This book sprang from years of delivering the Marakana Android Bootcamp training
class to thousands of software developers at some of the largest mobile companies
located on four continents around the world. Teaching this class, over time I saw what
works and what doesn’t. This book is a distilled version of the Android Bootcamp
training course that I developed at Marakana and fine-tuned over numerous
engagements.
My background is in Java from back before it was even called that. From the beginning,
I was very interested in embedded development as a way to program various devices
that surround us in everyday life. Because Java primarily took off in web application
development, most of my experience in the previous decade has been in building large
enterprise systems. Then Android arrived, and once again I became very excited about
building software for nontraditional computers. My current interests lie in using Android
on devices that may not even resemble a typical phone.
This book teaches anyone who knows Java (or a similar language) how to develop a
reasonably complex Android application. I hope you find this book fairly comprehensive
and that you find the example-based learning reasonably motivating. The goal of
Learning Android is to get you to think in Android terms.