Office Hours — Today, May 15

← Saturday, May 12

May 15
3:55 PM
Mark M.
has entered the room
Mark M.
turned on guest access
4:10 PM
Alex B.
has entered the room
Mark M.
hello, Alex!
how can I help you today?
4:15 PM
Alex B.
Hello, Mark. What would you recommend for a person who doesn't know Java/Android and wants to become Android Kotlin developer ? What book should I start first ?
Mark M.
if you ask me that in a few months, I'll say "mine" :-)
in the immediate term, in terms of learning Kotlin itself, "Kotlin in Action" is fairly popular
Alex B.
Ok I see. And if we talk about Android Java for now ?
Mark M.
if you are asking for a book on Java programming, I do not have any recommendations, as I have not read a Java programming guide in many years
Alex B.
I want from zero to employable state
Mark M.
um, well, I can't say what is and is not going to get you to that state, as employability is tied to other things beyond what you read in books
Alex B.
I'm trying to understand where your books stand in the puzzle
Mark M.
my books are on Android app development
eventually, I'll have a slim introductory guide to Kotlin, but that will not be ready until later this year
at that point, I will also start updating the rest of my books to use Kotlin, or paired Java/Kotlin editions of the same sample code
Alex B.
So can I become Android developer from zero using your books ? If I get some introductory Kotlin knowledge first ?
4:20 PM
Mark M.
right now, the books' sample code is purely Java
now, the concepts for Android app development are the same in either language
but if you have no Java experience, you will find it difficult to follow my code samples
Ed T.
has entered the room
Alex B.
Ok, so I guess I need to go for Kotlin first and then come back to your books.
Mark M.
later this year, you'll start to see Kotlin in my books
(BTW, hi, Ed -- I will be with you shortly!)
Alex: you will wind up needing to know both Java and Kotlin, as for the next few years, both languages will be in use
Alex B.
Cool. So - first book on Java/Kotlin, then one of your books. Is that correct ? And if so - which one should I read first ?
Mark M.
if you learn Java now, you have your choice of starting with "The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development" or "Exploring Android"
the former book is a traditional programming guide
Ed T.
I would recommend 'Exploring'
Mark M.
"Exploring Android" is a hands-on set of tutorials
Ed T.
and use the other as a reference
my 2 cents
Alex B.
Cool. Thank you guys for help.
Ed T.
yvw
Mark M.
Alex: let me take a question from Ed, and I'll be back with you in a bit
Ed: your turn! do you have a question?
Ed T.
I don't really have any questions
Mark M.
ah, OK
if you come up with one, chime in
Ed T.
I got the Constraint Layout working...
from when you were in Asia
Mark M.
glad to hear it!
4:25 PM
Ed T.
trick is to use the sliders... to force 'gravity'
Mark M.
Alex: if you have another question, go right ahead
(Ed: ah, OK)
Alex B.
View paste 
Btw, I have a more advanced question. I'm not actually a newbie in programming, but I am in Android. But I asked the previous question to help my friend understand which path to take.
And now goes my relatively more "advanced" question. How to make this layout ? https://monosnap.com/file/QzTN9QFKjzqX3vNoNILVLeXCQgVbn6 Two TextViews and one floats around another.
Mark M.
BTW, if I disappear, that may be because a nasty line of storms is about to roll through my area... complete with a tornado, apparently
Alex B.
crazy
Mark M.
Alex: most likely, that is one TextView, with "willsmith" in bold
a TextView is not limited to plain text -- what you pass in can have markup rules
Alex B.
It's Instagram. When you click willsmith you go to his profile. And when you click on comment, you expand the commend.
Mark M.
that still could be done with a single TextView, I think, using separate listeners for each of those sections
4:30 PM
Mark M.
you could use uiautomatorviewer to examine the UI and confirm whether that is one View or two
4:30 PM
Alex B.
Hm, interesting. You can get a handle on different sections in html TextView ?
Mark M.
effectively, yes
Alex B.
Cool, thanks. I didn't know that.
Mark M.
for example, if you use HTML to populate the TextView (e.g., via Html.fromHtml()), you can have multiple separate hyperlinked passages
for achieving what they're doing there, you would need to work with SpannableStringBuilder directly, I think
teaching it the text, the region to make bold, and setting up listeners for each separate region
Alex B.
I see. Thank you, I will Google all of that.
Is the history of this chat available somewhere or I better copy that into notes ?
Mark M.
the transcript will be posted to https://commonsware.com/office-hours/ shortly after the chat ends
assuming that the tornado has not whisked me away to the Land of Oz or something
Alex B.
Awesome. Thank you. I'm done with questiosn.
Mark M.
BTW, I have a chapter on rich text formatting in "The Busy Coder's Guide", though I don't get into the click listener scenarios there
OK
Alex B.
Cool
Mark M.
if either of you come up with another question, feel free to ask
4:35 PM
Alex B.
Bye guys. It's almost midnight in my TZ.
Mark M.
have a pleasant evening! or morning! or whatever! :-)
Alex B.
Thanks) See you
4:50 PM
Alex B.
has left the room
Ed T.
has left the room
4:55 PM
Mark M.
turned off guest access

← Saturday, May 12

 

Office Hours

People in this transcript

  • Alex Bezhan
  • Ed Tidwell
  • Mark Murphy