bookwormAT

Can someone further explain how the pre commit phase works? I don't get how/why "pre commits" work without feature branches?

How are my changes shared with the reviewer, if I there is no feature branch? Is my local code uploaded to that review tool mentioned in the article? And then what happens if the reviewer requests changes?

I probably did get this completely wrong, so thanks in advance for pushing me in the right direction.

We are using Kotlin in production for two projects. One is a spring boot backend for an online banking app for a large european bank. The other is an Android app for an NGO that gives out microloans to farmers who would not get a loan from a bank.

I find Kotlin a low-risk alternative to Java. Your code still feels like a normal Java project: You use the same frameworks, you have excellent tool support, you can keep searching for java questions on stackoverflow. Kotlin is fast and fully compatible with your Java code.

We are hiring at the moment, and our offer asks for an experienced Java/Spring developer. We just mention Kotlin at the end of the description.

Kotlin is not the right tool if you "hate" Java. It feels like the language that the Java 8 team would have built if backwards compatibility was not an issue.

Apart from some very useful syntactic sugar, it has

  - no checked exceptions
  - classes and methods are by default final
  - no primitives that need to be (auto)boxed to and from objects
  - no "static" context
  - first class functions
  - named function arguments that can have defaults
  - null safety
  - less broken generics

Well, I did not intent to vote that post, but now I upvoted it just to undo your mistake.

Wow, that ecosystem grows fast.

There is often a quite negative response to Github's decision to base Atom on a HTML/Javascript/CSS stack, due to the performance hit.

But it seems that it attracted a lot of developers to work for the platform.

That many phone manufactures don't update their software is not an Android problem. Would Lenovo update their devices more often when their operating system was not based on Android? Would Apple update less often when iOS was based on Android?

Lenovo, Samsung, Apple and Google are all in complete control of the devices they sell: they all control hardware, software and services themselves.

If the software is based on Android or not has nothing to do with how often these devices get updates.

I agree with your point, but "Google Android Play Music All Access Subscription" is an exaggeration. It's "just" Google Play Music All Access.

At your first attempt to rate an app on Google Play, you got a dialog warning you that this will be connected to and visible on your account.

I find this information extremely useful, because a +1 from someone i know is more interesting than 5 stars from some random user.

However, I should be able to hide this / opt out after the fact.

There is no actual tutorial, sorry. The best way to learn how to play EU is to watch a tutorial on youtube.

It's worth it, though...

Android supports Java 7 since October 2013.

What I miss on every HN app I tried is a focus on search. Maybe I'm using HN differently than most people, but I usually look for discussions on topics I'm interested in, instead of reading the top posts on all topics.

For example: I'm an Android developer, so I often browse hacker news by searching for "Android" in topics and comments, to see if there are any interesting discussions.

A great app for my usecase would allow me to search and quickly repeat previous searches right from the startpage.

You could add widgets that jump directly into saved searches.

this would explain why there are only submissions in english. But not why those submissions are blocked in other countries.

I'm not sure it is dumb if a company spokesman says something in favor of his companies current situation.

If you are famous for your hardware keyboard then of course you say anything that favors hardware keyboards.

If you just released a computer with 640kb RAM, then of course you say that this is enough for everybody.

Steve Jobs famously said the kindle would flop because "people don't read anymore"

I don't understand why Google can not roll this out internationally from the start. Why only US and UK?

The content is not subject to old copyright contracts, which is typically the argument not to launch something in Europe and its crazy copyright situation. And twitch is available everywhere.

If Google wants this to become a success, shouldn't they roll this out to as many people as possible and hope for network effects?

I've been there for the last 2 years, but this year I decided to ask my company for a flight to pycon instead.

For an Android developer, there are a lot of great talks at I/O, and you have the opportunity to meet the complete Android team and ask them questions.

But last year they reduced the event from three days to just two, and the first day starts with a 3 hour sales pitch for the press.

I met some interesting people there. One of them is working with me now, so that trip was definitely worth it. But I like to experience conferences like short educational trips where I learn new things with other people, and I think 5 days with the Python community will be more fun than another Google show.

Everything text is great if you listen to Stephen Frey reading it to you. But I personally think the "Goblin of Fire" (the 4th?) is the worst.

Actually, no. Being able to purchase a book over a web browser and installing a native application store on your device are very different things.

