Android is one of the most friendly and comfortable mobile platform for developers. The reason for this is that it is easy to get all accurate documentation of all applicable information online and also there is no need to buy a special mobile device with extra development functions. And one more irrefutable argument in its favor is that all necessary development tools are free.
But still there are a lot of questions and misunderstanding appear when a developer (newbie or experienced, whatever) begins creating apps on the Android platform. That’s why we are going to tell you about the most common difficulties faced by developers at the beginning of their work with Android.
Android Basics
The common mistake of a typical newbie is misunderstanding of the fundamental concept of Android. Many of them think that Android is only an operation system but it is not only! Android is a software stack for mobile devices, and operation system is just an integral part of Android’s concept. Two other parts are key applications and middleware. And the converging point for three of them is Android SDK which uses the Java programming language.
Development tools you need
Fortunately for Android developers all necessary tools are free! In sum there are three tools you need to create more or less useful application:
- Android SDK;
- ADT Plugin;
- Eclipse.
And we need hardly mention that for your developments you can use Mac OS, Linux or Windows PC!
Android structure
Doubtless before developing on the Android platform you will read a lot of tutorials dedicated to this great and multifaceted software stack. We just want to remind you something about Android structure to make sure you will remember about it all the time.
So what are the things the Android operation system consists of:
- Applications: the core applications which every Android device has, it includes browser, maps, SMS program and others.
- Application Framework: the possibility for developers to create innovative applications on the same framework APIs as core applications.
- Libraries: a number of C/C++ libraries, each of which are the integral parts of specific Android component. Among them are Surface Manager, SGL, WebKit, Media Framework and others.
- Android Runtime: Core Libraries and Dalvik Virtual Machine.
- Linux Kernel: range of drivers, among which are Display Driver, Camera Driver, Keypad Driver, Audio Drivers and so on.
The first thing to do
At the beginning every newbie faces that kind of problem when he doesn’t know what the first thing to do to start development. In fact, there are two different way to begin with: theoretic and practical.
The first one means that you will read all necessary documentation before starting any attempt of development. It seems to be boring but it is not. Just the other way about it is going to help you in understanding new interesting things about Android’s capabilities.
Another way is to follow Google’s “Hello World!” for developing and learning at the same time.
The bottom line
Development for Android is little bit difficult at the beginning and much more easy after few confident steps. So feel free to learn new functions and get ready for creating some innovative applications!
The author of the article – Andrew Smith from QArea software outsourcing company. More information you can learn here: http://www.qarea.com.
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