howdy, Gabriele!

how can I help you today?

Hi. :)

http://sebsauvage.net/paste/?968e41ae3a06d…=

I can't understand one thing with my listview

I've read that default background should be black, but if I don't put android:background="#000"

the background is not black and text becomes unreadable on emulator and on my motorola xoom, too

the default background of a ListView is transparent

it will show whatever is behind it

Ah, so it's not black!

correct

with a dark theme, it will appear black, because that's the window's black background

with a light theme, it will appear white

and if you have the ListView above something else on the Z axis, it will be whatever the "something else" is

So I can make it appear as default, byt applying a theme to my activity?

well, everything has a theme

you get Theme or Theme.Holo if you specify nothing else

(latter for API Level 11+, if your targetSdkVersion is set to 11 or higher)

if you specify a theme, whatever the color scheme of the theme is will control the window, and hence what is behind a typical ListView

The thing that I don't understand is why by default Theme or the default one I'm using doesn't make the text readable, is this a bug of android, or an error of my code? Or I can't assume that the default theme makes my text readable?

if you do not mess with *any* colors, the text will be readable

Because, I thought "Not saying it, I'm using the default theme"

most of my samples do not specify a theme, or one that inherits just about everything from a stock theme

I'm not doing anything, but it's not readable!

and everything is readable

but once you start fiddling with colors of, say, a TextView, then you can get yourself in trouble and need to make sure that everything synchronizes

if you take one of my ListView samples and run it, you will see that it renders correctly

you need to then determine what you are doing differently, in your row layouts or whatever, that is causing the difference in behavior

This is what I see by default: http://tinypic.com/r/33er0vo/6

what are you using for your row layout?

In my manifest I have: android:theme="@style/Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar">

I'm using the default listview

your problem is in your row layout

what are you using for your row layout?

But I'm not doing it as a custom layout

I cannot help you if you will not tell me what you are using for your row layout

What do you mean?

just paste in your adapter constructor or something

somewhere in your app, you are calling setAdapter() or setListAdapter() to populate the ListView

the parameter to this method is an Adapter

I'm using the default one

there we go

it's possible that there's a bug in ActionBarSherlock or something that is fouling matters up

I don't think that I have used that specific combination

Ah, so maybe it's an issue of actionbarsherlock

No, if I remember good you've used the android default one in this example

yes, though probably with a dark theme

Because there was an example with the SINGLE and with MULTIPLE_MODAL (which isn't supported by sherlock)

yes, I am not specifying a theme in https://github.com/commonsguy/cw-omnibus/b…

oh, you are doing the action mode stuff

yes, exactly

my manual action mode sample is https://github.com/commonsguy/cw-omnibus/b…

it uses Theme.Sherlock

haven't tried it with Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar

you might grab my sample, make that one change in the manifest, and run it

if mine works, then something else is afoot with your project

if mine stops working, that would suggest a bug in ABS

Ok, I will try it then!

I have another question, which isn't related to android too much, do you have a "good" resource, book or something, (I know you hate defining it good!) related to memory leaks?

not really

I mean, MAT as a tool for tracking down leaks

but if you mean written words about tracking down leaks, I cannot think of any particular resources off the top of my head

Because one or two week ago, you've talked me about the problem of using static data members and reading on google, I've found something, anyway I'm scared of producing bad code

MAT is a tool to find memory leaks problem?

MAT will tell you what is in your heap

if there are things in your heap that you do not expect, it will tell you what is keeping them from being garbage collected

there's a chapter on MAT in _The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development_

Ah, so I can do something like instantiate many times and check if there is something I would not expect

Oh, nice then

But, how have you learned to avoid leaks? I mean, the tool is a good thing because sometimes it's hard to find them, but is there some "guide to avoid leaks"?

or guide lins

lines*

leaks are inevitably tied back to something with static scope

pretty much by definition

so, being careful with your own static-scope data members is important

For example you said I shouldn't use (most of the time) static data members, but where I can find other advices like this you told me?

similarly, being careful with other things that live a long time (e.g., a thread) or for the process lifetime (e.g., an Application) are important

this stuff is probably covered in ordinary Java books and such, but as a chapter or section, not as an entire book

and, if you search online, you can probably find more

for me, I have been working in Java for over a decade, so I do not refer to those resources very often, and what I *did* use way back when is probably long gone (and certainly forgotten)

I've searched it in some books like Deitel one and others, but there 3 lines (when you're lucky) talking about leaks :(

It seems that all books learn you how to do a lot of things but nobody talks about what to not do!

that is pretty much the case for any technology topic

IMHO

eheh

Just for curiosity, did you do something on iOs, too? What do you think about it? I'm taking advantage of the time because there is no other, but you're free to don't answer, obviously

no, I have not done any development for iOS

I see. Anyway your book is really good, one of the best programming book I've read

thanks!

Now I'm going to do the test with your sherlock example and searching some book related to java memory leaks TT thank you very much!

you are very welcome!

Bye. :)