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Ask HN: Resources for iOS programmer to learn Android

6 points by fnayr ↗ HN
I've been coding in Objective-C for about 3 years, and I have a manageable understanding of Java. What are some good tutorials/resources for making the transition to Android from iOS?

The Google "Getting Started" tutorials were really clear and helpful, but I need more! Anything that makes comparisons of classes would be extremely helpful. For instance, it seems the Activity class is semi-equivalent to UIViewController class.

Side note: I find the emulator device/OS choices overwhelming. I knew there was fragmentation, but holy crap.

6 comments

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stevenameyer
As an Android developer who has recently been doing some iPhone work, I don't know any resources directly for iOS developers but these are some areas that I think you should look into:

1) The activity life cycle model.[0] This is something that a lot of people moving over to Android struggle with for some reason. A strong understanding of this really helps.

2) Layout xml. In my opinion Layouts are a weak point for even reasonably experienced Android developers. This is an area that leads to a ton of performance issues if you don't think through it properly.

3)Device compatibility including targeting different SDKs[1] and different screens[2].

4) Adapters.[3] They are the data structures that back most of Android and if you are good with these there is a lot you can make with them pretty much alone.

5) If you have the time I also recommend reading through the Android design docs.[4] It helps give a bit of insight into what Android is trying to accomplish and what is important in the eco system.

These are just a couple general areas that are important and different. If you have more specific questions I'd be more then happy to help you out where I can here or by email (information in profile).

Here are a couple of extra resources that are really good:

API Reference (always important): http://developer.android.com/reference/packages.html

Romain Guy's Android blog: http://www.curious-creature.org/category/android/

[0]http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity.... [1]http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-... [2]http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support... [3]http://developer.android.com/reference/android/widget/Adapte... [4]http://developer.android.com/design/index.html

[dead] duwqihu
account sam pattison
fnayr
Thanks for the thorough response. I've been going over all the resources the past few days. It's very helpful.