Chacham's Journal: Verbiage: Good books for Android Studio

So, i've been looking for a good book on Android. It's hard as almost all are out of date shortly after publication, and most of them say "do this now do that" and expect you to learn from doing. Some explain, but the explanations are more of the approach and what will be done, rather than why each thing is being done and alternative approaches (for better or worse.)

I found two books that i liked though. One was Learn Android Studio: Build Android Apps Quickly and Effectively. While the book quickly devolves into "do this, now do that," the earlier chapters walk through Android Studio itself, showing off what nearly every side button and menu option does, with examples to follow. It's not "if you do this, this option will help." It's, "type this in, now press ctrl- etc and watch this happen" Very nice. The asking price is expensive for that, but via a sale on Apress' website, i got it for $20. Not too bad for a book that made me feel comfortable with the tool itself.

The second book is Android Studio Development Essentials. I ignored it at first due to the stupid cover design (no, really, and yes, i know) and came to it later. Amazon lists the date of the first edition (even though they were selling the second edition) and Techtopia has the entire second edition online. (Even though there are ads to purchase it, i confirmed with the publisher that it is the full edition.) Anyway, the book looked good. So, i emailed the publisher to find out if there was an updated version. Well, the author was working on it just then, and it is becoming available this week. Sweet.

From a technical perspective, this book is far above the competition. It explains why things are done. Chapters are bite size around specific topics, and there is clear progression. Examples are explained before being done, then during and/or afterward. Rationale is explained, and other methods to achieve the same goal are either mentioned or given as examples.

For example, there are three ways to add views (aka widgets) to an Activity (the Android naming scheme must've been invented by a moron) it can be done via dragging and dropping, editing the xml, or in code. There's a chapter on each with examples, and he lists the pros and cons of each approach.

For all its good though, the writing style leaves what to be desired as the sentences can sound awkward. (In the 2nd edition, "whilst" was used, which also sounded awkward. The 3rd edition changed them to while. A find on the pdf found no instances of "whilst.") Nonetheless, they're information packed. And, at $10 for the ebook, i don't even care that much. The book is a steal.

I sent in a couple typos that have been corrected in the latest edition. And, the publisher sent me the 3rd edition yesterday, so i could get the latest without having to wait for it to be made available. Of course, i was asked to continue sending in typos with makes me even happier. You mean someone cares? :)

Anyway, i'm just so happy over the book and the publisher i had to scream somewhere. If you're looking for an Android book and want to understand what is going on, get this book. For $10, its a steal. And you can still preview the entire 2nd edition on Techtopia.

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12/7 Update: Added correction about whilst/while. Should have checked first. Silly me.