Android Application Development All-in-One For Dummies

I came to read this book as a semi-experienced java programmer. Im working on an app and actually had no idea how to work with fragments. This book gave the step by step to creating a fragment, rather than the copy paste here, here, and here that websites gave me. It also gave me solutions to problems that I haven't had yet, which is great.

All of Barry Burd's 4 books that I have are very good, but this one is great. More Android, and less Dummies, if you follow--some of the Dummies books seem to aim just a bit low. This one is a gem, full of practical tips and observations.

This isn't so much a review of the quality of Mr. Burd's book. This is more a short narrative of how a programmatic dinosaur (at least this one) adapts to modern coding, and how books like those of Mr. Burd's might help. To summarize the stuff below: 1) this book attempts to teach Java and Android concurrently; 2) that's a lot of new and complicated stuff for a dinosaur to try to absorb at the same time, and 3) it might be easier to try to learn Java first (e.g., Java for Dummies, or something like it), then use this book to see how Java and Android work together.(If you're younger than 50 don't bother to read the rest of this review; it's written in a foreign language.) I learned to program on a B5500 (which was, at the time, brand new). Fortran. I progressed, using the term loosely, to assembler, ALGOL, COBOL, c, Pascal, Univac, IBM, DEC, etc.. I admit all this only to establish without doubt that I am a dinosaur. Although I haven't done any programming in a long time, I recently decided to learn to write programs that run on my cell phone (i.e, apps!). I have a Samsung phone, and so I needed to learn Java and Android. Hence my interest in Mr. Burd's book.The first problem was my misconception that I could learn this language/OS just like I learned the other ones. Wrongo. Java isn't Fortran (or even C++). Even people who wrote good structured code (remember that) will be thrown by the nature and degree of program structure imposed by Java (not to say that's bad, but it's very different). Second, the relationship between the language and the OS (Java and Android) is much more, for lack of a better word, intimate than anything that existed in the old days; it's just about impossible (and maybe meaningless) to tell where one ends and the other begins. In fact, one of the biggest problems I had with this book (or this learning process) was trying to distinguish between that which is Java and that which is Android so that I could then master them individually.Put another way, I just about finished turning my brain into mush by trying to figure out how Java worked while at the same time trying to figure out how Android worked while at the same time trying to figure out how the two worked together. (Not to mention trying to figure out stuff like XML, Gradle, API levels, AVDs, packages, and the rest of the Android liturgy.)So I put this book aside and bought Mr. Burd's "Java for Dummies". The clouds parted. Java, when dealt with more or less by itself, wasn't as foreign as I thought. Still different, but at least possible to understand. The big change in the learning environment was not having to figure out, for example, Android event handling (setOnClickListener blah blah blah) while trying to grasp of the fundamentals of Java. Then I came back to this book ("Android Application Development") and behold, things started to make sense.Thus my recommendation: tackle Java by itself, using a book focused on Java, then deal with Android app development (using a book like this one). If you buy that approach, then you will understand why my only real criticism of this book is that Mr. Burd attempts the impossible when he attempts to teach Java and Android at the same time. That makes Mr. Burd's task really difficult (the impossible frequently is), particularly in the early parts of this book, and it deals out an unnecessarily difficult learning problem (at least for a dinosaur). Having said that, I enjoy Mr. Burd's style of writing and teaching, and I like the result I'm getting from using his books (now that I've figured out how to use them).

Great explain from basic.You can't just use the book without actually learning a language.

From what I read so far, this book is definitely not for beginners (Dummies). Maybe it is not the fault of the author, but rather the nature of the beast. Whatever it is, it definitely helps to have solid programming experience before reading this book.

If you are a computer newbie this IS NOT for you.

Awesome book

I'm just delving into this book, but so far I've found it very helpful. I've read and studied from a myriad of software books for classroom and my own education. I wanted to take an Android class this fall, but could not afford it. So, after reading the reviews I purchased Android Application Development All-in-One for Dummies.Let's just say this about the Dummies aspect of this book - it's not for people who have no clue about how software works or how applications are developed. Indeed, I stumbled right out of the gate with the emulator setup. If anyone else is having this problem, let me point you away from Barry's recommendation of maybe needing to use an emulator and tell you emphatically you will need an emulator. BlueStacks works great. Just start BlueStacks before you start Android studio and it will be likely in your emulator list when you go to run the app.Barry Burd walks a fine line between information overload and showing you how to get started. I'm really impressed with all the useful information. As a linear thinker I am working each step as I go along so I can understand everything about the big, bold world of app development and how apps work in the Android environment.Edited to add that Bluestacks emulator works great for creating the beginner apps not targeted for specific devices. I'm sure as I get deeper into the book I will take Barry Burd's advice and install a more robust emulator, such as the one he recommended, Genymotion.

I ordered this book having nearly finished the same author's 'Beginning Programming with Java for dummies'. I began reading it to find that it had been written and published in 2015. For some technical manuals four years isn't a lot, but there have been so many updates to the numerous bits of software referred to and exampled in the first two or three chapters alone that I very soon became stuck and disheartened. I've used my best guesses through as much as I can, but the age of the book is just too prohibitive a factor to make the book worth considering for a complete beginner like myself.I will now try to rectify the mistake and shall order a much more up to date book, as this one refers to the latest Android version as 5.1, yet my own (not new) mobile phone is running Android 9.0. I'm sure it was a great book in it's day, but it's not been updated since so can't be considered useful due to the changing software :(

Massive book and pretty easy to follow. Havemt finished yet but appears to have all information needed to get started.

Great book to know the fundamentals of Using android studio. However the codes and layout of the studio shown in this book are outdated. Since a lot has changed in the Android studio after the publishment of this book. so they should publish new revised edition..

Ich habe mehrere Bücher probiert, aber dieses gefällt mir am besten. Es ist sehr gut und deutlich geschrieben und Object Orientiertes programmieren, mit Java für Android wird sehr gut erklärt.

I came to this book with a background in C++ coding (although not an expert) and website development, so knew the basics of coding, but nothing about app development or Java (apart from it being a bit similar to C++). I'd convinced myself that I could learn app development by reading online tutorials, but hadn't got very far before realising I needed something more structured as a guide.This book is very accessible and easy to read. The author has a nice style (fun without being cheesy), and the book covers everything you need to know to use Android Studio to write an app, connect to a database, upload to Google Play and lots more.The code samples can be downloaded as Android Studio projects, which is very helpful.The only criticisms (and they're barely even criticisms really) I had were:1) It really is 6 books in 1 - which is great, as you get loads of information, but it does mean that it's structured a bit oddly. I felt like a couple of things were covered twice, for example. But nothing is missing, which is the main thing.2) It doesn't go into much detail on Java. It covers the basics, but there were times when I wasn't sure about something but didn't know whether I had a Java question or an Android question! However, the Java documentation on the Oracle website is very comprehensive, so it wasn't a big deal to go through that and pick up what I needed to know.3) A couple of times I wasn't sure what was being explained. For example, there is a section on broadcasters and receivers, but I didn't really understand what those are or why I'd want to use them!