Alex Li’s Status Report for 10/24/2020

This week I worked a lot on understanding Android App development. I am behind on schedule due to recent interviews, but I will have this whole week to catch up. I think the challenge for me was that although the design and conceptual parts of the app and development were easy to think through and develop, actually working in Android Studio has a steep learning curve. Trying to compile even a simple app can cause a lot of errors if you don’t understand the Android development framework. For example, without refactoring, using the XML tool (view the app’s GUI while editing) to add or remove a simple button can cause a lot of dependency errors. The great thing about the Android Studio though is that there are a lot of visual tools like the XML tool, or even an Android emulator whenever you run the code. For Android app development, I learned a lot more about Java, fragments (behavior or portion of UI), and activity (general term for single thing users are focused on) lifestyle. Finally, I put together some draft app layouts (with the add button for the home screen) and routed it to a lock registration screen. I am still working on how to save the data using text input with the developer tools I have. In summary, there were practical challenges that I didn’t expect to have, but I expect to be back on track next week because I will have a lot more time.