Activities

So this quiz application is working well. The Android operating system is structured such that the system runs "activities". In order to write a program, every separate function must be defined in it's own activity. It's kind of beautiful when implemented because everything is modular. Passing information back and forth between activities is somewhat complicated, though. Defining resources, like icons, is MUCH easier than I would have expected. It's a simple drag-and-drop process and Eclipse, the Independent Development Environment I'm using, automatically updates everything.

I have installed and successfully run an android application on a virtual device in eclipse. Whoohoo.

Finally figured out how to create a virtual device. It required a rollback of some, but not ALL, android software to earlier versions. Ridiculous. Works now, though. On to the next phase in the tutorial.

Creation of a virtual device continues to evade me. However, I was able to manually install the application onto my personal phone. Testing this way to ensure functionality is not the worst case. Still annoying.

Setback. The initial setup this morning included the installation of the latest Android Developer Tools. After struggling for a few minutes, a brief internet search revealed that the latest version of Android Developer Tools is not allowing Eclipse users to create a virtual device. Without a virtual device I can't test functionality. Will continue to troubleshoot and update.

Initial setup is completed. The first tutorial in my Android book is to write a program called "GeoQuiz". The idea behind this application is that the user is given a geography fact and has to select either true or false corresponding to whether or not they believe the fact is true. Android uses XML files to organize and display the user interface. I've used XML files before to automate testing; I've never used XML to create a user interface. XML stands for Extensible Markup Language, and is very similar to HTML in syntax.

First step. The first step of our journey is the download and installation of the Android SDK. SDK stands for "Software Development Kit" and provides the hammer and chisel, if you will, in the creation of our sculpture. In my limited experience, some of the most frustrating aspects of writing a program and constructing a system is the initial setup of all the necessary tools. We'll see how it goes.