How to start developing applications for Android?

Question

I'm interested about learning how to develop applications for Android. I downloaded the Android SDK but I don't see where to begin. Any suggestion? Any literature? Thanks in advance for your answers.

Answer 1

Read through the Android Basics and the Notepad tutorial. There are many more tutorials avaliable on the web.
If you don't know Java at all, search for Java tutorials on Google and learn the basics.

Answer 2

After you download / install the SDK I'd do the following:

• Start with the Android Basics page to "get" how the framework fits together.
• Follow the Hello World tutorial to get a feel for how Android Development works.
• Check out the Hello Views page to get an idea of what UI elements are available.
• Follow the Notepad tutorial to really get experience building a full app.
• Then check out all the other samples as the cover basically everything you could want to do.

As JRL mentioned, anddev.org is a great resource with tons of tutorials, but the ones I've read all assume you've (at least) done the above.

If you like books, Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform is a pretty good intro-level book. It's one of the Pragmatic Programmers' books, so it covers the basics in a no-nonsense fashion, but doesn't really get into the guts.

As an aside, I strongly recommend using Eclipse with the plugins. It makes development and testing so much easier.

Answer 3

Kinda late, but anyway...

If you want to dive right into coding without really knowing what's happening behind the scenes I would start with the book Hello Android as suggested by fiXedd. Personally I didn't like the book since I wanted a better theoretical understanding of the platform and techniques used before getting hands on.

Therefor, Professional Android Application Development (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) suited me much better. If you are completely new to Android (like I was/am) I personally think that this is a better approach, at least you won't feel so overwhelmed with all the new stuff.

I would also highly recommend that you use Eclipse with the Android plugin while developing, it makes life so much easier.

/Linus