March 26, 2015 at 21:16Android for developers. Perplexed and upset
Some time ago, I wrote an article entitled “Bridging the Gaps, Learning Android,” by reviewing one book. Readers in letters asked to continue this topic, since I read everything in a row.
This time I will go through the latest book released on the Russian market at the moment - Android for developers in 2015.
This is the second edition published by Peter. The first edition had a slightly different name - Android for programmers. We create applications and it was released in 2013. I give dates for Russia; they are one year behind foreign publications.
Initially, I was not going to buy the second edition, since a quick look at the contents showed that basically nothing new had appeared there. But when the publishing house on Habré organized a campaign with discount prices, he could not resist and bought the book in electronic form. We will assume that I decided to support them with the ruble. Moreover, I believe that Peter was the only publisher in Russia that is trying to publish good books by contemporary foreign authors.
Therefore, all my complaints will not relate to the publisher (they honestly did their job), but to the authors.
Go.
When I started reading the book, at first I did not notice the catch. I got to the project to create a quiz with flags. By the way, a good example. I wrote my quiz at one time and then compared my code with the code from the first edition. And he got some ideas from the book. So, when I just read a familiar example, I noticed that 2/3 of the book had already been read.
Surprised by my reading speed, I decided to check the output of the books. The first edition is 560 pages, the second edition is 384 pages. A unique case. Usually, books swell from publication to publication, acquiring new chapters about new technologies.
I had to compare the contents - in the new edition there were no some projects
In parentheses I have given some technologies used in projects. Agree that the topics are interesting to study. And now they are gone. I understand the reason these chapters were cut out. For example, the Route Tracker project used MapActivity, which has long been inoperative. But what prevented the authors from redoing their obsolete examples and at the same time telling how they modernized their projects to meet new requirements.
The second edition mentions Android Studio. Alas, this is just a marketing ploy. Yes, the book tells where you can download the studio and how to install it. This is where the description of Android Studio actually ends.
The quality of the supply of materials - everything is subjective here. In my opinion, for beginning programmers the book is not very suitable. Yes, the reader can blindly copy the text - but in fact it is the work of a monkey. It is said in theory that several monkeys will someday write War and Peace. One monkey reader will rewrite 5-6 projects and, perhaps, they will even work. But will the reader understand his actions? Personally, I don’t really like this approach, when the author of the project writes his own project completely, and then simply tells the reader what he sees in his project. But this does not happen even in a pre-planned project. And here it turns out that the author tells how a fragment method that has not even been created is called in the activity class. But he already created a fragment, so he does not see a problem.
If the developer already has some training, then it will be easier to understand the examples. Can be used as reference material to refresh memory.
Given the fact that the book was again delayed - there is nothing about the new Material Design in it, almost nothing is said about Android Studio, many chapters have been cut - we conclude that the book turned out to be weak. Very sorry. I expected more.
In the end, I would like to appeal to those who read foreign books - what novelties did you like recently?
This time I will go through the latest book released on the Russian market at the moment - Android for developers in 2015.
This is the second edition published by Peter. The first edition had a slightly different name - Android for programmers. We create applications and it was released in 2013. I give dates for Russia; they are one year behind foreign publications.
Initially, I was not going to buy the second edition, since a quick look at the contents showed that basically nothing new had appeared there. But when the publishing house on Habré organized a campaign with discount prices, he could not resist and bought the book in electronic form. We will assume that I decided to support them with the ruble. Moreover, I believe that Peter was the only publisher in Russia that is trying to publish good books by contemporary foreign authors.
Therefore, all my complaints will not relate to the publisher (they honestly did their job), but to the authors.
Go.
When I started reading the book, at first I did not notice the catch. I got to the project to create a quiz with flags. By the way, a good example. I wrote my quiz at one time and then compared my code with the code from the first edition. And he got some ideas from the book. So, when I just read a familiar example, I noticed that 2/3 of the book had already been read.
Surprised by my reading speed, I decided to check the output of the books. The first edition is 560 pages, the second edition is 384 pages. A unique case. Usually, books swell from publication to publication, acquiring new chapters about new technologies.
I had to compare the contents - in the new edition there were no some projects
- SpotOn - a game in which you need to crush enemies at speed (ViewPropertyAnimator, Custom View)
- Route Tracker - location tracking, (GPS, Google Map)
- SlideShow - slide show (Galery, Media, Content Provider)
- Enhanced SlideShow - Advanced Slideshow (Camera, VideoView)
- Weather Viewer - weather forecast received from the server (JSON, ListFragment, DialogFragment)
In parentheses I have given some technologies used in projects. Agree that the topics are interesting to study. And now they are gone. I understand the reason these chapters were cut out. For example, the Route Tracker project used MapActivity, which has long been inoperative. But what prevented the authors from redoing their obsolete examples and at the same time telling how they modernized their projects to meet new requirements.
The second edition mentions Android Studio. Alas, this is just a marketing ploy. Yes, the book tells where you can download the studio and how to install it. This is where the description of Android Studio actually ends.
The quality of the supply of materials - everything is subjective here. In my opinion, for beginning programmers the book is not very suitable. Yes, the reader can blindly copy the text - but in fact it is the work of a monkey. It is said in theory that several monkeys will someday write War and Peace. One monkey reader will rewrite 5-6 projects and, perhaps, they will even work. But will the reader understand his actions? Personally, I don’t really like this approach, when the author of the project writes his own project completely, and then simply tells the reader what he sees in his project. But this does not happen even in a pre-planned project. And here it turns out that the author tells how a fragment method that has not even been created is called in the activity class. But he already created a fragment, so he does not see a problem.
If the developer already has some training, then it will be easier to understand the examples. Can be used as reference material to refresh memory.
Given the fact that the book was again delayed - there is nothing about the new Material Design in it, almost nothing is said about Android Studio, many chapters have been cut - we conclude that the book turned out to be weak. Very sorry. I expected more.
In the end, I would like to appeal to those who read foreign books - what novelties did you like recently?
