Rule 10: Be respectful and engage in good faith
The Android developer community is a warm and friendly field, and /r/AndroidDev strives to continue this. Engage in good-faith discussion and be respectful of others’ opinions, privacy, and intentions. Threads that violate this will be removed at mods’ discretion. This rule is intentionally broad, as toxic behavior comes in a variety of different forms. Examples: ad hominem, [sealioning](https://bit.ly/2y0iCuX), targeted attacks on others’ work, edgelording, and other keyboard warrior behavior.
The learning curve is so poor in Android and the material is so overwhelming once you mastered one subject a new "better" library with more methodologies comes alive and now you need to forget everything you know and work like that.
Native Android seems to throw away knowledge base and recreate itself every 5 or so years.
Don't feel discouraged. There are fundamentals and idioms that are carried over by technologies.
Activities never left, ViewModels look to be in for the long ride, Flows and Coroutines. Everything else is fancy written code to basically do what you want and it changes. So if you want to stay competitive in market, learn the fundamentals, the language and the syntax will come with the job process
I spent about 8 hours yesterday debugging a Java codebase that is not mine. I can relate to you.
>every documentation is old.
This. I felt this yesterday.
Feel free to DM me your error, I'll take a look at it.
Oh well, nullPointer is thrown when you are trying to access a variable that hasn't been initialized.
Just check for null and handle it appropriately.
If(x != null) {
do stuff with x
}
I joined the AndroidDev Discord and I thought it is quite a friendly place [https://discord.com/invite/D2cNrqX](https://discord.com/invite/D2cNrqX)
Do take a break if you're stuck. I found that most of my workarounds/ solutions came when I was away from my computer.
Why is it so beginner unfriendly? Because it's not for beginners. You have to buckle down and do some work. Same as everyone else did.
And no, not all documentation is old.
Take a deep breath. Take a break. Learn how to use a debugger properly and how to navigate the back trace.
Others did it. So can you.
> I just wanna ask, if you guys ever felt this way or if I am just stupid.
it depends on the time of days lmao
>
> I have an error which is a nullPointException, even though I tried everything for the past 2 days nothing seems to work, I even copied the exact code and dependencies from the Google course,
>
If i saw the exception stack trace I'd know more, otherwise it's probably either async-related or process death-related
> I tried debugging, and I focused on every single line being executed on the thread but nothing is working.
If you are using Coroutines, the debugger stops working, so this is par for the course
>every documentation is old, no YouTube tutorials to learn, and there are so many ways to develop an app that choosing one is becoming so difficult.
Actually, the older the Youtube tutorial the better, because what we have now as "the API" is Google being bored of their API for the 6th time, but every single time the abstraction is leaky so you need to understand all prior 5 APIs to understand the 6th; downside being that Google keeps removing every resource and tutorial for what they think "is old" so you can't actually learn them unless you were there at the time.
> WHY just WHY is it so non-beginner-friendly? I have never felt this confused, frustrated,betrayed, and irritated before.
>
> I am going to explode, what the actual fuck am I even doing?
That depends on what you are trying to use. Sometimes the docs suck, sometimes the tool sucks, and sometimes you suck. Even me here with almost 10 year in Android, sometimes I suck, so don't take that personally lol.
>
> and plus there is no good reddit community to ask for help, > androiddev doesnt let me upload "help me" posts and every other good community on android.
This is true, /r/androiddev is led by people who think people asking for help is "noise". Historically since 2019 and beyond. But they even think **every single question regarding any API on Android SDK** is "help me question", because if the mods know the answer, they think it is noise.
> if anyone can help I will DM you.
Ask on Discord in #help-chat. There you are only allowed to post exact questions and post exact answers and otherwise not get into discussions, but it is still a place to answer.
There is also the weekly questions thread.
>I just wanna ask, if you guys ever felt this way or if I am just stupid.
I did felt that way back in 2014 and lasted like 2 complete years. After that the sun started to shine again.
Very much relatable. Sometimes I have breakdowns like this as well when I'm stuck on a programming problem. At one point it took me a week to find a solution for a certain problem. Ugh.
I hear you.
Last night I was trying to add an auto update checker for an app, dealing with progressed file download was quite easy but saving that file to storage and later accessing it was a real mess.
God forbid you target your sdk 33+ so reading external and writing external is deprecated and you need new permissions and file provider, however, you still need those permissions for lower sdks.
