just my opinion and maybe I'm wrong. As I mentioned, I do not have any experience in app-dev. Therefore, I want to ask you, because you have the experience.
Are cross platform frameworks a great choice to develop apps for iOS, Android and Windows 10 (Mobile)? Is it really time saving and do I have the same or similar possibilities? Or is it better to maintain three different platforms? Maybe the time effort isn't so much higher. I don't know. How high is it? Should I start with a cross platform framework and switch later to native apps, or is it better to start with native apps?
I hope you can share your experience with me. It is also great if you link something that reflects your opinion.
Thanks
neon

"nobody is talking about java in web-dev"
Not true Many pages and server side app are created in java. JEE, JSF etc. Problem is hosting for page. Hosting for PHP is cheaper and more popular. That is why PHP is more popular than Java in web-dev.
Anyway, in mobile platform, in my opion, better way is native apps. Cross platform frameworks are great, but only for some of the types application. Most applications can be made faster and look prettier if they are native. Many things is hard when you use crossplatform, and sometimes development takes longer. Much depends on type of application and requirements. Of course it's only my opinion. Many people think differently.

It depends. First of all it is important to know which API or librarys you want to use. If you have some intensive tasks or calculations you should go with native apps because they are often much faster then hybrid-apps written in JavaScript. If you don't have much intensive tasks and you have a completely new idea and want to make money with it you shoud go with hybrid-apps because it is a huge plus to have an App for Android AND iOS.

Thanks for you responses.
@Asmok78
You are right. PHP is more popular because it is cheaper.
Asmok78 wrote that most applications can be made faster and it depends an the application. spcialx wrote something equal. So, as an example, all my ideas are based on a client server architecture where users can sync there local data with a server to work collaborativ. As an example it could be an app for all three platform (iOS, Android and Windows 10(Mobile)). A user can manage a tasklist and share tasks with other users, or you have a project and one user can assign tasks to other users.
I guess it will be faster to get a first working app with a crossplatform framework. But I also guess, that in the long run it will be better to dev native apps. So why not start directly with native apps?

ne0n said:
[...]
I guess it will be faster to get a first working app with a crossplatform framework. But I also guess, that in the long run it will be better to dev native apps. So why not start directly with native apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your assumption is completely right.
I'm working on a hybrid app right now. While it can be tempting, as soon as you get out of common features and patterns you can run into all sorts of problems and I found some quite hard to debug and solve. In the end I've busted all my deadlines. Performance are just OK for most uses, but still not comparable to native. All in all it depends on what you are trying to do, cross-platform apps might be ok for some use cases, but native apps are well worth the extra effort.

I think you should go native for apps. But not for games.
Sent from Tapatalk. Try LucidPod - lightweight podcast player.

Android NDK is there for performance reasons. If you plan to create something serious, then dedicated development cycles for each platform may be the obvious choice.

with web app, you can create app with nice and easy ui, can communicate with system api via plugin but sometime you need custom there control, and you need experience with native app , if it basic, you can do with only web app.
hybrid app is slower than native, only for small app.

Asmok78 said:
"nobody is talking about java in web-dev"
Not true Many pages and server side app are created in java. JEE, JSF etc. Problem is hosting for page. Hosting for PHP is cheaper and more popular. That is why PHP is more popular than Java in web-dev.
Anyway, in mobile platform, in my opion, better way is native apps. Cross platform frameworks are great, but only for some of the types application. Most applications can be made faster and look prettier if they are native. Many things is hard when you use crossplatform, and sometimes development takes longer. Much depends on type of application and requirements. Of course it's only my opinion. Many people think differently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I'm a java web guy. Tomcat, Struts 2 and JSP for me (though I'm slowly switching to Spring instead of Struts). The sheer power of Java, the stuff you can do, vs PHP (disclaimer: I coded PHP for 10 years professionally and now hate it, especially with the advent of Wordpress and Drupal) is absolutely staggering. Add to that a tonne of amazing libraries one can just plug straight in and you get a really useful bit of kit. Sorry, off-topic.
So yeah native is best. I work on a timesheeting/expenses solution for big mobile telcos in the UK and we looked at some cross-platform solutions at first, with Xamarin getting a decent run out but in the end we concluded it just wouldn't do the job, and went native. The issue really was that you'd end up with an app that wasn't quite right on either platform, and had to really write some nasty hacky stuff to make anything that took advantage of the advantages or preferred style of a particular platform. It just wasn't worth the effort in the end.

With Unity3d you can build for like 20 platforms.

Cross-Platform vs Native | Development Tools
1. Native apps are usually developed to work on a single mobile platform by using the native programming language mainly used for user interactions.
2. Cross platform requires different platforms for development are used for PhoneGap, Titanium, and Xamarin by using HTML and JavaScript mainly used for iOS, windows, and Android.

"no one is discussing java in web-dev"
Not genuine Many pages and server side application are made in java. JEE, JSF and so on. Issue is facilitating for page. Facilitating for PHP is less expensive and more mainstream. That is the reason PHP is more well known than Java in web-dev.
Anyway, in portable stage, in my opion, better way is local applications. Cross stage systems are incredible, yet just for a portion of the sorts application. Most applications can be made quicker and look prettier on the off chance that they are local. Numerous things is hard when you utilize crossplatform, and infrequently improvement takes longer. Much relies on upon kind of utilization and necessities. Obviously it's lone my sentiment. Numerous individuals think in an unexpected way.

whats the end goal/how big is your buget?
for example: business apps, they're not that heavy on interactions/animations - you may be better off with cross platform as it will generally cost less to create it that way
if heavy on interactions/animations: native would be a better choice and may cost more because it may be developed for multiple platforms, which in turn would make it more expensive.

Hi,
If you ask me I will go with the cross platform if I'm building the app from scratch as it's easier to make any changes and most importantly saves a lot of time.