How I learned to create my mobile applications

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Hello! This is my second article here, and I again devote it to my experience gained while studying Android programming. At the time of writing my first article , it occurred to me that, in a good way, I had to start with a slightly different topic.

Let's imagine a novice programmer for Android: this is a person who has read a couple of books on programming in Java and for Android. He is bursting with knowledge and he can do anything and everything. He has a mega-idea, and he immediately launches Android Studio and creates a new project called MyRulezProject and ... Tosha seems to be saying that you are in vain.



I started about the same way, and stepped on a rake. One of the first programs that I started writing (and which was supposed to bring me success) was a simple project manager. It would seem that everything is simple, there is a project, there are tasks in projects, and there are comments in tasks. But (!) All the simplicity (I remind a novice programmer) crumbled to dust from just two rakes: the first rake is actually the appearance of the program and how it should look at different times of use. And the second rake (quite closely related to the first rake) is the scenario of using the program by the user. How to get around this rake, in fact, this article is devoted.

First, turn off the computer, and turn on some kind of music (for some reason, it’s better for me to work under hard rock). Take out a clean notebook, take a pencil in your hand and put an eraser within the range of visibility (preferably soft and preferably if it is out of the reach of the cat, if you have one).

To begin with, you should think about what you and your users will have to work with in the end. Draw what entities they will have to deal with, and how they will be interconnected at the most abstract level.



Fine. So far, it just seems to work out. It is at this stage that you will begin to realize the general contours of what you have to create. Now take the next step. What screens will the user have and how will he interact with them? Here you already have to realize how many activities you will have to create and how many dialog boxes (if you decide to use them, I still don’t have an unambiguous opinion whether they should be used and whether the activities will be used more correctly). Rectangles are actually my activity, and ovals are dialog boxes.



Now we pass actually to the appearance of the application. There are actually two tasks in one. The first task is the very concept of how you see your application.



The second task you should already think over the little things in the interface: transitions between screens work with data.



While I thought through all the screens of the program to the end (where there were only less than 10 screens), I completely wiped out a notebook with 96 sheets.

Well, as a spoiler, I will hint at the following rake, this is an attempt to write perfect code. You will throw your already finished program to start writing now for sure if not perfect code, then close to ideal. No need to do this. Finish the program, make sure that it works as it should, so already think what you would do wrong. And depending on the success of your program, either rewrite the code or take on a new project. Good luck


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