This week we continued work on our final project, using the blocks editor. For me, this was the realization that my app is extremely complicated — more complicated than I’d realized. I’m simulating LOTS of different screens switching in and out, and programming the navigation buttons alone took several hours because of all the components involved. I am striving forward, though, and will have this app done in its originally planned design.
I did get excited when I was able to complete one part of the app, using my textbook and the web to figure out how to use the list picker and urls and the activity starter. Here’s an image of that section so far:
I am running into even more frustrations with the app inventor interface — especially the blocks editor. It’s too small, and it’s clunkily formatted for scrolling and moving blocks components around. I also wish it had copy and paste or duplicate functions. That would make some of the coding easier.
With that said, I am excited to see the work of this semester coming together in all the different components of my app design. I understand so much more about logic and programming than I did before, and even if I never program another app after this semester, I’ll be able to use what I’ve learned here in web design and SQL statement writing, and maybe even tackle new programming endeavors, including Stanford’s free iOS 5 course.