Book Image

Mastering Android Studio 3

By : Kyle Mew
Book Image

Mastering Android Studio 3

By: Kyle Mew

Overview of this book

Android Studio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) designed for developing Android apps. As with most development processes, Android keeps resources and logic nicely separated, and so this book covers the management of imagery and other resources, and the development and testing tools provided by the IDE. After introducing the software, the book moves straight into UI development using the sophisticated, WYSIWYG layout editor and XML code to design and test complex interfaces for a wide variety of screen configurations. With activity design covered, the book continues to guide the reader through application logic development, exploring the latest APIs provided by the SDK. Each topic will be demonstrated by working code samples that can be run on a device or emulator. One of Android Studio's greatest features is the large number of third-party plugins available for it, and throughout the book we will be exploring the most useful of these, along with samples and libraries that can be found on GitHub. The final module of the book deals with the final stages of development: building and distribution. The book concludes by taking the reader through the registration and publication processes required by Google. By the time you have finished the book, you will be able to build faster, smoother, and error-free Android applications, in less time and with fewer complications than you ever thought possible.
Table of Contents (10 chapters)

Kotlin support

Since the dawn of the mobile app, software development has undergone more than one revolution, and the Android framework has been no stranger to these changes. Many developers prefer Java as it is relatively easy to work with, but there will always be times when we want the raw speed of C++, and Java predates mobile devices by decades. Wouldn't it be nice if there ware a high-level language, such as Java, that had been designed with mobile development largely in mind.

Fortunately, a JetBrains team in Russia created Kotlin, which works alongside Java and even runs on the Java Virtual Machine, to create a language that better suits the needs of Android developers. It is also 100 percent interoperable with Java, so you can use Java and Kotlin files in the same project, and everything will still compile. You can also continue to use all existing Java frameworks...