Greetings,

Another day within the world of Android Development. Today I was able to review some code of Kotlin practicing what was learned of yesterday. Again, the language in my opinion has an easy learning curve so I was able to pick up on things pretty quickly. While studying I was able to complete the “Build a basic layout” pathway for the Android Developer Kotlin pathway. This allowed me to learn about how to place images and text within an app as well as build a birthday card app. I was able to complete all successfully and if felt really good to truly have the knowledge stick after consuming so much prior.

With the birthday card it allowed me to learn how to place images and set constraints. That was pretty fun learning where the drawable files are located for icons, images and media as a whole. One thing I learned is that with the UI design everything auto populates in the .xml file. This gave me insight on how XML is used with the design process which had me a bit disturbed. Damn… I have to learn XML? After much learning about the tools of Android I was able to run the app on my physical device. Yes… that felt good to see the app installed on the Samsung. Learning about the launcher icon and changing it from the default green android icon will be dealt with soon.

After several tutorials and learning about how to create a basic app, I was introduced to Jetpack Compose. The phrase, “XML isn’t needed for Android apps” caught my eye and had to find out more. Yikes… only Kotlin code is needed to create amazing UI? Seems like this is discussion for the next blog.

Until then… Peace and Light.

Greetings,

Another day within the journey of development. Well, what did I do today? Went forth and did a cleans of the body with some prune juice. I also did my usual workout with a focus of strength and weight gain. It felt good producing much work within that area today for about two hours. While finishing up the maths of life, I went on to learning Kotlin. Kotlin truly is a great language to learn especially if you already have programming knowledge. Many say it's similar to Java however it gives me Python feels without imports. Ones who know about the mighty Py can understand what I'm saying. Kotlin has been growing over the years and many new developers are learning it as their first language. I wanted to learn how to become an android developer and was told this is the correct language to learn. That's when I became quite interested and went to W3Schools to learn more about Kotlin basics. You can visit their Kotlin basics tutorials here: https://www.w3schools.com/kotlin/index.php.

While learning the basics of Kotlin I first had to download the IDE. Yes I could've used VSCode, but I wanted to use a different one this go around. The IDE is free for the community version in which I am using. Being that Kotlin is already open sourced why not right?! Also I don't have the funds at this time for the Ultimate to try it out. You can download the IDE for windows here: https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/#section=windows.

Once I downloaded the IDE, I started to work with the sytnax learned from the basics tutorials. The goal is to get to the insights of the syntax instead of going the limitless tutorial route. This will allow me to learn how to build a great messenger app for my Visionary Genius Academy program knowing the ins and outs. Terminology from the Kotlin basics course was reviewed much today like stated prior. Being that I signed up for the Android Developers program I have access to their incredible content surrounding Kotlin. They offer badges as you go through the through the lessons which is great for learning in my opinion. The badges as you see show the dates of when I was trying to learn prior then came back to complete more which are now my faves. Want to create a Google Developer profile? Be sure to visit this link here: https://developers.google.com/. Quizes are also provided after you do the lessons here so be sure to understand what you are learning folks.

The community of Kotlin has grown as well over the years. I see many developers are out there making great projects. Much activity on twitter surrounding the language helps me a great deal so I can easily contact someone for help if in need. Thus far I've just been reading the language and taking notes. Yes... that' right, I have also provided notes on the topics discussed within the google developers lessons. The link is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qnSVhQfiYJVGM8eFbLP3ACeSNduu3gaEIbpi0ykPfEI/edit?usp=sharing.

Welp you all it's been real. Remember to take your time and don't rush if you don't understand. Ask for help if needed... (I know it's hard especially when you are like me). Be sure to ask me any questions for I am on Instagram as well. Follow my link here: Instagram.com/DesignIsOrion.

Peace and Light.

Today has been a great day for I finally decided what avenue I would pursue within the world of development. While undergoing studies self taught journey of web development, I found that my passion can push in many ways for I enjoy code. While knowing the passion of coding in many languages can be fun, it also cost time in which I don't have. Right now I am working at a factory as a furniture maker looking for a career change as a developer. I own an Android Phone for many years and now wanted to take on the world of creating apps for it. That's when I took the entire Saturday to do research and figure out the best roadmap to achieve the Android Developer goal. In this blog I will speak briefly of all that I was able to learn thus far.

Android Studio was played with many years ago. During that time, my chromebook I used was very low on memory which turned me away from pursuing the Android dev journey. After finding myself a laptop that can handle the large file size it is, I can dive in again. Android Studio is the primary source in which developers can develop apps locally. Android Studio can be downloaded here: https://developer.android.com/studio. This software runs on Mac and Windows, but also it is FREEEEEEEE. Yes... we as up incoming developers love that word "Free" for it seems all the good software cost these days. Shouts to the open source devs out there. Once I downloaded and installed the Android Studio, I also was able to install any SDKs and virtual devices to help with the development of apps. I was also able to learn about where the interface of the software learning. Once I had installed everything, I thought it was best to get into the basics of Kotlin.

What the hell is Kotlin? Kotlin is a programming language that is used to develop Android apps, server side apps and more. Kotlin was introduced in 2010 and was built to develop cross platform apps. That's right.... you can also build iOS apps using Kotlin. Yikes... that's a huge plus in my opinion for if you are a developer who wants to eventually get into iOS development you can use the same programming language. Many say that if you know Java then you are good to go for the learning of this language. In my research, I was able to learn about the basic syntax of Kotlin and also how to create a small "Happy Birthday" app. The studying of the syntax I did was done here: https://www.w3schools.com/kotlin/index.php . Another source I was able to use was the Android Developer site which is here: https://developer.android.com/kotlin. Very good documentation is within the learnings here as well as W3schools so be grateful. Believe me, I've seen worst in the documentation of languages. I will be reviewing more of Kotlin in future blog post to give greater insights as learning.

Until next time... Peace!