Android Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide (Big Nerd Ranch Guides)
Android Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide: is an introductory Android book for programmers with Java experience. Based on Big Nerd Ranch’s popular Android Bootcamp course, this guide will lead you through the wilderness using hands-on example apps combined with clear explanations of key concepts and APIs. This book focuses on practical techniques for developing apps compatible with all versions of Android widely used today (Android 2.2 – 4.2). Write and run code every step of the way – creating apps that catalog crime scenes, browse photos, track your jogging route, and more. Each chapter and app has been designed and tested to provide the knowledge and experience you need to get started in Android development.
Write and run code every step of the way — creating apps that catalog crime scenes, browse photos, track your jogging route, and more. Each chapter and app has been designed and tested to provide the knowledge and experience you need to get started in Android development.
“Big Nerd Ranch provided the training we needed to get hundreds of engineers building skillfully on Android. This book is a great distillation of that training and will be a huge help to anyone looking to ramp up as well.” – Mike Shaver, Director of Mobile Engineering, Facebook
“…a must-have for the developer just starting in Android or ready for more advanced techniques. I was impressed with this book’s content and clarity of presentation. The authors explain simple and complex Android topics with equal ease.” – James Steele, author of The Android Developer’s Cookbook
Best “How-To”/Tutorial Book for App Development. This book deserves 6/5 stars. I had high expectations for this book and upon reading and using the book it has blown those expectations away! For starters the book is portioned into easy bite size bits to help you learn android development from the ground up. Starting with what android actually is and finishing up with using maps in your mobile application (for more information look at the table of contents for the book). You will be writing code every step of the way with this book…What sets this book aside from any other app development book is that the book really “talks” to YOU. Reading this book is almost like having a personal tutor at your disposal.The book tells you exactly what to do AND goes over WHY you’re doing what you’re doing. Right about now you’re probably saying “Jeez, I don’t want to be told what to do, I’m a rebel…” or “Sheesh, how the hell are you supposed to learn if you’re being told exactly what to do?”.. well for starters practice and repetition will help you learn for when you come across problems on your own, AND ALSO, at the end of every section there is a “Challenge” where the authors ask you to do specific things (i.e. add to the app, fix something in the app) that make you think on your own, do your own research, and actually write code without being told what to do…If you are trying to learn android development get this book, it walks you though everything and gives you exactly what you need to get started on your journey through mobile app development on the android platform. There is also an online forum for the book that you can go to, to ask questions, the authors are almost always on the forum so you can get help directly from the source.Buy this book, it’s the best Android How-to book on the market, you will not be disappointed.
Excellent book. However… I think the other reviewers sum it up pretty well. The author does a solid job of teaching you the fundamentals of Android and tells you EXACTLY what do to get the projects working.However…I’m reading this book in May of 2013, so the book is completely relevant. Android 4.2 is the current OS and the current version of Eclipse is the same the author is using. I am very happy about this.I gave up on the Nerd Ranch iPhone book because the latest version of XCode was too different than the author’s. Half the time I was trying to translate what the author was doing to the new Xcode way. Android doesn’t change as much. However, there are little things like “fill_parent” that are used in books like Hello Android which is now deprecated. So if you learned from that book, you would be using a deprecated value for who knows how long! Hello Android is excellent too, but that was written before Honeycomb which changed everything!So if it’s mid 2013, I recommend this book. But don’t let it sit on the shelf. Start it immediately. Books about mobile platforms become outdated very quickly.