Here comes Google App Inventor. Now anyone Can Create an Android App without coding.
Larry Dignan from ZDNEt said, “AndroidLib estimates that the Android marketplace will soon have more than 100,000 mobile apps. Apple’s App Store has more than 225,000.
And now you throw in App Inventor and it’s clear Google is trying to do to Android what it did for YouTube. You contribute and the ecosystem grows—exponentially. In addition, App Inventor is a nice way to show off what Android can do.”
On ZDNet, there are a lot of comments from programmers who stress the fact that app development cannot be easy and that "Do it without writing a code" approach could lead to disaster similar to VB applications - bad, lacking of any structure, tightly coupled.
@mejohnsn said,
"Rather, he hit the nail on the head: app development IS hard, developing good apps is even harder. All these tools pretending to make it easy have the same value as those books/courses promising to teach a foreign language without memorization and without effort: none."
As an experienced .NET developer I would mostly agree on what you said. No RAD environments can replace real programming experience and understanding of design principles.
At the same time, I believe that App Inventor could become an excellent teaching tool. Does it allow to see generated source code? I hope so. There are a lot of smart kids in schools, there are many programmers totally unfamiliar with Android environment. App Inventor could be a first step for such people.
And, back to VB analogy. VB was a crap language by itself from the very beginning. It promoted bad programming practices - every real developer understand what I'm talking about.
A bad language like VB + RAD tools = Disaster.
A good structured modern environment and Java language + RAD tools might lead to great success.
I don't know where people are getting the idea that App Inventor is anything beyond educational myself.
ReplyDeleteIt's based on many of the concepts of scratch, which is a great little tool for teaching kids the fundamentals of programming (loops, conditional statements etc.) in a way that leads to a pit of success - children understand how some blocks fit together, yet others wont - and it even leads them to understand decomposing problems and basic refactoring (because too many nested blocks is confusing visually - and it's easy to grab a block and all it's children and put it somewhere else).
What interests/excites me is that where as Scratch looks a bit dated, and does not appeal visually to children beyond say 8 or 9.. this is an opportunity to appeal to kids/young adults in a wider age range - especially as there expectations for an app on a phone are lower (and they're given a much wider userbase with which to share there creations).
@bittercoder,
ReplyDeleteThanks for an interesting comment. I actually didn't know about AppInventor until today and haven't gotten an invitation yet.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA related Google Groups thread
ReplyDeleteI'm about to change my mind on App Inventor.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, they still didn't send me an invitation :)
More seriously:
a) Gina Trapani said on last TWIG, that App Inventor cannot generate a source code. What educational advantage could be in a tool which can only visually build application, but doesn't allow to see how it does it? Kids in the middle school are already smart enough to learn programming languages. In fact, they do it much faster than adults. But if App Inventor does not generate Java code, there is nothing to learn from.
b) Application which do generate code must generate a good code to serve as either learning or RAD tool. I have really bad memories with MS Tool called FrontPage editor. It was awful, a Nemesis of web developers. A code it generated (HTML, etc.) was awful, bloated, non-standard, almost impossible to modify. The same may be said about ASP applications generated by MS Access. When I started to work for my current company, a VP told us to "web-enable" existing MS Access database and we tried that automatic code generation. It was dreadful; we immediately realized that it is not a way to do anything.
Too many people mention Visual Basic in connection to App Inventor. If App Inventor will learn how to generate code and will do it a VB-way, I would not recommend to anyone to use it. VB is one of the worst languages ever existed. It teaches how people should not program.
On a positive note, there are things like Ruby On Rail and Lift - examples of really good RAD tools. Why not to expand App Inventor into something like that?
This is one of the progressive post.I like your blog idea .This is one of the beneficial post.I like your post basic instructions.
ReplyDeleteAndroid app developers
I really believe you will do much better in the future I appreciate everything you have added to my knowledge base.Admiring the time and effort you put into your blog.
ReplyDeleteAndroid developers
The classy construction is captivating and also, of line, big pots-- each this buoy be base close to seeking your fate at the online gambling establishment website bondibet.com. The papas prepared positive that the gambling enterprise was detailed with the newest intervals, so around every cardinal hebdomad the gamey brochure is upgraded. Over the previous irregular age, play taxis obtain been vying with everyone extra. This is mostly in arrears to the truth that playacting standing for valid money currently has obtain safety as well as delightful. Right here you buoy get an immense quantity of fissure standing for every sampling. Each of them is exemplified near to world prominent designers and also are not curled in like of a casino. Hither you desire get a potter, which is identified to everyone, and a rover, who is moreover notorious. In whatever instance, you prefer disburse your age with joy and also epinephrine. Single of the almost public crevice autos is Totem Island-- it is capable to move a competitor to a tinted islet, thither are largesse rounds and also a dual gamey hither. Attain you comparable State drolleries? So, Activity Y period is representing you! Come down right into the earth of this funniness, romp a gamey of risk and relocate your earnings. Whether you want to really feeling comparable a corsair, so romp the Fortunate Plagiarists crevice vehicle, which is conventionalized as old slit.
ReplyDelete