App Development: What to Use

Katherine H. Winters

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Outline

• Background– Why teach app development?– Skills needed

• Considerations– What are you trying to accomplish?– Platform– Language– Cost– IDE and tools– How to decide

• My experience• Group Discussion

Why Teach App Development

• It is about jobs!• Apple - $1.78 billion in app sales in 2010• Global - forecast to hit $4 billion in 2011• Job posting

– Android up 302% 1st qtr. 2011over 2010– iPhone up 220% 2010 – 2011– One freelance site had 4,500 positions [1]– Over half million jobs created since 2007[2]

Source

Needed Skills (expected)

• Strong java, HTML and technical skills• Understanding of OOP• Understanding of User Interface and

design patterns• Knowledge of and use of APIs• Move between languages

Source:[1] http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217885/Your_next_job_Mobile_app_developer_

Needed Skills (perhaps unexpected)

• Understand new design paradigms– Smaller real estate– Weaker processor– How users interact with devices– Highly targeted functionality– Web design not translate to mobile– More features does not equal better applications

Considerations

What are you trying to accomplish?

Platform

• Android• iPhone• Windows• Blackberry• Palm WebOS• Symbian

Language

• Major consideration– What do your students know?– How much do they know?– What do you need them to know?

Language

• Android– Java for native apps

• iPhone– Objective C– HTML & Java Script

• Windows– (6.5) Native C++ or supported .NET language– (7& 8) .NET; C#

Language

• Blackberry– Java ME – HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

• Palm WebOS– C, C++– Web technologies (JavaScript, HTML, AJAX)

• Symbian– Native C++– Other languages

Cost

• Android - free / open source• iPhone - $99 year for apple iPhone• Windows

– Professional ($1,200)– Dream Spark (free ?)

• Blackberry– Free SDKs and simulators– $20 to sign an app– $200 for every 10 in their store

• Palm WebOS - $99 year• Symbian – Few hundred

IDE and Tools

• Android – Android SDK– Eclipse plugin with emulator

• iPhone– iPhone SDK– Host of others

• Windows– Visual Studio– VS needs to match Windows Version

IDE and Tools

• Blackberry– JDE– Eclipse Java Plugin

• Palm WebOS– Palm SDK– Palm Developer Tools

• Symbian– ADT (application) – SDK (software)

How To Decide?

My experience

• Android• Eclipse• Terrible book

– Cengage didn’t have one at the time

• Developed 2 projects• Reports • What I would do differently

– More projects

Discussion

• Write on note cards given to you.– What are you trying to accomplish?– What do you do?– What text do you use?– How do you set your class up?– What questions do you have?

Sources

• http://www.devx.com/wireless/Article/45208• http

://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217885/Your_next_job_Mobile_app_developer_

• http://readwrite.com/2013/02/18/platform-as-a-service-6-ways-paas-will-change-the-enterprise