howdy, Juan!

how can I help you today?

I'm currently going over version 3.7 of your The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development eBook

I read 3.3, I think

I noticed some changes on the content so far (since I started over for Android 4.0)

I found that you changed some parts, but not much in others

Do you have a diff version of the book?

Or you recommend me starting it over

I recommend that you read the sections that pertain to whatever it is that you are doing

as part of The Big Book Reboot, I am setting up changemarks, which will be viewable in some formats on some readers

so that will help in the future

but even that will only show differences between successive releases, not from, say, 3.3 to 3.7

ok

Ok, thanks.

lonely?

howdy, tunneling!

had someone in earlier, who then left

how can I help you today?

hola

i was going to tell you that I did manage to get Ant script to work in Eclipse

you add it as a Builder, and it will run the script based on Clean, Autobuild, etc

OK

Do you have anything the books on building custom widgets?

that depends on how custom you want :-)

Like a Button that looks and behaves like the buttons in the Music app

there is a custom widget chapter in the Advanced Android book, showing how to wrap up a bunch of other widgets in a composite custom widget

I don't know what "a Button that looks and behaves like the buttons in the Music app" means

plain .. almost like a text view

that's probably a question of setting up custom backgrounds and such

not creating a new widget

unless the behavior is markedly different

but i'd like to make the on click behaviors.. like background colors and all common

sorry, but I am having difficulty parsing that sentence

sorry, i was distracted.

In the Google Music app, the interface is very plain, and simple. Another example is the Phone app. I would like to understand how to make a "Button" that looks and behaves that way.

which buttons specifically in Phone are you referring to?

The numbers.

who says those are buttons?

I'd do those as ImageView widgets

Me

using a StateListDrawable for the image

That's why I'm asking, because idk

with different images for pressed, etc. states

I mean, it's possible those are ImageButtons

but the difference between ImageButton and ImageView is largely in the background

so if you don't want the stock backgrounds, you may as well just start with ImageView

the way buttons, etc. use different images for different situations (normal, pressed, focused, etc.) is via a StateListDrawable

now we're talking.. ok.. writing this down

got it bookmarked.. thanks.

I don't have tons on this in the book, though I think I have a short StateListDrawable example in the Advanced Android book, in the section on custom ListViews

ok.

basically, inside the <selector> element you have a series of <item> elements indicating rules (e.g., android:state_pressed="true") and the image to use in those cases

ok, that makes sense

this XML then goes in res/drawable/, as it is density-independent on its own

what about transition effects? like a glow or something?

that's in your images

if you want a foreground image and a glow in the background, then use the StateListDrawable for the background

that's what a Button or ImageButton does

ok.

I've read the section on Plugins again, but haven't had time to play around with it. Is it possible to send just about any object the way you send the RemoveView?

it has to implement the Parcelable interface

and creating your own custom Parcelable objects can be troublesome

The other night, you mentioned using the Command pattern with this method. I read up on that too.

where possible, use OS-supplied Parcelable classes (e.g., pour your data into a Bundle)

So I have this book on patterns,and it talks about a Command with a single method "execute()" .. I can stick an instance of Command into a Bundle?

um

my use of the term "command pattern" was generic, not specifying particular class names

ok

personally, I would consider the Bundle that is the Intent extras to *be* the Command object

and put whatever data you need in the extras

gotcha

for example, the FakePlayer sample covered in the book uses extras for the shuffle mode, playlist, etc.

that being said, you are welcome to try to make a Command object that is Parcelable

and use that in an Intent extra

the problem is that sometimes the OS wants to convert a Parcelable back into an object, for inexplicable reasons

and if it's your own custom Parcelable class, it can't do that

and your code goes "boom"

oh

that's why I try to avoid creating custom Parcelable classes where possible

so I really need to just focus on sending key/value pairs

yes, it breaks the OO a bit

yes, though Bundle itself is Parcelable, so if you have a more nested structure, you can use that

ok

and you can also store an array of Parcelables IIRC

howdy, Darryl!

the chat is just about over

do you have a really quick question?

Hello, I keep forgetting it is on ET

i'm out Mark, thanks!

no thats ok I had a question but it is not pressing I can wait until the next chat

OK

take care I'm out

next weeks chats are at a different time: 9am Eastern, Tuesday and Thursday

ok thanks

have a pleasant day, all!