Our students want to learn it.Our customers want our students to know it. Guess we better get our students prepared. We will put application development in our curriculum – simple right? Not so fast! What platform are we going to teach them to use for development? What language are we going to use? Does it matter? The answers are not always easy and they can make a difference in course success or failure.

1. App Development: What to Use
Katherine H. Winters
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

2. Outline
• Background
– Why teach app development?
– Skills needed
• Considerations
– What are you trying to accomplish?
– Platform
– Language
– Cost
– IDE and tools
– How to decide
• My experience
• Group Discussion

3. Why Teach App Development
• It is about jobs!
• Apple - $1.78 billion in app sales in 2010
• Global - forecast to hit $4 billion in 2011
• Job posting
– Android up 302% 1st qtr. 2011over 2010
– iPhone up 220% 2010 – 2011
– One freelance site had 4,500 positions [1]
– Over half million jobs created since 2007[2]
Source

4. Needed Skills (expected)
• Strong java, HTML and technical skills
• Understanding of OOP
• Understanding of User Interface and
design patterns
• Knowledge of and use of APIs
• Move between languages
Source:[1] http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217885/Your_next_job_Mobile_app_developer_

5. Needed Skills (perhaps unexpected)
• Understand new design paradigms
– Smaller real estate
– Weaker processor
– How users interact with devices
– Highly targeted functionality
– Web design not translate to mobile
– More features does not equal better applications

6. Considerations
What are you trying to accomplish?

7. Platform
• Android
• iPhone
• Windows
• Blackberry
• Palm WebOS
• Symbian

8. Language
• Major consideration
– What do your students know?
– How much do they know?
– What do you need them to know?

9. Language
• Android
– Java for native apps
• iPhone
– Objective C
– HTML & Java Script
• Windows
– (6.5) Native C++ or supported .NET language
– (7& 8) .NET; C#

10. Language
• Blackberry
– Java ME
– HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Palm WebOS
– C, C++
– Web technologies (JavaScript, HTML, AJAX)
• Symbian
– Native C++
– Other languages

11. Cost
• Android - free / open source
• iPhone - $99 year for apple iPhone
• Windows
– Professional ($1,200)
– Dream Spark (free ?)
• Blackberry
– Free SDKs and simulators
– $20 to sign an app
– $200 for every 10 in their store
• Palm WebOS - $99 year
• Symbian – Few hundred

12. IDE and Tools
• Android
– Android SDK
– Eclipse plugin with emulator
• iPhone
– iPhone SDK
– Host of others
• Windows
– Visual Studio
– VS needs to match Windows Version

13. IDE and Tools
• Blackberry
– JDE
– Eclipse Java Plugin
• Palm WebOS
– Palm SDK
– Palm Developer Tools
• Symbian
– ADT (application)
– SDK (software)

14. How To Decide?

15. My experience
• Android
• Eclipse
• Terrible book
– Cengage didn’t have one at the time
• Developed 2 projects
• Reports
• What I would do differently
– More projects

16. Discussion
• Write on note cards given to you.
– What are you trying to accomplish?
– What do you do?
– What text do you use?
– How do you set your class up?
– What questions do you have?

17. Sources
• http://www.devx.com/wireless/Article/45208
• http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217885
/Your_next_job_Mobile_app_developer_
• http://readwrite.com/2013/02/18/platform-as-a-
service-6-ways-paas-will-change-the-enterprise