Newbie getting into Android

[Guest jimmy191]

Hi, firstly I'd like to say thanks and very well done for all the roms and tewaks on here. They've helped me a ton and really made owning a Vega a much better experience than I would of had if it were on the stock junk, in fact if it wasn't for your ROMs I wouldn't have bought a Vega at all.

I bought a Vega last week since I had a little spare cash to buy another PS3 after mine suffered it's 3rd YLOD, instead of that I felt an urge to buy a Vega instead, and I'm really pleased with it! I've hardly put it down since I got it, much to the annoyance of my girlfriend! I finished uni with a degree in games design and programming last year and have been struggling to find a job or find something exciting to start working on to boost my skills. I'm really taking a shine to Android now and hope to start learning how to develop for it.

This Vega is my first touchscreen device and first tablet. Having messed about with it, plugging in my usb hub, dongle, keyboard and mouse and seeing what potential these things have has got me quite excited and can see how these things could soon replace laptops for general family homes (people who don't need professional uses from computers). It might actually be a platform where I'm not 15-20 years behind on and can publish and develop apps in an environment where I'm not constantly outshone by multi billion dollar companies and restricted by operating systems.

Couple of quick questions though.

I was wondering about making the scroll function of my usb mouse act as up/down swipe and the right click as double tap or long hold, would that work with an app/plug in or would it require messing with the OS?

Also does anyone have any good reading recommendations, at the moment I'm looking at "Beginning android games" published by Apress. I figured going from a games route would be better as it covers things from an angle I already know a bit about. I seem to work better when I'm on a project and can see progress rather than working towards a long unseen goal.

(Just noticed this might not be the best forum to post this, didn't look at the other forum sections since I've only got a vega, can you move this if needed please.)

Edited May 9, 2011 by jimmy191

[Guest owenoliver1]

for the mouse no dont think so would have to be specific to the mouse so would be dealt with at a lower level than an app

as for coding

http://www.codinggreenrobots.com/

as for a book

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?h...ed=0CHoQ8wIwAw#

[Guest jimmy191]

for the mouse no dont think so would have to be specific to the mouse so would be dealt with at a lower level than an app

as for coding

http://www.codinggreenrobots.com/

as for a book

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?h...ed=0CHoQ8wIwAw#

Thanks, having a look at the book now, looks really good. I like how it covers a little SQL, another one of my programming weakpoints (I know it's the mobile version, but should be similar no?)

Hmm, I was under the assumtion that the device would read the input from the scroll wheel but not have any commands to show how to deal with the info, I think it's a bit far advanced ahead of me now anyway, but I'd like to look at it in the future. It'd be nice if I could have my vega set up with an ebook open next to my PC and I could scroll the text with the mouse wheel instead of swiping. :unsure:

[Guest Zebrahead]

Thanks, having a look at the book now, looks really good. I like how it covers a little SQL, another one of my programming weakpoints (I know it's the mobile version, but should be similar no?)

Hmm, I was under the assumtion that the device would read the input from the scroll wheel but not have any commands to show how to deal with the info, I think it's a bit far advanced ahead of me now anyway, but I'd like to look at it in the future. It'd be nice if I could have my vega set up with an ebook open next to my PC and I could scroll the text with the mouse wheel instead of swiping. :unsure:

Wrt the mouse scrolling.

It would take a fair bit.

I'm not 100% sure on this (as I've not used a USB mouse), but I doubt it would be easy. The only way I think it could be done would be if you had a app that could first bind hardkeys (as if you had a sliding keyboard) to functions like swipes. Then, you'd probably have to configure whatever catches mouse input to simulate a press of that hardkey, in turn, simulating your action.

1. I don't think such an app exists.

2. I'd know how to configure the keyboard like this, but not a mouse.

But that aside, welcome ^^.

Developing apps shouldn't be too hard if you have a background in programming. If you're already familiar with java or another OOP language you should pick it up fairly quickly ^^.

Good luck,

Zeb

[Guest jimmy191]

Wrt the mouse scrolling.

It would take a fair bit.

I'm not 100% sure on this (as I've not used a USB mouse), but I doubt it would be easy. The only way I think it could be done would be if you had a app that could first bind hardkeys (as if you had a sliding keyboard) to functions like swipes. Then, you'd probably have to configure whatever catches mouse input to simulate a press of that hardkey, in turn, simulating your action.

1. I don't think such an app exists.

2. I'd know how to configure the keyboard like this, but not a mouse.

But that aside, welcome ^^.

Developing apps shouldn't be too hard if you have a background in programming. If you're already familiar with java or another OOP language you should pick it up fairly quickly ^^.

Good luck,

Zeb

Doing a bit of googling it seems theres no API for usb input devices. I assume it's all handled by the linux kernel then translated into soft input signals for the OS. Since theres clearly a driver installed for generic usb mice I'll try making a program to display current input signals on screen and see what signal the scroll wheel produces. Chances are there may be a signal coming in that just isn't handled, it'd be pointless to only included half a driver since scroll and extra 2 clicks is something that could be included in some hardware.

Other than that, I think I'll start with my 1000th hello world program before working on projects outside of the base API! :unsure:

Thanks for the welcome. I've done quite a bit of basic Java, C++ and C# (XNA) Progamming and lots of OO design and practise. I did a pretty mixed degree though doing computer games design and programming, so missed out on a bit. Being a jack of all trades doesn't get you very far though and I've been struggling finding a direction since most programming avenues are full of highly experienced developers and require a lot of knowledge and experience. Since android is pretty new and kind of overlooked compared to iOS I'm hoping it can be something I specialize in and gain ground in before it becomes overwhelmed with developers chasing the money. I think playing catch up to the big boys has put me off programming in most cases.

Edited May 9, 2011 by jimmy191

[Guest Zebrahead]

Doing a bit of googling it seems theres no API for usb input devices. I assume it's all handled by the linux kernel then translated into soft input signals for the OS. Since theres clearly a driver installed for generic usb mice I'll try making a program to display current input signals on screen and see what signal the scroll wheel produces. Chances are there may be a signal coming in that just isn't handled, it'd be pointless to only included half a driver since scroll and extra 2 clicks is something that could be included in some hardware.

Other than that, I think I'll start with my 1000th hello world program before working on projects outside of the base API! :unsure:

Thanks for the welcome. I've done quite a bit of basic Java, C++ and C# (XNA) Progamming and lots of OO design and practise. I did a pretty mixed degree though doing computer games design and programming, so missed out on a bit. Being a jack of all trades doesn't get you very far though and I've been struggling finding a direction since most programming avenues are full of highly experienced developers and require a lot of knowledge and experience. Since android is pretty new and kind of overlooked compared to iOS I'm hoping it can be something I specialize in and gain ground in before it becomes overwhelmed with developers chasing the money. I think playing catch up to the big boys has put me off programming in most cases.

Yeah, as far as I know (at least <3.0), android only supports using a mouse pointer as a kind of "point and click" with nothing more than that. With regard to input signals, can you not just logcat?

Either way, with honeycomb POTENTIALLY (it's a big potentially, but none the less), I wouldn't stress about it. I believe HC has full mouse integration (what with the transformers touchpad etc). You may even be able to take some mouse handling code from the transformer and port it to the VEGA ^^.

Zeb