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What is the best book / resource to start android programming ?

William Gaatjes

William Gaatjes

Lifer
Hello everybody.
I wish to use the android SDK one day to create my own apps.
I know one can write an app in java and in c.

My question is :

What is a good book or resource to learn programming android apps ?
For c and for Java please.

I have found already quite the selection of books, but i would like to have some opinions since i really have no experience at all with the android SDK. I do have a lot of articles in computer magazines describing the basics. But i desire a good book.

Thank you in advance.
 
Android apps are primarily Java. The C/C++ stuff is supposed to be used more as an extension to the Java (when the VM is too slow). For C/C++ development you'll need the NDK.

As for the books, I would pick up a Java and C/C++ book before I would pick up an android book. The documentation is really pretty good, just read through the dev guide (posted in the link above).

One thing I might recommend getting a book for is Opengl ES. That would be useful for multiple platforms.
 
Cogman said:
Android apps are primarily Java. The C/C++ stuff is supposed to be used more as an extension to the Java (when the VM is too slow). For C/C++ development you'll need the NDK.

As for the books, I would pick up a Java and C/C++ book before I would pick up an android book. The documentation is really pretty good, just read through the dev guide (posted in the link above).

One thing I might recommend getting a book for is Opengl ES. That would be useful for multiple platforms.
Click to expand...

Ah, thank you.

Do you know how the calculation power is withe the VM and java ?

Let's say i want to build an oscilloscope but that i also want to do a fourier analysis. Has the VM from android support for floating point with the NEON instruction set and other hardware that speed up calculations ?

To make life easy, i downloaded example code from here :

The developer /hobby dude, dudette who made this , has the code available for downloading.

http://projectproto.blogspot.com/2010/09/android-bluetooth-oscilloscope.html
 
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I have no clue what instructions are utilized by the JVM. Though, I would imagine that fft's are a perfect use for the NDK.
 
I do not think you really need a book that tells you how to program for the Android. I think if there is a book out there, it will just tell you how to program in Java, which is the primary language for Android.

I have never done it myself, but from what i understand, it's really about knowing how to access the shared library files to access the system resources. I would just look for the SDK site for android. It should have info on all the APIs needed to get started.
 
You'll definitely want to get familiar with Java first, but once you've done that I've found Mark Murphy's CommonsWare series to be particularly helpful: http://commonsware.com/. They're also updated fairly regularly to cover changes in new Android releases.

He has three titles available (you can get them all in ebook format with a $40 subscription, also available in print individually):

The Busy Coders Guide to Android Development
The Busy Coders Guide to Advanced Android Development
Android Programming Tutorial
 
Gibson486 said:
I do not think you really need a book that tells you how to program for the Android. I think if there is a book out there, it will just tell you how to program in Java, which is the primary language for Android.

I have never done it myself, but from what i understand, it's really about knowing how to access the shared library files to access the system resources. I would just look for the SDK site for android. It should have info on all the APIs needed to get started.
Click to expand...
Uh, without any sort of tutorial or book equivalent, I think it would be pretty frickin hard to program apps for Android if all you knew was Java. Yes, the apps are written in Java, but without knowing how Activities are built, Intents used, and the app lifecycle works (to name a few very basics), you'd be fuct.

I have an "Android Development for Dummies" book that seems to be pretty good, OP. I supplement it with the developer.android.com site and Google searches.
 
from the two link I posted before I read the second chapter of O'Reilly's Learning Android (free while in editing phase) and it looks good 🙂

I agree with clamum, if you want to learn to program on android then its a given that you know java. know you need to learn the architecture, the gui android uses, and the api, etc...
 
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Net said:
from the two link I posted before I read the second chapter of O'Reilly's Learning Android (free while in editing phase) and it looks good 🙂

I agree with clamum, if you want to learn to program on android then its a given that you know java. know you need to learn the architecture, the gui android uses, and the api, etc...
Click to expand...

I feared it was Bill O'reilly. D:

However, in general Oreilly books are good.
I have this book and it is great :
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596009830.do#
lrg.jpg


To return to android programming :
I have some great android pdf tutorial books i received from my colleague who got it from a student in android programming while he was getting work experience at the company i work for. The student was a bit strange and awkward for my taste but a good programmer.
 
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