Perhaps I am out of place with all of this but I have reached the height of exasperation and this seemed the best place to call out for assistance. I understand the tremendous work behind providing high quality, detailed documentation and tutorials for frameworks, and I have a great deal of appreciation for the Android framework as it is, so please don't misinterpret this as whining. I simply would like to voice my frustrations....
I learned to develop for the iPhone in about 3 months. It took me another 3 to develop my knowledge to the point where I would feel confident saying I am 'good'. I understand the differences... Closed source, a development environment created specifically for, etc. I wouldn't expect Android to offer similar ease but I would expect Google to, at the very least, provide some real help for beginning developers if they wish Android to ever really compete with the iPhone. In principle, I would love to swear off Apple forever and develop only for the Android, but I have been struggling with learning Android for 4 months and still feel as though I have gotten nowhere. I have read 3 books, gone through the available tutorials, read evereything I could get my hands on, and still want to throw my computer out the window whenever I try to do anything beyond the most simple application logic for an Android app. The books are nearly worthless unless you already know what you are doing (certainly not Google's fault), the online tutorials are buggy at best (I have not been able to compile a single one without googling for fixes and remedies), and the documentation doesn't help at all unless you already know what you are looking for. Developing for the iPhone is downright pleasant... Apple provides an incredible amount of documentation, even providing downloadable PDFs overflowing with implementation tips and tricks for common tasks. How is a developer supposed to create top quality apps which will support the platform when they cannot even install an SDK (having followed the instructions provided directly from Google) without persisting issues? I spend more time googling SDK bugs then developing, and when I'm not having problems with the SDK, I'm having to google fixes for every example and tutorial I work through because I have to work out how a developer still learning is supposed to get anything at all out of the online documentation. I'm trying very hard to get up to speed with the system and would love to work in Android full time because I believe in the platform and I believe in open source, but how am I supposed to do that when the people who created it will not give a new developer anything to really sink their teeth into? It's like trying to learn a language with a dictionary... It seems to me that Google ought to recognize that the income potential for developers is lower on Android then iOS and work that much harder to make the learning curve a little easier to overcome. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
