February 2012 - Posts
I'll be doing a webinar on Tuesday February 28th on Building a User Interface in Mono for Android. A little bit about this:
We
will look at the basics of building a user interface for Android with
Mono for Android. The user interface is typically the first thing that a
user sees when they work with your application. They will often judge
your application based on the user interface. We will examine the basic
concepts of UI design with mobile devices, the Android XML based layout
language, some of the UI design surfaces for Android, some basic Android
controls and finally some suggestions on creating a successful Android
User Interface.
My article on HTML5 and some things that you can use today has gone online at the Dev Pro Connections web site. Here's a snippet of it:
HTML5 is the direction for web-based applications. All you have to do
is listen to the material from any technical conference or keep an eye
on web
developer online community discussions to know that HTML5 is
important. Each day, I read about new and exciting HTML5 features and
uses for those
features -- witness the many new features in the latest versions of
Internet Explorer (IE), Chrome, and Firefox.
Mobile application development is definitely where HTML5 has gotten
its start, but HTML5 is not limited to mobile. Here, I will build on the
information in "HTML5 for the ASP.NET Developer" along with many other great articles on HTML5 published in DevProConnections
and delve into some of the HTML5 features that are available today and
that you can use immediately to provide solutions for
your customers now. In this article, we'll see what can be done in
ASP.NET running in a modern web browser, such as Chrome, Firefox,
Safari, and the
recently released IE10. (As an FYI, in December 2011 Chrome 15 was
named the
most popular web browser version by StatCounter, though Internet Explorer is the most popular browser family.)
I want to thank several people for helping me with this article. Honestly, there are several. I ran across a blog post by Lars Jarlvik last summer
that I used as the roadmap for some work and this article as well. I
emailed with Lars about starting with his blog post and he was on board
with this. Many thanks to Lars. Other folks that should be mentioned
are my friends Dave Ward and Spike Xavier.
Both have been really helpful. I have learned from them and grown
professionally by associating with them. I am forever in their debt.
I was recently given the opportunity to review Wei Meng Lee's most recent edition of his beginning iOS programming series. 
This book is entitled "Beginning iOS5 Application Development." Admittedly, I know Wei Meng, so that may result in a little bit of bias.
As
a developer targeting the iPhone and iOS, I have found Wei-Meng's books
and knowledge helpful to me as I write applications, articles,and
expand my own personal knowledge of iOS. If you are anything but an
expert developer in iOS, this is a good book that will help you develop
and grow in iOS. For example, I was looking for some animation examples recently and
was able to easily understand Wei-Meng's examples and translate them
into MonoTouch easily.
A little bit about this book:
If you want to develop apps for Apple's iPhone and iPad, first you need
to know how to use the tools--iPhone's new iOS 5 operating system and
SDK, and the new xCode toolset that come with it. This full-color book
is the perfect starting point. Beginning developers, you'll get a solid
introduction to the new xCode 4 and Objective-C and find everything you
need to quickly build your first app. The book thoroughly covers all the
new iOS 5 features, including new multitasking, location-based
services, notification system, cloud-based features, and much more.
- Written by bestselling Wrox author, Wei-Meng Lee, this is an ideal book for beginning developers
- Helps eager developers quickly start building apps for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
- Introduces iOS 5, xCode 4, Objective-C, and the basics you need to create your first Apple device app
- Covers a host of new iOS 5 capabilities, including new multitasking, new location-based services, and a new notification system
- Shows you how to work with iOS 5's cloud-based features for online storage of music, photos, and video
I was recently given the opportunity to review Dimitris' iOS Development with MonoTouch Cookbook. 
My
first thought on the book was "do we need another book in this
niche?". I was the first to attack the niche with my book that came out
in June, 2010. Since then, Mike Bluestein's book has shipped. Right
after that Bryan Costanich's book shipped. My book was based on iOS 3.
Mike and Bryan's books are based on iOS4. After reading this book, the
answer is yes. There are two reasons for this:
- Dimitris'
book covers iOS5 material. I was glad to read through the section on
page turning (the curl), which is an iOS5 feature. There are also
examples about twitter integration and other iOS5 features.
- The
book has lots of little self contained examples. I don't like books
that try to build off of one example throughout the whole book, in fact,
I HATE them. There I said it. If you have one example that builds
through out your book, I just don't like it. This book has lots of
little examples. I LOVE it that way. These examples are just that,
short examples where I can look for what I need, get the content, and
bom, get on back with the larger problems I am trying to solve. This is
a danger when only one author is involved, but thankfully, this issue
did not occur in this book.
Bottom line, if you are looking to get into iPhone development and are a .NET developer, this is a good book.
What book editing isn't better the second time around? Like a dog
returns to his vomit and the fool to his folly, the author must return
to his writing. And with the past week, my author team and I have
finished our AR and Production Editing for Wrox's "Professional Android
with Mono for Android and .NET/C#." We are literally 8 months from being
AR and PE complete the first time around (I really hope that there
isn't a third).
And with the upload to my editor at
Wiley/Wrox, the book known as
"Professional Android Programming with Mono for Android and .NET/C#"
is now Author Review Complete, barring any slip ups on my part. Its
always a great feeling to get these things done. A real load off of my
shoulders.
The genesis of this book has been really interesting. It started while we were still writing our "Professional iPhone Programming with MonoTouch"
book. We started talking about this due to the Apple self FUD starting
last April, 2010. Watching the number of Android devices sold go up each
quarter also helped me make the decision to go forward. Martin Bowling
started as the lead author. Unfortunately, he had family issues and had
to drop off during the planning stages. The other authors that joined
me on this were Nathan Blevins, Jon Dick, Chris Hardy, and John Croft.
Here is some info from the Amazon web site about our book:
The wait is over! For the millions of .NET/C# developers who have
been eagerly awaiting the book that will guide them through the
white-hot field of Android application programming, this is the book. As
the first guide to focus on Mono for Android, this must-have resource
dives into writing applications against Mono with C# and compiling
executables that run on the Android family of devices.
Putting the
proven Wrox Professional format into practice, the authors provide you
with the knowledge you need to become a successful Android application
developer without having to learn another programming language. You'll
explore screen controls, UI development, tables and layouts, and
MonoDevelop as you become adept at developing Android applications with
Mono for Android.
- Answers the demand for a detailed book on the extraordinarily popular field of Android application development
- Strengthens
your existing skills of writing applications and shows you how to
transfer your talents to building Android apps with Mono for Android and
.NET/C#
- Dives into working with data, REST, SOAP, XML, and JSON
- Location, mapping, and the question of "where am I?" with regards to mobile.
- Discusses how to communicate with other applications, deploy apps, and even make money in the process
Professional Android Programming with Mono for Android and .NET/C# gets you up and running with Android app development today.
Please remember to buy 8 to 10 copies for the ones you love. They will make great presents all year round. If you would like to start by pre-ordering 5, that would be great to.
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