Basic4Android MagBook

[nwhitfield]

I've spent the last month working on a project all about Basic4Android, for Dennis Publishing in the UK. It's a magbook, which is essentially a single issue of a magazine dedicated to one topic - I've been doing this as a writer and editor for many years now.

A MagBook is 144 pages, standard magazine size, which means that it's got about the same amount of content as a modest book (about 66,000 words), but the format makes it much easier to do things like step by step examples.

This one will be called Build Your Own Android App, and will be on sale in the UK on the 29th of May; it should be available by mail order elsewhere, and I'll post details about that when I know more.

It starts from the basics, and explores different aspects of Android and B4A, up to coding an app and distributing it via the Play Store; I'm sure it'll turn out that there are plenty of other things I could have included, or perhaps done in a different order, but overall I'm pretty pleased with what I managed to put together in a month, which also included creating the simple 'Type Attack' app that I mentioned a couple of days back.

Between now and the on sale date, I'll be adding more information, including code samples, to a dedicated site that I've set up at http://nwcode.info - it's pretty basic there at the moment.

Thanks to Erel for his support with the project, and to the authors of all libraries and code snippets that help make B4A such a great tool to have used for a project like this.

 

[IanMc]

This is brilliant Nigel! Good luck with it and I'll certainly buy it when I see it.

It's this kind of thing that managers of IT departments will see and then go 'hmmmm.... we need us some B4a programmers'

 

[andymc]

This is good news Nigel. Do you know where it will be on sale? I live in the UK so would be interested in picking up a copy.

 

[nwhitfield]

Hopefully, as they say, "in all good newsagents"

They're published by Dennis, who also own Computer Shopper, Computer Active, Mac User, PC Pro and others, so you should find it in the places where you see those on sale (or any of the other titles listed at http://www.magbooks.com/mag-books/ too).

 

[myriaddev]

Love the book on B4A! I will love this 144 page MagBook!!

 

[nwhitfield]

I hope people will like it - and all feedback will be appreciated, good or bad. With many of these things, if they sell well, the company does another version a year or so later, updated as necessary; for example, the various guides to Apple devices have updates to make sure they cover the newest devices

 

[nwhitfield]

The magazine is due to go on sale next week; I think it looks pretty good (though annoyed at some typos that have crept in there!)

I'm still working on the website for it, but I have put code snippets for four of the five chapters online, so people can copy and paste when they're experimenting, and I've also listed the contents of each chapter, so you can get an idea of what's included.

Still some downloads etc to do, which I hope I'll have finished by the on sale date!

http://nwcode.info

 

[IanMc]

This is so totally cool as it has the potential to reach whole other audiences, you can just imagine students, teachers, hobbyist programmers walking around WHSmith's and seeing it, 'ooh, Basic4android, program android in Basic? hmmm interesting I'll just buy that'...

I'm saving up my pennies and will be looking for it next week

 

[nwhitfield]

The website is now, I think, finished, with lots of code fragments, plus all the code for the Type Attack game we show you how to create in the magazine, with plenty of comments, and two intermediate versions that hopefully help you work out how things progressed from the basic part of the project to the finished product on the Play Store.

The front page of the site now has a picture of the cover on it too, so you'll know what to look for in all good newsagents.

If anyone does spot errors in the mag, do let me know, and I'll add errata to the site. I know there are some nasty typos too; sadly I didn't get to see proofs before it was printed.

 

[Tom Christman]

Just a quick heads up....If you go to the
http://nwcode.info
website and download code samples, be aware that all the code examples except the Temp converter fired off my super spyware software with a warning!

 

[nwhitfield]

Really? That's weird. Can you tell me exactly what the scanner says?

The files are just B4A projects saved as zips, so you can see what's in them even in a text editor. Not quite sure what would trigger something like that. Which spyware tool are you using?

Update: just downloaded them on my Mac and scanned with Sophos and no problems reported. If there is something, I'd obviously like to get it fixed before the mag hits the streets.

 

[Tom Christman]

Sure, the warning is: "gametest1.zip is not commonly downloaded and could be dangerous." This was true for all but the Temperature Converter.

 

[Tom Christman]

I use Superantispyware.

 

[nwhitfield]

Not heard of that one; presumably a Windows tool? Is there any specific spyware it reports?

 

[nwhitfield]

That's a very vague message!

 

[Tom Christman]

It's a Windows tool....the free version. It simply indicates the message I quoted after the zip file is downloaded. I downloaded the Game test 1 twice and got the same message both times. The message is accompanied by an option menu to keep or discard the download.

 

[Erel]

I didn't get any warning. The file is clean: https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/...cb6fb235ca31456136dc1839/analysis/1400994848/

 

[nwhitfield]

Shameless reminder - this should be on sale today, "in all good newsagents"

If you spot any glaring errors in it, let me know!

 

[miquel]

The website is now, I think, finished, with lots of code fragments, plus all the code for the Type Attack game we show you how to create in the magazine, with plenty of comments, and two intermediate versions that hopefully help you work out how things progressed from the basic part of the project to the finished product on the Play Store.

The front page of the site now has a picture of the cover on it too, so you'll know what to look for in all good newsagents.

If anyone does spot errors in the mag, do let me know, and I'll add errata to the site. I know there are some nasty typos too; sadly I didn't get to see proofs before it was printed.

Unable to purchase from Magbook website yet...

 

[nwhitfield]

I'm not sure how often that gets updated; I'll try to find out. It may also be worth checking on Amazon, as some of the MagBook titles are sold there. I've just had a quick search, and it's not listed yet, but I'll keep an eye out (note that there is an Android magbook edited by me listed there, but it's last year's "Unofficial Manual", so don't buy that by mistake)