Who is an Android beginner?
Damn! Android SDK, JDK,Emulator,Gradle,APK,Studio what are these stuffs? Imagine you are hearing these stuffs for the first time? A lot of things run across your mind and you wonder how comes there are proficient android developers who know every single step when they are developing an app. You start thinking, is this really meant for me?
Anyway having heard a lot from my friends that android is easy, i decided to try it. I met my friend called Pius who had done an Android beginner course in Strathmore University, Kenya and he encouraged me to start learning android. Pius had already published his app on google play-store and i downloaded it and i went through it. Even though it was not a professional app i could appreciate his efforts.Through curiosity, i requested him that every Friday i will attending an android training session in his room. The first day i went, he told me to download the Android studio and we started coding. The only programming languages i knew were C and python so i had a problem a bit. This was in April 2017. I was overwhelmed by the content and i didn't find motivation of doing it again. Whenever the week clock ticked Friday, i knew i had a session with Pius but i couldn't make an effort to go because i was so overwhelmed with the content i was exposed to, in day 1.
In August 2017, that is when we started learning Java(CSC1016S) and its amazing properties of object-oriented programming. I found it interesting even more when we did Graphic User Interface when i created a J-Frame and some J-Buttons. Then i added some action listeners to my J-Buttons and i implemented the action listener interface. I couldn’t believe myself that day I had made a functioning calculator and i approached Pius and showed him. He told me that was exactly what Android was. Ah! I went back home thinking about Android development and finally i said i will DO IT NO MATTER WHAT!!!
What did I do Finally?
Seated in my room, i took my phone and read through some whats-app messages. Am a member of a whatsapp group called GTT(Geek’s Talk Thursday) and one person had posted a link to sign-up of Andela Learning community. I clicked the link and followed the steps. To cut the long story, i was enrolled to Android Beginner’s course-Andela Learning community. The learning is conducted through content-based videos, qualified instructors and well documented links to take you step by step. The learning is done through self-motivation which i already had. I dedicated every two days a week to take a lesson(Wednesday from 1900hrs-21000hrs and Friday from 1900hrs -2200hrs). I diid this and in three weeks i was done with the course. This was November 15, 2017. I was happy as through the course i had learnt a lot of android basic components and procedures such as (difference of debugging and cleaning the project, logcat and emulator,APK generation and running an app on my phone and many MORE!!! I had even done some basic apps which was exciting.
SO FINALLY WHO’S AN ANDROID BEGINNER???
- A person who has never heard of Android Studio or a person who only thinks Android Studio is the only framework of developing Android apps.
- A person who requires well documented curriculum to enable him/her to consume the content in a gradual manner.
- A person who really need motivation. This depends a lot on the course instructor. The reason one needs to rely on well documented curriculum is because on YouTube there are no good series of Android courses of a beginner. This is because if you search on YouTube it will brings options of several videos which are not well arranged.
What is recommended to do before doing Android Courses?
- Learn,practice and appreciate Java! This will make your learning easy , good and enjoyable.
- Gather self-motivation. Everything requires personal effort. We live in a world where personal development is critical. Since no one is supervising you, supervise yourself properly! Make sure you understand each an every topic!(Rule number one of programming says, be careful! Forgetting to put a semicolon in one of the java classes of whatsapp can make whatsapp not to run. What do i mean? Do not deceive yourself when you have not done it!
- Research on good course provider like Udacity, treehouse and Udemy. I recommend Udacity as they have partnership with Google(owners of Android open source project). Many Udacity Android courses instructor have been working in google or are working in google. This gives a learner a real feeling of what they are learning.
Where am i now?
After completing the beginner course, i started developing simple basic app. I then upgraded to intermediate course which was easier as i had gone through the basic. I applied for an internship and the company agreed to give me a one month internship for Android front-end development. This was Absa Bank(Aliens Development Unit in Cape Town). When i was there i learnt some firebase but am yet to master the firebase which i will do before June 2018. Now it is time to keep constantly mastering the framework and working around fellows who have done it before. Am familiarizing myself to work with different design libraries. One lesson i have learnt is that there is no developer who is stupid! When you are not sure of anything ask a question through Stack-overflow, google the question, ask an experienced developer( I remember this during my internship where i had to code three screens appearance in a kind off similar manner and i thought it was easier to do it other than copy pasting code in different XML and Activity files. I took a challenge to ask an experienced developer whether there was a simple way to do it and that is where i learnt about refracting code in Android Studio.)
Authored by Willie Macharia(University of Cape Town, Bsc Computer Engineering and Computer Science).
