<p>I'm going to second the idea of learning Android for the sake of the short positive feedback loop. If you want to do something a bit simpler and skip the GUI programing, use Python. I can't, in god conscious, recommend starting with Arduino. Even I get frustrated with the data type landmines.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Oct 14, 2011 6:44 AM, "Ron Frazier" <<a href="mailto:atllinuxenthinfo@c3energy.com">atllinuxenthinfo@c3energy.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Hello all,<br>
<br>
Those of you that have read some of my prior posts know I've been<br>
threatening for some time to relearn programming after 16 years out of<br>
the loop. I discussed it here before, and we had discussions about the<br>
various merits, or unmerits of different languages. I really was<br>
planning to learn C++, after you guys convinced me to not target C#. I<br>
have, sitting next to me, some of the best C++ textbooks out there,<br>
including one by the inventor of C++. The problem is, no disrespect to<br>
the authors, that these things are BORING, and intimidating. I mean, I<br>
have to go through 400 pages of for next loops, if then's, and variable<br>
setting, etc. to even get to putting a GUI hello world program on the<br>
screen. And, that's IF they even discuss GUI programming. Now, I know<br>
you have to learn the basics, and I know these things are foundational,<br>
but I think this is the least enticing way to teach it. Not only that,<br>
programming desktop computers doesn't excite me nearly as much now as it<br>
did a decade and a half ago when it was relatively new. Embedded<br>
programming interests me to a point, and I could do that in C++<br>
sometimes, but I don't necessarily want to be programming thermostats<br>
and microwave ovens either. Robotics interests me, but it can be very<br>
difficult and expensive to develop your own robotics lab.<br>
<br>
The other thing that interests me that I might be able to start<br>
development for on my own, is mobile computing, specifically Android. I<br>
recently heard that Android is the most popular smart phone OS on the<br>
planet. And, it's pretty much the only game in town for non IOS<br>
tablets. The thing is, you program Android in Java. So, I have to<br>
choose between Java and C++ since I cannot really learn two languages at<br>
once. So, I've decided to jump over to Java, before investing lots of<br>
time in C++, which I may come back to later. By the way, my<br>
introductory Java and Android books are just as boring as the C++ books,<br>
but I guess I'll muddle through.<br>
<br>
So, having said all that, do you guys have any thoughts on setting up a<br>
cross platform Java development environment, learning Java, learning<br>
Android, etc. I'm thinking using the Sun / Oracle JDK on both Windows<br>
and Linux, plus the Eclipse IDE, and whatever device emulators the<br>
Android books recommend. When I can, I'll get an Android tablet to try<br>
things out on. I have two good books on Android 2 from Apress. They've<br>
now come out with similar books on Android 3. All of them say to learn<br>
Java first though. I think there will be a lot of Android 2 out there<br>
for a while, so it might be fine to start with the books I have. Any<br>
thoughts and advice are appreciated.<br>
<br>
Maybe, someday 8-( I'll see a GUI hello world that I created on a tablet<br>
device. The very large learning curve for this is intimidating and<br>
frustrating.<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
Ron<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to<br>
call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy<br>
mailing lists and such. I don't always see new messages very quickly.)<br>
<br>
Ron Frazier<br>
<br>
<a href="tel:770-205-9422" value="+17702059422">770-205-9422</a> (O) Leave a message.<br>
linuxdude AT <a href="http://c3energy.com" target="_blank">c3energy.com</a><br>
<br>
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