Hello to “Hello, Android”
Guess I’m on a book “review” kick lately. I wasn’t planning on posting back to back about the two Android books I’ve bought, but I just received my bound copy of “Hello, Android” by Ed Burnette the other day. Call me old school, but I still prefer a bound book to a pdf. I’ve had a pre-release pdf copy for a couple of months now, and wrote about it in a previous post, but just haven’t been able to bring myself to get all my thoughts down on “paper” till I got the actual book. So here’s my take…
For me, the value of a technical book is derived by the tid-bits of information i pick up as I leaf through them, I’m really not that good about reading tech books cover to cover. Therefore, the section on menu externalization (Section 3.7), and setting up landscape screens (page 39) almost covered the cost of the book. Add in the large section on OpenGL and the extensive discussion with examples for accessing the device via JavaScript and you’ve easily got me sold on a worthwhile book. Ed also spends a whole chapter on localization which I don’t have a use for yet in my applications I’m writing, but will definitely make use of in the future.
“Hello, Android” doesn’t cover as much as “Professional Android Application Development” does, but it does cover some some different subjects and some other subjects in more detail the PAAD. I’m definitely happy to add both these guides to my bookshelf. Hope you get as much out of them as i have.
