Sorry in advance ... but you realize that bitching on this forum is going to get you nowhere, right? =)
On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 11:17 AM, rmz76 <[email protected]> wrote: > ... I hate the way UI is handled. ... as of now, I really prefer the way > iOS development handles this. > Then use iOS. Who's forcing you to use Android? Don't tell me they are built into the visual design tool for Eclipse, it's > crap and I refuse to use it. > You're not going to get much sympathy by declaring the tool to be "crap" and flat out refusing to use it without at least explaining why you feel so strongly against it. IMO, it's not "crap", you probably just don't know how to use it. However, if you do believe it's "crap", then you can either contribute to the project<http://tools.android.com/contributing>, so it's not "crap", or you can give the developers useful, constructive feedback <http://tools.android.com/feedback> beyond "it's crap". Bitching that something is "crap" is not likely to get it to be less "crap." > A reference should exist outside the visual editor and that's what I'm > looking for. Also do not point me to the general SDK API documentation for > views. I don't want to sort through hundreds of classes trying to extract > TextView, Button, etc (what an incredible time sink that is). > "Hundreds" is a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think? What more are you expecting beyond the documentation? It clearly shows which classes are derived from View, which are therefore the components available to you for use in your UI. Any competent developer should be comfortable digging through and reading documentation to find the bits s/he needs. > Overall I'm just very frustrated with what the Android SDK offers to the > UI developer. It seems some more abstraction for common patterns should be > baked in and it's not. > If you don't like it and think it could be better, then either don't use it, write and submit patches that you think would improve things, or submit your ideas as feature requests. Bitching about your frustration on this list is not going to get anything done. You could start by providing clear examples of how the current abstractions could be improved upon. To bring this around so that my first post to this group is not just a > rant, I'd looking for community recommendations for a masters course/book > on Android UI. I want to know the best source you've found on programming > Android UI. > Search this list and Google. This topic has been discussed *ad nauseum*. > I don't have weeks to spend "just tinkering with it" trying to get my head > around the common patterns. > Dude, unless you're some kind of genius, it's going to take you more than weeks to get to a reasonable level of competency in Android. Especially considering that they come out with a new SDK and many new paradigms quite frequently that you have to pick up. The ViewPager concept, for example, is fairly recent. If you don't have time to "tinker" with things to learn, then you're just wasting whatever time you *are* devoting to it. Is Google doing anything to help? > Help with what? Your personal dissatisfaction? Probably not. Sorry. Beyond that, Google: - adds more functionality to the SDK and more documentation and content to the site with each release - continues to improve the developer tools - publishes blogs covering different topics - has developers of the platform that contribute to this group and stack overflow, of their own volition What more would you like? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TreKing <http://sites.google.com/site/rezmobileapps/treking> - Chicago transit tracking app for Android-powered devices -- 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
