t can be said that, for a while, traditional desktop application developers have been spoiled. This is not to say that traditional desktop application development is easier than other forms of development. However, as traditional desktop application developers, we have had the ability to create almost any kind of application we can imagine. I am including myself in this grouping because I got my start in desktop programming.
One aspect that has made desktop programming more accessible is that we have had the ability to interact with the desktop operating system, and thus interact with any underlying hardware, pretty freely (or at least with minimal exceptions). This kind of freedom to program independently, however, has never really been available to the small group of programmers who dared to venture into the murky waters of cell phone development. NOTE
I refer to two different kinds of developers in this discussion: traditional desktop application developers , who work in almost any language and whose end product, applications, are built to run on any “desktop” operating system; and Android developers , Java developers who develop for the Android platform. This is not for the purposes of saying one is by any means better or worse than the other.
Rather, the distinction is made for purposes of comparing the development styles and tools of desktop operating system environments to the mobile operating system environment, Android.
Brief History of Embedded Device Programming
For a long time, cell phone developers comprised a small sect of a slightly larger group of developers known as embedded device developers. Seen as a less “glamorous” sibling to desktop—and later web—development, embedded device development typically got the
Key Skills & Concepts
● History of embedded device programming
● Explanation of Open Handset Alliance
● First look at the Android home screen
Chapter 1: What Is Android? 3