[ale] Android development tutorial?

Alex Carver agcarver+ale at acarver.net
Mon Jun 17 13:09:39 EDT 2013


I wasn't planning on any type of push notification (and certainly NOAA 
doesn't support it).  I really only planned on having the application 
sleep, wake (probably by an alarm method), pull the updated XML file 
from NOAA, then render it and go back to sleep.

On 6/17/2013 05:33, Richard Bronosky wrote:
> The irony here is that for your first project, you have chosen to write
> something "very light weight" but yet "runs in the background". This is
> very difficult to do well. I would suggest it having an app on your phone
> waking up your radio every 20 minutes. Either tap to refresh or use push
> notification.
>
> Is it clear to you how beneficial push notification would be here, or would
> you like to here more?
> On Jun 11, 2013 10:13 PM, "Alex Carver" <agcarver+ale at acarver.net> wrote:
>
>> I'll take a look at it.  Right now what I want to write is a weather
>> widget for the home screen.  I know there's 45 billion weather widgets but
>> I want to write a simple one that pulls an XML data file from NOAA once
>> every 15-20 minutes then renders the current conditions and seven day
>> forecast.  I also then don't have to think about what the app is using and
>> sending away to who knows where.  One of the goals is to make it very light
>> weight and resource friendly.
>>
>> On 6/11/2013 18:49, Byron Jeff wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 04:05:03PM -0700, Alex Carver wrote:
>>>
>>>> Anyone know of a good tutorial for Android development?  I want to
>>>> experiment writing a couple small applications for personal use.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Warning: This is a bit off base.
>>>
>>> If you do not need a large or high performance application, I find that
>>> Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A) is good for testing out ideas and small
>>> applications:
>>>
>>> http://code.google.com/p/**android-scripting<http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting>
>>>
>>> SL4A creates an interface between a large part of the Android API and
>>> loadable scripting languages such as Python, PHP, Lua, Javascript, Ruby,
>>> and Beanshell. It facilitates invoking functions with a minimum of
>>> infrastructure setup. For example a Text to Speech 'Hello world' is 3
>>> lines of code in Python:
>>>
>>> from android import Android
>>> droid = Android()
>>> droid.ttsSpeak('Hello World')
>>>
>>> SL4A supports popup form, web form, and full UI interfaces with standard
>>> Android layouts. The tutorials on the SL4A site shows examples of each.
>>>
>>> It has its limitations. The most annoying part to me is that it doesn't
>>> interface well with the Android Intents System. I ended up writing my own
>>> separate Java app that collects broadcast intents and fires off SL4A
>>> scripts. Another part is understanding that you have to download and
>>> install the scripting language of choice separately from SL4A. Finally, as
>>> of a year ago, there wasn't real effective tablet integration.
>>>
>>> But it has the advantages of being able to script directly on the device,
>>> or remotely from a desktop. And with minimal script setup requirements,
>>> it's possible to test ideas really quickly. Finally there is a mechanism
>>> where SL4a, the required interpreter, and the script can be packaged
>>> together in an APK so that it looks like a standalone application.
>>>
>>> It may not be the right choice. But I would suggest taking a look before
>>> taking the full blown dive into the Java/Eclipse/Android development
>>> world.
>>>
>>
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>
>
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