Week 4

The tutorials continue... Our goals from last week were a little too ambitious, especially when it was decided to add ten more videos mid-week to bring us to a total of sixty videos that were assigned for today. Several group members faced technical difficulties this past week too, such as Java projects that wouldn't compile or run with no obvious explanation.

Computer programs are written in programming languages, but computers cannot understand programming languages. For the computer to understand the program, the code must be translated from source code (written by a user in a programming language) to machine code (a format the machine can understand).  Once the code is compiled, it can be run.

Another issue was the AVD (Android Virtual Device) simulators. When setting up a new Android program, the user must select the Project Build Target, which essentially means the user must pick which Android Operating System platform to use. In order to use a certain platform, the user must have the correct libraries downloaded in the SDK Manager.

Then the user can set up the proper Virtual Device.

When run, the AVD looks like this:

As of class this week, everyone had covered the tutorials that show how to make a loading screen, how to add sound, how to set up a menu, and how to make and run a simple "Add 1/Subtract 1" program. By next week we expect to have a skeleton program of the entire project with active development going on in each of the five sections. One group member already has programmed and implemented a menu for a section.