Lyra Blizzard Logan - Learn to Program with App Inventor: A Visual Introduction to Building Apps

A VISUAL INTRODUCTION TO BUILDING APPS

BY LYRA BLIZZARD LOGAN

San Francisco

LEARN TO PROGRAM WITH APP INVENTOR. Copyright 2020 by Lyra Blizzard Logan.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

Printed in USA

ISBN-10: 1-59327-968-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-968-4

Publisher: William Pollock
Production Editor: Meg Sneeringer
Cover Illustration: Josh Ellingson
Developmental Editor: Annie Choi
Technical Reviewer: Abigail Joseph
Copyeditor: Rachel Monaghan
Compositor: Meg Sneeringer
Proofreader: James Fraleigh
Indexer: Beth Nauman-Montana

For information on distribution, translations, or bulk sales, please contact No Starch Press, Inc. directly:
No Starch Press, Inc.
245 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
phone: 1.415.863.9900;
www.nostarch.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Logan, Lyra, author.
Title: Learn to program with App inventor : a visual introduction to building apps / Lyra Logan.
Description: San Francisco : No Starch Press, Inc., [2019]
Identifiers: LCCN 2019020522 (print) | LCCN 2019021958 (ebook) | ISBN
9781593279691 (epub) | ISBN 1593279698 (epub) | ISBN 9781593279684 (print)
| ISBN 159327968X (print)
Subjects: LCSH: Application software--Development. | Android (Electronic
resource) | Mobile computing. | Mobile apps. | Smartphones--Programming.
Classification: LCC QA76.76.A65 (ebook) | LCC QA76.76.A65 L64 2019 (print) |
DDC 005.3--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019020522

No Starch Press and the No Starch Press logo are registered trademarks of No Starch Press, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we are using the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor No Starch Press, Inc. shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it.

To Mom, who instilled the passion to learn and to teach

Lyra Blizzard Logan is a certified Perl, JavaScript, and Database Design Specialist and Web Development Professional who develops web applications using PHP and MySQL. She is an MIT Master Trainer in Educational Mobile Computing (App Inventor) and holds graduate certificates in Instructional Technology: Web Design and in Online Teaching and Learning. She earned her BA from Fisk University and JD from Harvard. Currently, Logan is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Florida Education Fund (FEF), a nonprofit that creates and implements educational programs for underrepresented groups. In addition, Logan directs FEFs pre-college programs, which include after-school and summer coding camps for elementary, middle, and high school students in Florida.

Abigail Joseph holds a PhD in Computer Science with an emphasis on data visualization. For 15 years she has been teaching technology, computer programming, and design thinking to middle school students and K12 educators in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a focus on web design, Processing Graphical Library, JavaScript, Scratch, App Inventor, and more. Beyond teaching, making, and the arts, her current passion is edstoria.com, which uncovers ways to help prevent teachers from vanishing from the educational landscape. She tweets at @drabigailjoseph.

Can a corporate attorney write a coding book in plain enough English for kids to understand? Only with the help of the team at No Starch Press. Thanks to publisher Bill Pollock and editors Annie Choi, Meg Sneeringer, and Rachel Monaghan for helping to make these words less and less complex draft after draft. Thanks to Dr. Abigail Joseph for technically reviewing the manuscript and helping write its accompanying lesson plans. Thanks also to artist Josh Ellingson for a fantastic cover.

I could not have written this book without Stephen Kamau, who planted the notion years ago that I could learn PHP; Lawrence Morehouse, who allowed me to start and expand FEFs out-of-school coding programs, which have become my laboratory for exposing underserved youth to computer programming; and my mother, the late Lora Ann Archey, who steered me away from the teaching profession, but inspired me through her lifes work in education to somehow find a way to teach.

I would not have finished this book without the enthusiastic encouragement of my late brother Clarence Chip Blizzard III, and niece Karen Isabella Blizzard, who proudly asked about my progress almost every day, and my husband Dr. Willie Logan, who has been my sounding board, mentor, and most ardent supporter for close to thirty years.

Technology influences all aspects of our lives, and computing jobs and opportunities abound. Its more important than ever for everyone to understand how computers work. Its especially important that kids, including those from underrepresented groups, know that they have the ability to write software, study computer science, or become computer programmers if they so choose.

In this book, youll learn how to make useful and exciting mobile softwareapps for phones and tabletswith App Inventor, while exploring key programming concepts along the way. Well create apps that send text messages, recognize speech, access a phones list of contacts, sense the phones location, operate the camera and camcorder, solve math problems, play video and sound, animate graphics, turn text into speech, and even respond to touch and let users draw on the screen!

Many young people around the world are using App Inventor to create apps like these to positively impact their communities. Kids in California developed an app that allows users to record and report graffiti and organize clean-up events. North Dakota middle school students created an app to encourage more recycling in their community. Middle school girls in Texas designed an app that uses the Global Positioning System (GPS) to guide visually impaired students around their school. Teens in Nigeria built an app that uses location sensing to help traffic cops catch offenders. Young women in Europe designed a crowdsourcing app to help residents find safe drinking water. A middle school boy in India developed an app to help parents locate their childs school bus and check if their child is on the bus. The possibilities for creative problem solving are endless!