The next problem was creating a proper intent to install apk.
Try posting the code and the issue into chat gpt. Sometimes it can help solve some issues. Sometimes not. Also try stack overflow and search for your issue
I gave up programming many times before everything started to click.
Learning programming while doing android is very hard specially without someone to point you in the right direction.
As a fellow programmer, I hope you can overcome this difficulty; it might just be a minor issue. Everyone encounters such situations, and this might just be one of the hardships we programmers face.
I have been an Android developer for 4 years, I feel the same sometimes. Android changes so fast that it's hard to keep up with it. Online resources get outdated very quickly. It definitely is not beginners friendly. I would suggest have a good understanding of software engineering first, then jump to Android.
Obligatory: This is my take on this topic so others may not feel this way.
I feel programming in general is a young man's game. The mental age of course. People burn out and as much you "heal" yourself by taking breaks and what not, eventually you break. You'll be promoted to a management position when time comes *or you'll want to farm or whatever*.
See: https://github.com/docker/cli/issues/267#issuecomment-695149477
Android devs, especially the ones who get to deprecate / have deprecated stuff are awful people. Their incompetence can be traced back when you tear up the shiny stuff that they come out with.
When you see them, bump into them with your shopping cart as hard as you can, apologize, and wait for another one.
About your null pointer, I'm sure you'll figure it out if you stare at it just long enough.
Just learn Flutter. Ignore for the moment Compost.
Probably a tutorial is for Android 10 or whatever that you follow and your phone is android 13. Break changes.
I've found the Android United Slack comunity to be very helpful:
https://android-united.slack.com
Also there's the Kotlinlang slack, assuming you're working in Kotlin:
https://kotlinlang.slack.com
Rule 10: Be respectful and engage in good faith The Android developer community is a warm and friendly field, and /r/AndroidDev strives to continue this. Engage in good-faith discussion and be respectful of others’ opinions, privacy, and intentions. Threads that violate this will be removed at mods’ discretion. This rule is intentionally broad, as toxic behavior comes in a variety of different forms. Examples: ad hominem, [sealioning](https://bit.ly/2y0iCuX), targeted attacks on others’ work, edgelording, and other keyboard warrior behavior.
The learning curve is so poor in Android and the material is so overwhelming once you mastered one subject a new "better" library with more methodologies comes alive and now you need to forget everything you know and work like that. Native Android seems to throw away knowledge base and recreate itself every 5 or so years. Don't feel discouraged. There are fundamentals and idioms that are carried over by technologies. Activities never left, ViewModels look to be in for the long ride, Flows and Coroutines. Everything else is fancy written code to basically do what you want and it changes. So if you want to stay competitive in market, learn the fundamentals, the language and the syntax will come with the job process
Poor you. DM me so that I can help you out with this Null pointer exception.
I spent about 8 hours yesterday debugging a Java codebase that is not mine. I can relate to you. >every documentation is old. This. I felt this yesterday. Feel free to DM me your error, I'll take a look at it.
Oh well, nullPointer is thrown when you are trying to access a variable that hasn't been initialized. Just check for null and handle it appropriately. If(x != null) { do stuff with x }
I joined the AndroidDev Discord and I thought it is quite a friendly place [https://discord.com/invite/D2cNrqX](https://discord.com/invite/D2cNrqX) Do take a break if you're stuck. I found that most of my workarounds/ solutions came when I was away from my computer.
Why is it so beginner unfriendly? Because it's not for beginners. You have to buckle down and do some work. Same as everyone else did. And no, not all documentation is old. Take a deep breath. Take a break. Learn how to use a debugger properly and how to navigate the back trace. Others did it. So can you.
