Mobile app development on Android phones has become a dream come true. The ability to try out your code on your phone and most appreciated is the possibility of those guys without laptops or desktops to code fully functional Android apps and contribute to the increasing scope of mobile usage.
There are some guys who are advocating for so many beginners in Android development to adopt Kotlin for programming. I too would do tyat, but it's daunting on an Android phone. All IDEs for Kotlin that run on Android are online because of the low number of mobile programmers using it. As time goes, we will expect more IDEs for Kotlin that run offline. Remember that who wants to be connected to the internet each time he tries out his code. Maybe it's young kids whose data expenses are covered by their parents.
What makes code studio IDE tick
1. Auto completion
The IDE is great for code auto completion and that's a great tool for advanced and intermediate programmers. You can also switch it off if you want by navigating to the settings from the menu and clicking the editor settings, select java from the list of languages and uncheck the auto completion.
This is a great tool and I would advice beginners to start using it once they understand conditional statements in java because as a developer, the main things you need to know is the syntax of the language and the basic applications. It's up to you.
2. Compiling and dexing
Code studio does the compiling and dexing for you at your wish and at a very fast rate. It creates the apk and asks for permission to install it. You have to allow code studio to install apks by activating installation from unknown sources.
3. Debugging
Code studio automatically debugs your code giving you insight into what you did wrong. This is its greatest tool because it's really great and has helped me greatly.
4. Color coding
This is another form of debugging your misspelled code by using different colors for real java terms and output strings. You'll see a misspelled code block at first glance.
5. XML layouts
This is what confuses many beginners as Android development is based on java so many beginners think that learning java is the end of their application learning forgetting about the layout. So the IDE provides the first layout file, main_layout.xml and the first class extending the activity class which will show you "Hello world" when you install the application.
6. Application file system
The app prepares all the main files needed for development just like the desktop IDEs though it doesn't provide drag and drop layout. From res, src,bin,manifest and many more, your work will only be coding and leaving.
How to create your first program
This is a guide for beginners. If you understand how IDEs work, you can skip this. As you jump into learning app development, IDEs can suck when you can't use them. They give stress and you might quit before it's time to. For example, java's System.out.println prints to the console and if you try it on your main_activity.java, nothing will happen.
So navigate to the menu, click New then select Android, then from the list of Android options, select project then a pop-up will be fired where you are to fill in your app details like the one below
Once you are done the main two files are opened: the main_lyoit.xml and main_activity.java. Keep in mind that only the TextView of xml or that of java can print into the user interface. Main advice is to learn java programming basics, switch to learning Android xml then come back to complete java.
To change the app icon, copy ur icon to the res file then paste several sizes of it into the drawable files. Go to files and open the manifets look for the application tag then replace its icon value with your icon name with no extension like jpg. Of course you dont have to remove the first part that is like @drawable because that's a reference to the drawable files.
I wish you well in your journey to becoming a programmer.
Does Code Studio IDE support Kotlin
I have used code studio for a long time now and I have not seen it as having the ability to make Android apps using cotlin though it can act as a text editor for Kotlin. Maybe that's what the development team is pushing for in the near future, but right now, there is limited support.
Why you should learn java
Right now, many beginners are running for Kotlin instead of java for no good reason. Java is very stable as we talk as Kotlin is still unstable. One friend of mine told me that"hey, Kotlin is so simple" To speak the truth, Kotlin is simplified java. Once you have a programmer's thinking, you can master a language within two to three weeks. So I am not woried of switching to Kotlin someday because it's so simple.
Thanks for reading.
AUTHOR
Comments
Post a Comment
Put your comment here