Android and iOS App Developers/Programmers

[lasersbee]

Was curious if any LPF members have experience in
Android and/or iOS App development or programming..
If you have developed some Apps leave some info or
links and post them below... :yh:

Jerry

 

[lasersbee]

Well... I guess that answers my query...
No App developers exist on LPF...:cryyy:

Mods... You can close this Thread. Thanks.

Jerry

 

[Rivem]

Just saw this. Android, but not extremely experienced. Just made a few experimental apps for personal tools and practice. Haven't published any.

Edit: I've messed with ios development once, but I no longer have a device that runs it, and I don't have a mac to run Xcode anymore. That was before the change to Swift which I've heard makes things much easier.

 

[diachi]

Try over on PL maybe?

Thinking of a mobile LPM app? Wouldn't be a particularly complex project I don't imagine, although I'm not much of a developer and haven't touched Android/iOS so what do I know?

 

[Rivem]

Try over on PL maybe?

Thinking of a mobile LPM app? Wouldn't be a particularly complex project I don't imagine, although I'm not much of a developer and haven't touched Android/iOS so what do I know?

That's what I was figuring. Interfacing is really the hard part for mobile software since the libraries aren't all that great. I've actually had an easier time with Bluetooth than USB, but Bluetooth is harder to manage on the peripheral side.

I'm not sure how complex it could be made with iOS, but the math functions in Android aren't great, and if you have to go around them, it takes a lot of work.

 

[ZRaffleticket]

I've done some android development in college. Though that isn't an offer from me...

I tried getting my flir E4 to send its sensor data to my phone... but it turned out to be unbelievably hard, as I could not interface with the device to save my life. (and I know it can be done because they have windows programs to do it). It was so impossible that I had to scrap that idea and do something else as my capstone project in college.

Android doesn't have much of anything available to detect and interface with hardware. Just about everything with hardware would involve writing driver software/firmware from scratch; which is very... not fun.

I assume this is to get mobile LPM... that would be very difficult, nigh impossible, for amateur Android programmers. While I very well could try, I lack the expertise (and mostly time given my current job) to give it a shot.

Can't speak much for iOS... I would tend to think it's a similar situation.

 

[Rivem]

I tried getting my flir E4 to send its sensor data to my phone... but it turned out to be unbelievably hard, as I could not interface with the device to save my life. (and I know it can be done because they have windows programs to do it). It was so impossible that I had to scrap that idea and do something else as my capstone project in college.

Android doesn't have much of anything available to detect and interface with hardware. Just about everything with hardware would involve writing driver software/firmware from scratch; which is very... not fun.

Yep. Not very easy to work with hardware on either OS. Maybe iOS is better now, but not sure. I made a USB then Bluetooth multimeter that went through a few hardware revisions just to make interfacing easier on the software side.

 

[lasersbee]

Suuuure... Now that I've given up...
You guys come out of the woodwork.:crackup:

I've started looking into software that should
allow me to develop some iOS and Android Apps.
There are Free software packages on-line as
well as paid software packages.

Might start to learn App development with free
software and if it doesn't have enough features
that I'm looking for.. go to a paid software.

Thanks for responding...

BTW... It will be a Bluetooth project..

Jerry

 

[Rivem]

Suuuure... Now that I've given up...
You guys come out of the woodwork.:crackup:

I've started looking into software that should
allow me to develop some iOS and Android Apps.
There are Free software packages on-line as
well as paid software packages.

Might start to learn App development with free
software and if it doesn't have enough features
that I'm looking for.. go to a paid software.

Thanks for responding...

BTW... It will be a Bluetooth project..

Jerry

Haha Jerry. Sorry we missed it earlier. Must've gotten buried too quick.

If you're going to do external Interfacing, you shouldn't use anything other than XCode for iOS and Android Studio (or Eclipse) for Android. Both are free. You'll have to pay to publish for iOS though.

Android Studio is super resource-intensive, so eclipse may be a better bet if you don't have a powerful PC.

You'll need to work in a modified version of Java for Android and C or Swift in iOS for native apps.

iOS is easier to work with IMO, but libraries are way less open, and you need a Mac and have to pay to get the most out of development.

Cross-platform dev tools are generally terrible for peripheral implementation, so don't waste your money and/or time on one. Visual Studio has been used for Android by my dev friends though, but it's not worth using unless you want to do GUI Windows apps too. Way too heavy of an IDE for me.

Feel free to PM questions if you have any.

Edit: Z's suggestion is what you'd need for good cross-platform work, but I don't know much about it for Mobile dev. I use Android Studio, and it helped a lot for my Bluetooth project.

 

[ZRaffleticket]

If that's the case, check out xamarin with Visual Studio (my recommendation). You can't develop the exact same code for both iOS and android, but as far as I know a good portion of it is reusable between the two platforms. It's mostly .NET / C#.

I know some people like to use android studio (java); though that's explicitly for android only.

 

[lasersbee]

Thanks for the additional info guys...
Will definitely keep that in mind..

Unfortunately there is no future scenario
that shows me purchasing a Mac. Maybe
I'll start with just an Android App to see
how it works out.

@ Rivem
What Bluetooth project is that of yours ?

Jerry

 

[Rivem]

@ Rivem
What Bluetooth project is that of yours ?

Jerry

I made a DIY Bluetooth multimeter before they were really a thing. Nothing really fancy since it was a proof of concept, and the microcontroller I used had terrible ADCs.

Actually working on another more laser-related Bluetooth project right now for Windows.

Things get a lot easier when you can control both sides of the project and keep things simple. Interfacing with existing devices make things extremely difficult as Z says.