At my new position I am only doing Android development where before I was doing Android / iPhone and desktop Java. First off it is a bit weird only having one computer, one IDE, one mouse and one keyboard to deal with. Everything is the same each day. You don't have to mentally switch gears multiple times a week.
What it does make you think about is pushing the one platform you are on even farther than before. I was always in a bit of a rush. I needed this working on both iOS and Android so I got it working on each but maybe not the best on each. Now I can say "I need this working on the Android and I need to to work and look the best possible." I don't care if what I am doing it pain in the behind on iOS, there is another team to worry about that. I don't have to think about desktop Java at all.
I am finding this new mentality is really helping me discover areas of the Android platform I had not had the time or energy to investigate in the past. I have been playing around with animations. We need to swap an image view between the front and back of a check. I started with a simple one, changed it to a fade in / fade out as suggested by another developer then I switched it again on Friday to a simple animation that makes it look the check is flipping. I am pretty happy with the current iteration.
The other bonus is I have the ear of a second Android developer. Being the solo mobile guy at the last place had a number of disadvantages. No one to bounce ideas off of, do code reviews, suggest a better way, a new animation, better color schemes, different layout ideas etc. The other guy has a lot of different Android experience than I do. He had worked with JSON before so got that part running quickly. I had done custom controls and a lot of layouts so I had that handled. We both know to use styles, the string table and other XML files to keep things clean.
The code we inherited looked like it was the first Android project written by this off shore team. We had a lot of general clean up to do before we even wanted to touch the guts as they did not follow any of the general Android guidelines.
We are finishing up the process of making this a real Android app. They locked all the screens into portrait. That may be acceptable for a game but not for a main text based application. The iPhone team locked it all into portrait too because doing both portrait and landscape under iOS can be a pain. Sure, there are some gotchas in Android but it is pretty darn flexible on the layout side of things and it is easy to create the directories you need. Plus we are working on having it look nice on phones and tablets. The iOS team is not doing a universal app so iPad owners will get the less the satisfactory 2x experience.
They are not too worried about Android tablets telling us there is little demand there. Not sure they are looking forward enough. There are going to be a lot of 7" tablets from Google and Amazon under the tree this year along with iPads and iPad minis. I know I use my tablet a lot around the house and I figure more and more people will be using them too. For this battle I am making sure it looks nice and is operational on a tablet. It is not tablet optimized but if you use a tablet I don't want you to scream and run away when you fire up this application.
I would suggest they do a universal app for iOS too but I think that will fall on deaf ears. The current team is very new to iOS, learning it on the fly in fact. Since I sit a converted break room with the other Android developer and two of the iOS team I get to hear their issues. Most of them I know about having done iOS development for a year. At least they are going after iOS 5.x and above and can use the new memory management aspect. The current code does not but all new code can. That will be a huge help. I was using that on the final iPad project I worked on at the old job and I know I could get used to doing it.
The one thing I really miss from the old job is dual 24" monitors. I have a dual screen set up now, the laptop screen and a 21" screen with a less than stellar resolution. The Android emulator barely fits on a screen height wise. Developing means you have a ton of windows open: Outlook, instant messenger, browser, text editor for notes, Eclipse, emulator, music player, command prompt, paint program, etc. These little 1400x900 screens just don't cut it. A a contractor I am considering picking up a bigger screen and hauling it in just to keep my self slightly sane. Companies need to realize how important screen space is to a developer. My dual screen set up at home is a better configuration than I have at work and that is kind of sad.
All in all it has been a good experience so far. They have work lined up so I know there is plenty to do. I am becoming a better Android programmer every day and using more of what the SDK has to offer. As long as I am growing at a job I am happy. The people are friendly and having another Android coder next to me has be a huge help.
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