Beginner App Development Recommendations

RiderOnTheStorm

Hi.

tried posting this in Auld Wans asking IT Questions thread (as I am over 55 and asking an IT question) but I was told to ask in one of the Comuter threads ... so will try here :-)

I am looking to learn how to code my own mobile (android) apps. Anyone got a recommendation?

My coding skills were pretty good as I spent many years in IT on mainframes, but that was all before the internet & Java etc.

Looking for something free, and something I can do in my own time at home (not person lead).

I want to code apps for my own phone for my own use.

have spent a minute on google looking for same but it takes ages to drill down through each offering but none seem suitable and I dont want to sign up to one that later turns out to be coding in Python with no App development later. Or is it the same thing? Dont like signing up to too many things either as it fills up my inbox / spam.

thx folks

Anjobe

Maybe have a look at Ionic (https://ionicframework.com/) or Flutter/Dart (https://flutter.dev/)?

RiderOnTheStorm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121739619#Comment_121739619

thx @Anjobe ... will check them out this weekend :)

Talisman

freeCodeCamp.org have a number of free tutorials on YouTube that may be of interest to you.

Android App Development Course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fis26HvvDII

Kotlin and Android Development Course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNghEbknLs8

JetBrains (the creators of the Kotlin programming language) offer free learning resources.

https://academy.jetbrains.com/?tag=Mobile

And of course there's also learning resources on the Android Developer website.

https://developer.android.com/courses

RiderOnTheStorm

thanks Talisman :-)

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The_B_Man

This thread is a few months old but for anyone stumbling upon it now, if you want to do exclusively android apps, use Kotlin and Android Studio. Java is dead on Android. It's pointless learning it, even if you did some Java before. Kotlin isn't too difficult to pick up either way. All up to date examples and tutorials online will be exclusively kotlin. Any java tutorials will be out if date, or else written by someone who isn't up to date on Android.

The next question is UI development. Traditionally Android used XML based views. This is now "legacy". Compose is the new kid on the block. There are pros and cons. The only pro for XML is that you'll need it to get a job as there are a lot of companies with apps using XML views.

There are pros and cons of Compose too, but really all you need to know is that it will inevitably be the standard pretty soon.

This leads onto the biggest "pro" of Compose, and that is Compose Multiplatform. This works side by side with Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) so you can have an android, iOS, web, windows, mac and linux app, all using the same code for both UI and business logic, just like Flutter. Compose Multiplatform is pretty new but Google is putting their support behind KMP, despite owning Flutter. Jetbrains (the makers of IntelliJ/Android Studio) own Kotlin and KMP. People in the industry are saying Googles support is a big statement and there's predictions of KMP+Compose replacing Flutter in a few years. Google is actively porting all their Android libraries to KMP.

So in short, it's nearly a good idea, if you're creating a new app, to create a KMP app, since its basically just an android app with a different folder structure! Any new android apps I create from now on will be KMP, regardless of whether or not I'll be making an iOS app. Here's their wizard for creating a starter project: https://kmp.jetbrains.com/

If you want to go down the multi-platform route right now, for your job, then flutter is still clinging onto number 1 spot. Don't mind Ionic or React Native.

Flutters real (only?) strength is the community. There's a package for everything so you can easily add functionality. At least for standard stuff. A lot of other stuff is made by hobbyists and are abandoned or full of bugs. I've seen plenty of GitHub pages with a massive issues list and the Devs having no interest in fixing them. So once KMP matures, you'll start seeing much stronger 1st and 3rd party support, which will see it overtake Flutter, in my opinion.

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