Apps Thinking of getting into dev. Am I in over my head?

[A.Nonymous]

I'm thinking of getting into Android dev just as a hobby more than anything, but I'm wondering if I'm getting in way, way, way over my head. I have some experience in programming, but not much. I spent 2-3 years in college learning C and can write some basic C programs and some object oriented stuff. I never learned how to interact with API's. The courses I took focused more on the logic and planning of programming. This I'm very, very good at. I can usually look at a buggy program and figure out where the logic flaw is, what functions are being called in the wrong order or in improper ways, etc... At the time I could look at other languages, figure out the basic syntax and cobble together very, very basic programs, but C was what I was good at.

However, I haven't done any of this since I left college about 10 years ago. Since then, my experience with programming has been limited to debugging and re-writing other people's login scripts for servers and workstations. So I'm wondering if I'm getting in way over my head here. I know the three basics of programming are the logic, the syntax and interacting with APIs. Logic I can do. I've never ever programmed in Java before (though I've done some light javascripting) so I have no clue how hard the syntax is to pick up or how much it differs from C or C++. I've never interacted with APIs before so I have no clue what that involves or how hard it is.

 

[Jacob Malliet]

No your not getting over your head, I started with about 3 months of java programming and its not too difficult. It may take longer to get used to java but with having some programming background you shouldn't have a problem picking it up. As for using the api's, Google does a great job with its tutorials so just read through them before starting.

Good Luck and welcome to programming

 

[ramiss]

The logic of the Java syntax and the C syntax are very similar. It think you will do fine. You have enough knowledge to get started, the only questions is how long it may take to get back into it.

Understanding APIs is not that complicated. On a very basic level just think of them as functions that interact with outside forces such as the OS/hardware instead of your internal code.

 

[A.Nonymous]

I'm struggling grasping some of the stuff and I'm wondering if I wasn't as skilled as a programmer as I thought I was. I was trained that your ideal program has one main function. You may have several sub-functions in your program that are all called from your main program. Each subfunction is supposed to do one thing and one thing only (in best practice) and not call any other subfunctions. I'm having problems translating this concept over into Java.

 

[ChristianKl]

You may have several sub-functions in your program that are all called from your main program. Each subfunction is supposed to do one thing and one thing only (in best practice) and not call any other subfunctions. I'm having problems translating this concept over into Java.

You aren't supposed to.

1) These days it's considered best practice to reuse code and also call other functions in subfunctions.
2) The framework you learned doesn't work for programs with a GUI that rely on user input.
3) Java is object oriented and you shouldn't try to live without objects.

Load the sample programs into Eclipse and run them. Look at their logic. Try to understand it. Then modify them.
If that's too hard then work through a tutorial.

 

[cp1]

Definitely work through the tutorials. It's not quite the same as writing a regular old program in C. You setup your layout and the behavior of all your buttons, etc in OnCreate(). When the user hits a button it calls the onClick() method that you setup to handle it. It's more event based than linear flow based.

 

[A.Nonymous]

You aren't supposed to.

1) These days it's considered best practice to reuse code and also call other functions in subfunctions.
2) The framework you learned doesn't work for programs with a GUI that rely on user input.
3) Java is object oriented and you shouldn't try to live without objects.

Load the sample programs into Eclipse and run them. Look at their logic. Try to understand it. Then modify them.
If that's too hard then work through a tutorial.

Thanks for the tips. As I said, it's been nearly 10 years and I guess I'm more out of practice than I thought.

So for a better analogy, I should think of it like a VB program with a GUI. The user clicks on various buttons and tabs in the GUI and by doing so calls up code that displays/hides other forms and buttons and other functions running in the background. Is this a more appropriate analogy?

 

[cp1]

Yep