I finally finished my first proper Android app: Nectroid 1.0! It's also the only application I've ever written in Java, despite learning the language in 1997. I covered a lot of the Android API with this one: animated transitions, resource/asset management, background tasks, sound playing, message queue handlers, file cache, preferences, foreground services, notifications, simple network access, XML parsing, and a decent chunk of the UI widgets and drawables. It was also the first time I got to use Java generics and its for-each loop. And this was my introduction to the Android Market and Google Code platforms. As learning experiences go, that's pretty good! It took about two weeks for Java to stop being aggravating to work with. I've found this to be true in the past with Objective C and even StarBasic. Java's rigid structure and relentless verbosity do not work well with my development routine. I struggled to Not Repeat Myself using single inheritance and closures that are 90% boilerplate syntax. Vjde took a bit of the edge off. Eventually, I just got used to it. But it never became fun like Objective C or Python. Next, I'm going to look at some game development. I've heard skeptical voices about paid apps on the Android Market, so I'm also looking into the "ad-supported for free or pay" model that seems to be popular.
| Current Music |
: | Skaven - Space Hulk I: Captured Sun | | 
