hello, Daniel!

how can I help you today?

Hi Mark

In particular about what courses to take and where to find good code to learn from

since you're here, you have a Warescription, so you have access to all my books and their corresponding samples for how the APIs work

in terms of courses, I have taught Android, but I have not taken an Android course, so I have little direct experience with existing courses

ok

if your employer is looking to send to you professional training, I would recommend Big Nerd Ranch -- I was their original instructor and I know a bunch of the engineers there who teach their course

ok, I've been doing the Google courses through Udacity and they are promoted in Google's Android Developer site but the content is somewhat outdated

ok

yeah, that's the problem with online courses -- they are a pain to create, and so they do not get updated as frequently as they need to

right

is it still a benefit

or should I only do latest content courses

if the course covers the Jetpack/AndroidX stuff, it should be recent enough to be worthwhile, as that means it has been created in the past year

ok

online courses that pre-date the Jetpack but are still three years old or less are worth considering

it helps to narrow your “Don’t know what I don’t know” to being a bit more of "don't know what might have changed"

anything older than that, I would start to worry

ok

code is similar: if it uses AndroidX, by definition it is fairly up to date

if if is older than three years or so, use it for specific stuff (e.g., how do I use PackageInstaller?)

ok

I see the current course I'm doing Google's Developing Android Apps course on Udacity has been updated recently. I'm telling my self that being Google they should at least tell me good practices and it will help me look at old code when I get a job. Is that sounds thinking.

And then I would look at a more modern course from then on

what Google teaches, on the whole, probably is not bad

ok

they may have different priorities than do others

yeah?

I would be a bit cautious about any "you really need to do X", if X involves something that is not part of Android itself, such as Play Services or the Play Console

oh alright

And I see whenever I start a new app in Android Studio. Constraint Layout is the default. In the courses I've done and most code I've seen I have not learned this.

Is Constraint Layout up there with Jetpack and AndroidX as important now?

ConstraintLayout is relatively new, about three years old

ok

ConstraintLayout is definitely something that you should learn

ok

personally, I prefer it now to the original containers (e.g., LinearLayout, RelativeLayout)

So Jetpack, AndroidX and Constraint Layout.

yes, bearing in mind that AndroidX is a family of libraries, many of which are part of the Jetpack

Ok.

not everything listed on https://developer.android.com/jetpack is specifically part of AndroidX, but a lot is

conversely, there are some libraries in AndroidX that are not officially part of Jetpack, particularly smaller things (e.g., CardView)

ok

ok

Being fairly new stuff I get a bit nervous spending time there as sometimes new languages and libraries can be the next big thing but then fade

But AndroidX and Jetpack are cemented in as the way forward

?

for the next several years at least

ok

And I

there will be changes (watch for something called "Jetpack Compose" in 2020 or 2021)

ok

but in terms of what to learn today, the Jetpack is a good starting point

but that will build off Jetpack?

bear in mind, though, that some of the things listed for Jetpack are specialty subjects: Auto, TV, WearOS, Slices, CameraX, Palette, Emoji

ok cool.

sure

Man really enjoying the Android space.

So much you can do it seems going forward.

Android devices, and the OS, have a lot of power

with great power comes great complexity :-)

yeah, oh man the Internet of Things is fascinating and what we are going to do there.

Oh and I've been enjoying learning Java alongside Android just to enhance my job opportunities, so I'd like to keep going that route for Android learning, but is Java dead in that area and Kotlin the only way forward?

Java is not dead

Kotlin is where Google is putting their emphasis

right

and some things, like Jetpack Compose, will only be available for Kotlin

really wow

so that is a big statement right?

yes

But Java not dead as far as Android goes?

not every project has moved to Kotlin, and some will not do so for a while

plus, there is plenty of existing Java code that you may need to look at

from an educational standpoint, learning Kotlin should be high on your list

yeah that is what I'm thinking

ok

from a professional standpoint, whether today you work in Java or Kotlin depends a lot on the project

and the adoption of Kotlin varies by location

"the future is here, it's not evenly distributed yet"

Boy it gets overwhelming doesn't it, what there is to learn and the pace it all moves at.

ok

hehe

yeah

alright, well really appreciate this insight from someone like yourself steeped in the industry. This will all help be less overwhelmed and is very exciting at this stage.

One more questions where can I find good solid code. Becuase I don't know what I don't know what I don't know, I want to avoid learning bad habits

that is difficult to answer

the definition of "good solid code" varies

fair enough

yeah

and, of course, only a tiny fraction of the world's code is available on places like GitHub and GitLab

ok

plus, a lot of software development starts with lofty visions of how great the code will be... and then the first deadline arrives :-)

yeah, I get that.

I suppose if it has Jetpack, AndroidX and Contraint Layout it is a good start?

at least in terms of being up to date, yes

yeah ok

it is very possible to have awful code that is up to date

sure

but, being up to date is a positive sign

yeah ok

So are all your courses/books Jetpack, AndroidX and ContraintLayout... do they use these?

all the ones in the Warescrpition section?

the second-generation books use Jetpack/AndroidX and ConstraintLayout

ok and Java or Kotlin?

the first-generation books mostly pre-date those things, and so have less material on them

ok

the second-generation books are in Kotlin, except for *Elements of Android Jetpack*, where nearly everything is shown in both Java and Kotlin

the first-generation books are mostly in Java

ok

you get all of them in the Warescription, and the full-text search means that you can find stuff from the older books and the newer ones

Awesome

And if I focus on Java for now wil that at least help me make the leap to Kotlin or are they quite different?

learning Java is not required to learn Kotlin, but it does not hurt either

ok

for *Android*, learning Java is important, just because we have So. Much. Java. already

sure ok

So the where to find good code question is hard to answer. I remember when I broke my arm at school and could not play basketball, but I watched a ton of basketball videos and felt I'm came back better for it. I just learn well by watching. It is the same for code. If someone could show me a vault of 100% good code for all this is to know Android I would read it back to front and again. I would enjoy learning that way.

Even if it is hard to answer are you able to give me your best answer for where to find this?

not really, in part because I have not attempted to create such a catalog

yeah fair enough

and without basically reading the whole code, I can't pass judgment on it

branding alone is insufficient

sure ok

for example, https://github.com/googlesamples has official Google samples, and some I know are absolute crap, because I waded through them working on projects and saw how bad they were

but I am sure that some of the samples there are just fine

yeah right

ok

well I guess I'll just keep learning

if you wanted a simple rule of thumb: if it comes from a high-profile Google developer advocate, it's probably a good bit of code to learn from

ok, I'll take it :)

so, for example, the posts and related samples from https://medium.com/androiddevelopers are usually pretty good

ok cool, that is helpful

the developer advocates who post there, such as Florina Muntenescu, Nick Butcher, Ian Lake, etc., are pretty good at writing solid examples

I recently went Googleing to find the best blogs to learn from, I've bookmarked them so it is good to get your confirmation on that

ok awesome

Thank you very very much for you time and insight and help. This has been great.

happy to help!