Lee - Beginning Android 4 Application Development

CONTENTS

Beginning Android 4 Application Development

Published by

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-19954-1

ISBN: 978-1-118-22824-1 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-24067-0 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-26538-3 (ebk)

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To my family:

Thanks for the understanding and support while I worked on getting this book ready. I love you all!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

WEI-MENG LEE is a technologist and founder of Developer Learning Solutions ( www.learn2develop.net ), a technology company specializing in hands-on training on the latest mobile technologies. Wei-Meng has many years of training experience and his training courses place special emphasis on the learning-by-doing approach. This hands-on approach to learning programming makes understanding the subject much easier than reading books, tutorials, and other documentation.

Wei-Meng is also the author of Beginning iOS 5 Application Development (Wrox, 2010) and Beginning Android Application Development (Wrox, 2011). Contact Wei-Meng at .

ABOUT THE TECHNICAL EDITOR

CHAIM KRAUSE is a Simulation Specialist at the US Armys Command and General Staff College where he develops various software products on a multitude of platforms, from iOS and Android devices to Windows desktops and Linux servers, among other duties. Python is his preferred language, but he is multilingual and also codes in Java and JavaScript/HTML5/CSS, and others. He was fortunate to begin his professional career in the software field at Borland where he was a Senior Developer Support Engineer for Delphi. Outside of computer geek stuff, Chaim enjoys techno and dubstep music and scootering with his two sled dogs, Dasher and Minnie.

CREDITS

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Robert Elliott

SENIOR PROJECT EDITOR

Ami Sullivan

TECHNICAL EDITOR

Chaim Krause

PRODUCTION EDITOR

Kathleen Wisor

COPY EDITOR

Luann Rouff

EDITORIAL MANAGER

Mary Beth Wakefield

FREELANCER EDITORIAL MANAGER

Rosemarie Graham

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING

David Mayhew

MARKETING MANAGER

Ashley Zurcher

BUSINESS MANAGER

Amy Knies

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Tim Tate

VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE GROUP PUBLISHER

Richard Swadley

VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER

Neil Edde

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Jim Minatel

PROJECT COORDINATOR, COVER

Katie Crocker

PROOFREADER

Nancy Carassco

INDEXER

Johnna VanHoose Dinse

COVER DESIGNER

Ryan Sneed

COVER IMAGE

Viktoriya Sukhanova / iStockPhoto

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

WRITING THIS BOOK HAS been a roller-coaster ride. Working with just-released software is always a huge challenge. When I first started working on this book, the Android 4 SDK had just been released; and wading through the documentation was like finding a needle in a haystack. To add to the challenge, the Android emulator for the tablet is extremely slow and unstable, making the development process very laborious.

Now that the book is done, I hope your journey will not be as eventful as mine. Like any good guide, my duty is to make your foray into Android tablet development an enjoyable and fruitful experience. The book you are now holding is the result of the collaborative efforts of many people, and I wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge them here.

First, my personal gratitude to Bob Elliott, executive editor at Wrox. Bob is always ready to lend a listening ear and to offer help when its needed. It is a great pleasure to work with Bob, as he is one of the most responsive persons I have ever worked with! Thank you, Bob, for the help and guidance!

Of course, I cannot forget Ami Sullivan, my editor (and friend!), who is always a pleasure to work with. After working together on four books, we now know each other so well that we know the content of incoming e-mail messages even before we open them! Thank you, Ami!

Nor can I forget the heroes behind the scenes: copyeditor Luann Rouff and technical editor Chaim Krause. They have been eagle-eye editing the book, making sure that every sentence makes sense both grammatically and technically. Thanks, Luann and Chaim!