I think you can argue that a browser itself is an app store (you download and execute (web-)apps with it). But Apple does not allow the installation of different browser engines, so you can still not install an app store on your device.

In a time where every manufacturer produces reasonable high end, top quality hardware and software, the difference between winners and losers comes down to the simple question who advertises and distributes at international scale, and who does not.

Google seems to be willing to invest _some_ money on advertising Android right now. But they still can't ship.

Don't forget that the whole "Nexus 6 not available" thing is only about the US store already being out of stock. In Europe and Asia you cannot even expect to get the device until next year. And when it finally hits, I bet the advertising has already stopped, and Samsung's next big thing is what you see on TV.

Still a great phone.

most of the time google collects data it is because users want this data to be collected.

If Google would not store emails on their servers, people would leave Gmail and go to a service that does. If Google would store emails, but end-to-end encrypt it, people would leave gmail and put their data to a service with a working spam filter.

Google Now is very popular and a reason why people use Google services.

For Googles revenue it is far more important that people use their services (and therefore watch ads), then it is to create "better ads". I say that because nobody seems to get "smart ads" that are actually interesting to them. Googles gmail ads are little more than "if word is used in conversation, show product related to word".

they had just 15 minutes with the devices, plus a scripted demo from a sales person.

Google Inbox is indeed written in J2ObjC:

See https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/j2objc-discuss/5lMZN...

I highly doubt that the very few people who root their phones are the focus of Google's business plan regarding smart phones.

"I can't believe this is just now being fixed."

I always cringe when I read a complaint like this. Every larger project has a long issue list, and it is perfectly normal that an issue that is super important to some ends up further down on the priority list of the team.

The Android team implemented a lot of issues and features over the last decade. Just because there is an issue that deserves fixing doesn't mean it is the most important task at hand.

Or, "Ok Google, set a timer for 5 minutes" on Android

parent didn't write "they already finished merging the platforms"

"Smartphones will fail."

I guess you mean "smartwatch". Phones have been pretty successful so far ;)

Anyway, I think I do not agree with you, since I got the early ugly firstrun Android wear device from I/O, the LG Watch.

My experience is that the watch is by no means the next step in the evolution of personal computers or anything. But it is a very useful accessory for the computer you already have in your pocket.

Once you have it on your wrist you notice that

- phone ringtones are awkward and annoying to anyone around you.

- opening and unlocking your phone 125 times per day (This numbers is from Google) just to check for information and if there is something you need to act on right now is incredible annoying.

- voice commands, as limited as this is right now, is only useful if you can trigger it immediately when you need it. The few voice commands I find useful (set alarm, remind me to...) are much much more convenient if I can just say them.

So my point is that the watch is much more useful than a case, and only slightly less useful than headphones. If they start being equipped with more sensors and the cost falls below $80, they will become even more interesting.

there are power outlets on long distance flights.

having a second screen for notifications and short information bits is really useful. After a month with the LG Watch, I'm convinced this is an essential addon to use with a smartphone.

It feels really stupid now to think that my phone would make some kind of noise to inform me that something new happened, and that I should probably get it out and unlock it to check if this is maybe something I want to act on right now.

Android wear is smartly not about "an Android phone on your wrist". It acknowledges that your wrist is a great place to glance at information, that this is what watches have always been used for, and provides a dead simple interface for exactly this usecase.

It's the calculator apps and the pizza ordering apps (stupidly featured at I/O) that put this great product in danger of being misunderstood.

I leave the screen on and I'm at about 40% in the evening.

You can argue that this means Samsung does indeed make their own operating system.

The term OS, as it is used by media and most people today, is the software that is installed on the device before you install any additional apps to it. E.g the "App Store" is considered a part of iOS, the Internet Explorer as part of Windows, and the Homescreen and Dock of Max OSX is considered a part of OS X.

Since a Galaxy and a HTC One ship with different Applications, a different user interface and other key software components (you mentioned the filesystem on the Galaxy S), Android is less an operating system but but the cross platform foundation that most operating systems are based on today.

Since you have already experience with software development, I suggest you start with the tutorials and documentation on developer.android.com.

Apart from that, keep an eye open for a new revision of Reto Maier's "Professional Android 4 Development". Reto is head of Google's Android Developer relations team, and the book is a very detailed explanation of architecture, patterns, APIs and best practices on the platform.

The current edition is somewhat old, however. I expect a new version after L is released later this year.