There is more to life than Material Design. After all, it is a common complaint, at least here in the US, that designers design around iOS. Last I checked, iOS designs are not very Material. So, it stands to reason that Android developers using Compose will need to deviate from Material Design in many cases. In theory, developers would create...

One of my concerns when Jetpack Compose was released is its reliance on magic coming from things like the Compose Compiler. Magic is wonderful for newcomers, as it reduces cognitive load. Magic is fine for serious experts (magicians), as for them it is not magic, but rather is sufficiently advanced technology. Magic can be a problem for those of...

While elements will still remain, to an extent it appears that Big Nerd Ranch is locking up the corral for good. A long long time ago, I was their original Android app development trainer. Working on a contract basis, I delivered training in Historic Banning Mills (“come for the training, stay for the zipline!”) on many occasions. That included...

When Google releases a new beta, I rummage through the API differences report, the high-level overviews, and even the release blog post, to see if there are things that warrant more attention from developers. I try to emphasize mainstream features that any developer might reasonably use, along with things that may not get quite as much attention,...

When Google releases a new beta, I rummage through the API differences report, the high-level overviews, and even the release blog post, to see if there are things that warrant more attention from developers. I try to emphasize mainstream features that any developer might reasonably use, along with things that may not get quite as much attention,...

When Google releases a new developer preview, I rummage through the API differences report (even when Google does not seem to link to them 🙃), the high-level overviews, and even the release blog post, to see if there are things that warrant more attention from developers. I try to emphasize mainstream features that any developer might reasonably...