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Murach’s Android programming (2nd ed.)
Murach J., Mike Murach & Associates, Inc., Fresno, CA, 2015. 663 pp. Type: Book (978-1-890774-93-6)
Date Reviewed: Feb 8 2017

Murach Books has become a reliable resource for high-level computer programing languages, software for client/server procedures, and database applications. This book is the natural progression of these texts. Whereas their other books concentrated on writing applications for typical computer devices, this treatise considers the smartphone platform hosting Android apps. For those familiar with computer programming, the gap of knowledge to program regular personal computers versus phone apps is wide. The latter requires more techniques due to its inherent graphics environment, limited resources, and intense security settings and preferences. This edition uses the official integrated development environment (IDE) for the Android platform developer, called Android Studio, whereas the first edition used the Eclipse IDE. Both of these assume a familiarity with the Java programming language. Murach has a beginner’s Java book for those who need to learn the language as a prerequisite.

Murach books all have a consistent approach to the material they present, which is pedagogically unique and not present in other authors’ approaches. The two main notable differences are the “paired” pages or listings and the modular organization of the chapters so that later chapters can be investigated in an independent, if not personal, manner of choice. Many authors consider their listings of code as an almost static figure. They are there for reference and the reader has to flip back and forth through the pages to go back to the point of the discussion. Murach books actively discuss what to expect from the code listings and the essential features on the page precisely opposite the actual listing. In that sense, the description page is directly connected (paired) with the listing itself. While a code guru may consider this slightly redundant, this approach has won the praise of its readership.

The second manner in which Murach books differentiate themselves from other approaches is the modularized organization of their chapters. Many authors require you to read the entire book in order to get a sufficient understanding of the material before you can develop an application. Murach organizes the chapters into sections in such a way that once you have mastered the first sections, you can then continue with any other section of the book. Each advanced section is independent from the others. For example, in this text, the first section (116 pages) deals with the starting, finishing, testing, and debugging of Android apps. Then, Section 2 (168 pages) teaches the essential knowledge of handling events, layout on the phone, preferences, themes, and fragments. Fragments are pieces of a user interface (UI) that can focus on a single activity. The example used in this section is a visual calculator for restaurant tips.

Section 3 (110 pages) has a wonderful application to teach threads, services and notifications, and receiving broadcasts. This application is that of a news feed reader (such as Twitter or any other short message service (SMS) feed) and has many important applications. Section 4 (126 pages) deals with advanced application building with SQL(lite) databases and content providers. SQL(lite) databases are embedded into the application and therefore do not have to rely on back-end servers or worry about network connections that went down. The example application developed is that of a daily routine task list for personal organization. Section 5 (80 pages) concentrates on the deployment of the finished app and how to integrate location and map information. Since the reality is that most phone app development is done on a desktop computer, the author provides three appendices (totaling 57 pages) that instruct the reader on how to use the book on a Windows, Mac, or Linux-based machine.

This book follows the long line of established texts published by Murach. Their treatment of Android programming is no exception. It is an essential read for someone trying to learn this technology.

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Reviewer:  R. Goldberg Review #: CR145052 (1705-0239)
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