This review was originally printed in the September 2011 edition of the UKUUG newsletter, which is now defunct.
Title: Learning Android (1st edition)
Authors: Marko Gargenta
ISBN: 9781449390501
Although the iPhone is probably better known outside technical circles, Android handsets have been quietly gaining ground in the past few years, spurred on by a more open approach to application development. Being a big fan of Learning Perl and Learning Python, and looking to develop Android applications, I had high expectations for this book.
The first two chapters present an overview of Android, which is particularly useful when the name is used to describe a variety of parts (sometimes the whole platform, sometimes just the operating system). The whole stack is explained in a useful diagram which demonstrates the various layers from the kernel up to the applications. The security of Android is glossed over with, to paraphrase, a ‘Linux is secure, Android is built on Linux, therefore Android is secure’ argument, which is a bit disappointing but perhaps to be expected in early chapters.
The next chapter is the traditional quick start and Hello World introduction. Installation instructions are fairly limited, and the author assumes that the reader is using the Eclipse IDE, so if you prefer a different editor you will be on your own. However, Eclipse is available for every major platform, and it makes sense to demonstrate one popular IDE in detail than vaguely discuss how applications might be built in a variety of environments.
Chapter four covers the main building blocks of applications, followed by a chapter giving a brief overview of the application which will be used as the example for the rest of the book. In chapter six we finally get down to some coding with the development of an application for accessing Twitter which crams in user interfaces, threading and network access. The next chapter is similarly packed, covering user preferences and the filesystem, although with only a tiny section on filesystem security. By chapter eight I must admit I was starting to lose interest, and whilst I made it to the end the process felt like a lot of effort for little reward.
Overall, this book leaves me feeling a bit disappointed with the lack of detail. Some chapters are very short, often only a few pages, whereas others try to cram too much in. Security and testing are also two topics which are conspicuous in their absence. I would prefer fewer and more consistently sized chapters, with more detailed explanations, to a whistle-stop tour which leaves me none the wiser at the end. If you are looking for a high level overview of Android then this may be the book for you, but I would not recommend it as the place to start if you want to develop applications for the platform.