Random Android Questions

[Howard_Casto]

Ok so this isn't a big secret or anything, but I've been trying to teach myself android app programming. 

On Black Friday I managed to pick up two alltel pixi's for a mere dollar.  I thought these would be perfect as it's about as low-end as you can possibly get.... if something works on them it'd work on about anything. 

The thing is, I might have to use them for something else because they are too good.  Aside from the cheap outer housing, they seem to be as responsive and powerful as the average phone from last year. 

Anyway, I found a singular flaw, they can't auto rotate.  I downloaded a manual rotate app but I'm not found of it... you have to drag down the task menu and select the orientation.

So I was wondering what app I could try that would be taxing on the system and if anyone knows of a better rotation app. 

Thanks.

[ark_ader]

Here is a random answer to your random question.

Don't bother buying devices to test your code on.  Each device has it's unique flavor or behavior and doesn't translate very well for coding exercises.  Just use the handset emulator to test your code on and it should be bundled with the SDK.  Personally I would code in C++ with the NDK.  JAVA is crap, but without some parts of JAVA, the experience would include some wheel spinning. 

I am starting to code in coca for IOS.  The idea of using global pointers is quite intriguing.   

I hope you have some hair on your head, Howard.  You will need it to pull on when you start the debug process.   

[SavannahLion]

The bundled Android emulator is dog slow. I'm not sure what the Google team is using to run it for themselves, but it's clearly not anything currently available to the public without an NDA. The general consensus is to get the Vanilla Nexus units to test on live hardware or to get an optimized emulator such as Genymotion. The Genymotion emulator uses the Oracle Virtual Machine which is used in a surprising number of other emulators.

The rotation code handling is fairly easy to deal with. I spent about an hour or two reading through the necessary calls and the forum posts and the rest of the day wrangling with Java's idiot mentality. You can probably whip your own in about the same time.

 I agree 100% with Ark about using C++ & NDK. Too much of the Java stuff is just mind numbing. Try and Catch pisses me off the most followed closely by Java's inane handling of ==.

To answer your Q about taxing the system. That's a toughie. I believe the Google Play Store filters high end apps from sub-par systems? Could be wrong about that.

I know of auto rotate app that I use for my kids Kindles since the Kindle's auto rotate is back-ass-wards. I can't recall the exact name but when I get ho.e I'll look it up. It has a pink icon and you can specify rotation and locking on a per app basis.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah, you know back when I was in programming classes and the dinosaurs roamed the earth I thought java was DOA.  Both syntax and useability wise it takes the worst features of all the popular languages and wraps them together in a virus-like package. 

I use the emulators, but anything that requires any power kind of chugs or crashes.  The phones are acceptable enough for testing aside from the decision to use the mini usb connectors like on the xbox one controllers.... those things are only marginally smaller than micro usb yet their cables are much harder to find. 

I've been side-loading stuff mostly.  jsquirt is your friend. 

In terms of choices for languages, I've been amazed at how much I can get away with just by using html5 and javascript along with a few javascript libraries.  I mean it isn't useable for some of the stuff I'm going to do, but simple form-based apps.... they can be all web based.

Thanks for the replies guys.   

[ark_ader]

Try and Catch pisses me off the most followed closely by Java's inane handling of ==.

 

[lilshawn]

I've been trying to teach myself android app programming. 

if anyone knows of a better rotation app. 

I think you just answered your own question.

roll your own rotate app.

[Howard_Casto]

Sure, but this is going to take a while.  Programming something on android is relatively easy... programming something useful will require more study on my part.