Beginning Android

SUMMARY

This chapter provided a brief overview of Android, and highlighted some of its capabilities. If you have followed the sections on downloading the tools and SDK, you should now have a working system — one that is capable of developing more interesting Android applications than the Hello World application. In the next chapter, you will learn about activities and some of the new features in Android 3.0.

EXERCISES

1. What is an AVD?

2. What is the difference between the android:versionCode and android:versionName attributes in the AndroidManifest.xml file?

3. What is the purpose of the strings.xml file?

Answers to the Exercises can be found in Appendix C.

WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THIS CHAPTER

TOPIC	KEY CONCEPTS
Android OS	Android is an open-source mobile operating system based on the Linux operating system. It is available to anyone who wants to adapt it to run on their own devices.
Languages used for Android application development	You use the Java programming language to develop Android applications.
Android Market	The Android Market hosts all the various Android applications written by third-party developers.
Tools for Android application development	Eclipse IDE, Android SDK, and the ADT
Activity	An activity is represented by a screen in your Android application. Each application can have zero or more activities.
The Android manifest file	The AndroidManifest.xml file contains detailed configuration information for your application. As your application becomes ...