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Week 3: Android App Programming. Jeff Gray, Ph.D. - Associate Professor Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year (Alabama, 2008) University of Alabama Department of Computer Science gray@cs.ua.edu http://www.cs.ua.edu/~gray. Agenda for Week. Today General intro
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Week 3: Android App Programming Jeff Gray, Ph.D. - Associate Professor Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year (Alabama, 2008) University of Alabama Department of Computer Science gray@cs.ua.edu http://www.cs.ua.edu/~gray
Agenda for Week • Today • General intro • Introduction to App Inventor • Various Demos and Hands-on Exercises • Lunch: Ms. Lynsey Dill • Rest of week • See end of slides
Camp Introduction • Liability forms • Photos throughout the week • Lunch each day – 11:30am-12:45pm • Today: Pizza lunch (Shelby 3438) • Tue-Thu: Lunch in the Freshens Food Court • Fri: Catered lunch • Restrooms • USB Stick • Assumption • Java background
Camp rules • Camp Rules • No cell phone usage in class except for emergencies • No headphones while instructor is speaking • No surfing the web or playing games during lectures • No food or drink are allowed in the lab • Pay attention during class exercises; do not jump ahead and let us know if you fall behind
General Info • Bleeding edge – may encounter various “issues” throughout the week; App Inventor barely a year old • Sharing of various Android phones • Much different than week 1 • Focus is on motivating you to practice Java on fun exercises • Developing your own creativity while implementing a customized app
Motivation: Teaching CS – 1980s style • Typical example was text-based, trivial, and uninspiring
Motivation: New and Exciting Contexts • Media Computation (Georgia Tech) • Programming in a more exciting context by manipulating images and sounds • Robots • Lego NXT • 2D/3D Animation Environments • Alice, Scratch, AgentSheets
Motivation: Newest Context • Teen cell phone adoption at 84% • March 3, 2011 • Android marketshare (29%) passes Apple (27%) • Android sales soar 888% • Social networking and crowd sourcing a daily activity • Increasing adoption of smartphones in science and medical applications
Brief History • 2005 • Google acquires startup Android Inc. to start Android platform • Work on Dalvik VM begins • 2007 • Open Handset Alliance announced • Early look at SDK • 2008 • Google sponsors 1st Android Developer Challenge • T-Mobile G1 announced • SDK 1.0 released • Android released open source (Apache License) • Android Dev Phone 1 released
Brief History cont. • 2009 • SDK 1.5 (Cupcake) • new soft keyboard with an "Autocomplete" feature • SDK 1.6 (Donut) • SDK 2.0/2.0.1/2.1 (Eclair) • Exchange support; refine UI • Android runs on 3.5% of all smartphones • Gartner Inc. predicts 14% in 2012 • 2010 • Nexus One released to the public • SDK 2.2 (Froyo) • wifi tethering, Flash • SDK 2.3 (Gingerbread) • refine UI; improve keyboard copy/paste • Q4 Android passes Symbia as best-selling smartphone platform • 2011 • SDK 3.0 (Honeycomb) • Table only release; Motorola Xoom in 2 weeks • Ice-cream Sandwich (mid-2011) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)
Android Facts • From Wikipedia • Modified version of Linux kernel • Android is composed of 12 millions lines of code • 3M SLOCs pertaining to XML • 2.8M SLOCS in C • 2.1M SLOCS in Java • 1.75M SLOCS in C++ • Linux kernel tensions • Oracle lawsuit
Android Developer Challenge • http://code.google.com/android/adc/ • 2008: • 10 teams received $275k • 10 teams received $100k • Each of top 50 finalists received $25k • 2009 • 10 first prizes at $100k • 10 2nd prizes at $50k • 10 3rd prizes at 25k • Overall: 1st-$250k, 2nd- $50k, 3rd- $25k
Open Handset Alliance • Established November 2007 • Competes against Microsoft, Apple, Nokia (Symbia), Palm, RIM, and Samsung (Bada) • Composed of 79 software and hardware companies • URLs: • http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/ • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Handset_Alliance
Key Differences: Android vs. iPhone iPhone Android OS is open source OS can be licensed for any mobile device Apps written in Java No approval process for apps Android Market All apps considered equal (choose your browser) • OS is proprietary • OS runs on iPhone or iPod Touches only • Apps written in Objective-C • Apple must approve all apps Application Store • Some apps are more important than others (Safari is your browser)
What is Google Android? • A software stack for mobile devices that includes • An operating system • Middleware • Key Applications • Uses Linux to provide core system services • Security • Memory management • Process management • Power management • Hardware drivers
App Inventor Overview • URL: http://appinventor.googlelabs.com • Purpose • Teaching • Prototyping • Components of App Inventor • Designer • GUI builder • Block Editor • Provide behavior behind the GUI • Based on MIT OpenBlocks and Scratch
Installing and Running • http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/learn/setup/index.html#setupComputer • Requires Java 1.6 • Install App Inventor setup • App Inventor environment loads in a web browser • Login using Google account • Run from a phone or the Android emulator • Stores programs in the cloud
Designer • Provides a WYSIWYG editor for designing the visual parts of the app • Also provides ability to attach non-visual components
Blocks Editor • Provides an ability to give behavior to an app; the programming part • Typical and expected basic predefined constructs (logic, conditionals, iteration) • Ability to refer to the components and their properties from the Designer • Very similar to Scratch • Built on Open Blocks library from MIT
Limitations • File I/O • Custom objects • Printing your code! • Reliability
Examples • Many tutorials available: • Developed by Dave Wolber (Univ. San Francisco) • http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/learn/tutorials/index.html • Standard Google Kitty app (embarrassing!) • http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/learn/setup/hellopurr/hellopurremulatorpart1.html • Other Examples • Where’s My Car, No Text While Driving
Schedule • Monday • Intro to App Inventor • Think about an app idea • Tuesday • More on App Inventor • Java-based intro to writing Android Apps • Prepare project presentation (3 minutes each) • Wednesday • Start at 8:30am • Project proposal presentation • More Java-based Android • Start project implementation
Schedule • Thursday • Project implementation • Late Afternoon: CS AP GridWorld • Mr. Martin and Mrs. Woessner • Friday • Project wrap-up and final presentations • Lunch • Say good-byes