GuNews uploaded to Google Play

GuNews app

Finally I published my real first app, GuNews a news headlines app, in the Google Play. It was mainly an exercise in Android programming. And what an exercise!

If you want to check it out, click here.

I started my programming adventure by taking a nanodegree program in Android programming from Udacity+Google, which I finished in August 2019.

When I finished that course I gained a bit self-confidence in Java for Android.

However when I tried to rewrite the news app GuNews to follow the recommended Android Architecture Component (Android JetPack), simply AAC, I immediately faced challenges.

First I realised that Google has moved on from Java to Kotlin when providing code examples for AAC. Grrrhhh.... I am a total beginner with only basic Java knowledge and must have to deal with a foreign language Kotlin.

Second I found out that many solutions provided by diligent coders on stockoverflow are meant for the time before Android before AAC. So it was really a huge challenge for a beginner to find code solution for a MVVM compliant app by playing around with codes from pre MVVM era.

My appeal to Google: Please stop letting people studying the Android programming basics with Java, as new code samples on Android developers website are only provided in Kotlin. Luckily the old ones are in both: java and kotlin.