Learning Android

by Marko Gargenta

Want to build apps for Android devices? This book is the perfect way to master the fundamentals. Written by experts who have taught this mobile platform to hundreds of developers in large organizations and startups alike, this gentle introduction shows experienced object-oriented programmers how to use Android’s basic building blocks to create user interfaces, store data, connect to the network, and more. Throughout the book, you’ll build a Twitter-like application, adding new features with each chapter. You’ll also create your own toolbox of code patterns to help you program any type of Android application with ease.

Genres: Programming, Nonfiction, Technology, Computers, Technical, Computer Science, Reference

245 pages, Paperback

First published March 10, 2011

Reviews

[Mike Polsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a good book, a good read. Time well spent, I'm sure i will be using many of the things I LEARNED here in my upcoming projects.

[Christopher Litsinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Up through chapter 10, this book is nearly perfect- with a thoughtfully chosen example application built up from nothing, logically introducing concepts as they are needed- the origins of the book as a training class are clearly visible.
Unfortunately, in chapter 10 (which introduces databases) the quality of the code fragments goes down- I like to actually type in the code as shown in the book, which reinforces the concepts for me. Unfortunately the code shown in the book at this point is incomplete, so I had to download the samples from the book site and compare. This was frustrating to say the least, and slowed me down significantly.
That said, this book does cover just about everything you're going to need to know to write Android apps, and does so in a pretty clear well thought out way.

[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book to learn Android programming. Marko covers all of the basic pieces of an Android app and gives you a great point to jump off into the wide world of Android Programming. It is refreshing to have a book that walks you through a single project as it is often difficult to understand how to use a technology when a book just gives a thousand separate examples of code. The book contained many errors that caused some head banging against the wall for a few minutes here and there. His code was inconsistent probably due to not having a good book editor when he released the second edition. Hopefully in the future Marko will do a better job of not releasing with so many errors by getting some better readers to test out the book.

Overall I enjoyed the book and recommend it is a good starting point for Android.

[Elie De Brauwer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first chapters and the intention of this book is really good. You are guided through the creation of a an Android app. However at a certain point in time you start bumping into issues, code fragments which are wrong, which introduce components out of the blue, simple copy-paste errors .... which makes it impossible to follow building the application by using the book alone and you need to start diffing with the original code of the book to find your errors.

This first half of this book can I had a 'this book is fscking awesome' impression, but once you get to chapter 10, you really learn to debug ;).

[Alex Moskalyuk · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was alright, but the idea behind this book is to create this Twitter-updating and reading application, thus going through the steps of designing activities, rewriting some later as AsyncTasks, rewriting some later as services, designing layouts and understanding Android through a hands-on project.

I don't really like these monolithic projects, as the book then must be read continuously, and some of the projects are quite contrived, just because the author is too married to the implementation. Couple more problems with this edition:

- Twitter changed their API model, so most of the API code is deprecated or not working
- Android toolkit for Eclipse got much nicer layout editors, so you don't have to fuss around with layouts as much

[Luciano Palma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book for getting your hands on Android. It requires a basic knowledge of Java (which makes sense) and is very practical - the concepts are introduced during a "hands on" construction of an application (Twitter-like client), so the reading will be fun for those who enjoy the "learn by doing" approach.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for an introduction to the core concepts for Android programming. The example application developed throughout touches on most of the things you need to know about the Android system and builds up in a logical and easy to follow manner. This book doesn't focus on graphics or more advanced topics, but would be a great starting point anyone with a little Java experience.

[Benjamin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The example code in this book involves deprecated calls, so the "Yamba" application you build won't actually work unless you figure out how to work around the bad code. This may not be easy for someone who's a beginner, the target market of this book. If it weren't for this problem I'd rate this book quite highly.

[Mark PhD · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've grown beyond the kind of drag and drop programming that a tool like App Inventor offers and you want to take a step up into the world of Android app creation, this is a good jumping off point. It takes one through a range of different projects, including creating a Twitter client, writing to and reading databases, using GPS and the compass.

[Kasra · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a very useful book. I learned many things as a fresh Android learner. More importantly using real life example and building one application throughout the book is the one the advantages of this book. Though, in the last two chapters the author didn't explain about the code and mostly is source codes with no proper explanation of details.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm only on page 12 and already the typos and language usage are annoying me. Was there really an editor for this book?

[Purbo · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy guide for those who want to learn Android.

[Veer Shrivastav]

nothing..

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Partially read for my OU Project last year

[Slava · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for beginners.

[Paweł · Rating 1 out of 5]

The idea was great but there were too many mistakes and inconsistencies (mainly in the code snippets) for me to finish the book.

[Charles Patterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of great information, but very focused on the specific application (Twitter-like client), including using a pre-developed library.

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this book. Unfortunately the implementation was poor and confusing because of all the errors and hasty explanations. Books should be proofread before publishing.

[Wendy Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stuff. Lots of code included.

[Johan Roets · Rating 3 out of 5]

good intro, but loads of mistakes and gaps

[Kaloyan Roussev · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent introductory book to Android Programming

[Jose · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. I think you are better off watching the android bootcamp lectures on youtube.

[Todor · Rating 5 out of 5]

That's a good book for begginers in android.

[Denis Manolache]

ASDFSDF

[Valerio Crini · Rating 1 out of 5]

full of refuses band so code is impossible to run

[Donald Heppner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the examples don't work, but a good set of topics.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of Android Plataform, but lots of details missing. Use it to get started!!!