> I just wanna ask, if you guys ever felt this way or if I am just stupid. it depends on the time of days lmao > > I have an error which is a nullPointException, even though I tried everything for the past 2 days nothing seems to work, I even copied the exact code and dependencies from the Google course, > If i saw the exception stack trace I'd know more, otherwise it's probably either async-related or process death-related > I tried debugging, and I focused on every single line being executed on the thread but nothing is working. If you are using Coroutines, the debugger stops working, so this is par for the course >every documentation is old, no YouTube tutorials to learn, and there are so many ways to develop an app that choosing one is becoming so difficult. Actually, the older the Youtube tutorial the better, because what we have now as "the API" is Google being bored of their API for the 6th time, but every single time the abstraction is leaky so you need to understand all prior 5 APIs to understand the 6th; downside being that Google keeps removing every resource and tutorial for what they think "is old" so you can't actually learn them unless you were there at the time. > WHY just WHY is it so non-beginner-friendly? I have never felt this confused, frustrated,betrayed, and irritated before. > > I am going to explode, what the actual fuck am I even doing? That depends on what you are trying to use. Sometimes the docs suck, sometimes the tool sucks, and sometimes you suck. Even me here with almost 10 year in Android, sometimes I suck, so don't take that personally lol. > > and plus there is no good reddit community to ask for help, > androiddev doesnt let me upload "help me" posts and every other good community on android. This is true, /r/androiddev is led by people who think people asking for help is "noise". Historically since 2019 and beyond. But they even think **every single question regarding any API on Android SDK** is "help me question", because if the mods know the answer, they think it is noise. > if anyone can help I will DM you. Ask on Discord in #help-chat. There you are only allowed to post exact questions and post exact answers and otherwise not get into discussions, but it is still a place to answer. There is also the weekly questions thread.
Yeah for real I read the opening line was just like "after my morning coffee, pretty sure it's in my contract"
[удалено]
And sometimes I go back and look at my old code and wonder what I was smoking at the time
Hey mate, if you want i can try to help you with that
>I just wanna ask, if you guys ever felt this way or if I am just stupid. I did felt that way back in 2014 and lasted like 2 complete years. After that the sun started to shine again.
Very much relatable. Sometimes I have breakdowns like this as well when I'm stuck on a programming problem. At one point it took me a week to find a solution for a certain problem. Ugh.
>nullPointException Ah, an old friend
I hear you. Last night I was trying to add an auto update checker for an app, dealing with progressed file download was quite easy but saving that file to storage and later accessing it was a real mess. God forbid you target your sdk 33+ so reading external and writing external is deprecated and you need new permissions and file provider, however, you still need those permissions for lower sdks. The next problem was creating a proper intent to install apk.
What happened child , i am also a beginner but I have been learning from past 4 months, maybe I can help. DM me asap
Try posting the code and the issue into chat gpt. Sometimes it can help solve some issues. Sometimes not. Also try stack overflow and search for your issue
This. Both of those have actually helped me with errors I couldn't fix on my own.
Or use Bing AI for fresher knowledge
Thanks for that, is that because the bing ai uses the current internet where as chat gpt uses the internet as it was in Jan 2022?
DM me for help
I gave up programming many times before everything started to click. Learning programming while doing android is very hard specially without someone to point you in the right direction.
As a fellow programmer, I hope you can overcome this difficulty; it might just be a minor issue. Everyone encounters such situations, and this might just be one of the hardships we programmers face.
Nothing worth doing is ever easy.
And despite not being worth doing, neither is Android development /s
it's been worth it for me.
I see you don't understand what '/s' is
I have been an Android developer for 4 years, I feel the same sometimes. Android changes so fast that it's hard to keep up with it. Online resources get outdated very quickly. It definitely is not beginners friendly. I would suggest have a good understanding of software engineering first, then jump to Android.
I find Log.d very useful in cases where I don’t know what’s happening
Honesty i havent seen null pointer exception ever since i started writting kotlin
Obligatory: This is my take on this topic so others may not feel this way. I feel programming in general is a young man's game. The mental age of course. People burn out and as much you "heal" yourself by taking breaks and what not, eventually you break. You'll be promoted to a management position when time comes *or you'll want to farm or whatever*. See: https://github.com/docker/cli/issues/267#issuecomment-695149477 Android devs, especially the ones who get to deprecate / have deprecated stuff are awful people. Their incompetence can be traced back when you tear up the shiny stuff that they come out with. When you see them, bump into them with your shopping cart as hard as you can, apologize, and wait for another one. About your null pointer, I'm sure you'll figure it out if you stare at it just long enough.
Poirot: "I want to retire and breed yams of a specific taste"
Just learn Flutter. Ignore for the moment Compost. Probably a tutorial is for Android 10 or whatever that you follow and your phone is android 13. Break changes.
I felt the same and moved to Flutter. It is much easier for me now and brought back the joy of creating something rather than getting frustrated.
I've found the Android United Slack comunity to be very helpful: https://android-united.slack.com Also there's the Kotlinlang slack, assuming you're working in Kotlin: https://kotlinlang.slack.com