Consistency is going opensource : https://github.com/dhr039/consistency

 If Android Studio is not showing previews for markdown files, do the following:

1. Go to menu Help -> Find Action(Ctrl+Shift+A) -> Choose Boot Time Java for the IDE -> and select JetBrains Runtime with JCEF

2. Restart the IDE:

3. Now the preview should be working:

 I am starting to open source my old Android games.

The first one to bite the dust is : Crate Jump

   Cat-a-log has a new release (3.1).

- Updated to Jetpack Compose 1.5 which brought performance improvements and nice new navigation animations. 

- Some minor UI adjustments. 

- Slightly decreased apk size - by about 1Mb.

What am I using as a reference when creating a new Android project from scratch:

    My primary reference is the source code for the Kodeko course "Real-World Android by Tutorials" (https://www.kodeco.com/books/real-world-android-by-tutorials, https://github.com/kodecocodes/adva-materials/tree/editions/2.0). This course follows a CLEAN Architecture approach and maintains a clear separation of layers. The course was last updated in August 2022 and relies on XML Views and RXJava, so I’m rewriting the code using Jetpack Compose and Kotlin Flows. I also make adjustments to naming conventions and packaging. My newly created project will have one module only but some packages might be moved to their own modules later if needed.

    For the Jetpack Compose part I use another Kodeko course, Jetpack Compose by Tutorials. Again, they use Material 2 and I am rewriting some parts using Material 3.

    As a companion to the above the book ‘Clean Architecture for Android’ by Eran Boudjnah has very nice diagrams, especially in the first part of the book.

    There's another notable source from 2021 - one of the famous CommonsWare’s books Exploring Android. It is quite simple in the sense that it doesn't have any domain layer, but it provides an excellent example of a Reactive Architecture implementation in Android. Unfortunately Mark Murphy is no longer updating CommonsWare books.

    These sources are my go-to references when starting a new Android project. The official docs from Google go without saying, of course.

  Cat-a-log has a new release. 

Tech stack: Kotlin, coroutines, Flow, Jetpack Compose, Hilt, Room, DataStore, Retrofit, Moshi, Mockito. The project source is using CLEAN Architecture principles and UDF.

You can find more apps here.

 SpeakIt has a new maintenance release (6.4). Android 13 compatibility updates.

SpeakIt 6.1.1 maintenace release. Fixed some colors, navigation and minor UI fixes.

 Crate Jump has a new release. Some minor fixes and removed almost all adds.

World Of Cats has a new release. Re-written totally from scratch using Kotlin, Jetpack, MVVM. Taking advantage of coroutines for non-blocking. Glide for image loading. Caching everything with Room. HTTP requests populate the local database. And UI observes the db, as per Google recommendations. Works offline like a charm. Loads instantly! No bugs! (that last one was a joke)

SpeakIt 6.1

SpeakIt has a new release. Added support for Dark Theme. Several minor Android 10 compatibility updates.

Re-written from scratch in Kotlin, using MVVM and Jetpack. 

SpeakIt version v5.1 is out (just two days after releasing v5.0).

- Added a sound recorder. 
- The UI has been rewritten.
- Latest versions of all of the third party libs.
- A bunch of maintenance fixes.

Android enums are out of fashion (again)

Back in 2011 Google removed from its Performance Tips the advice to avoid enums. Today I've been rewriting an older app and wanted to add a feature that allows you to change the EditTexts' size using a PreferenceFragmentCompat at runtime. It would have a low, medium and big setting and the sizes would be resolution independent. A low, medium and big trio is asking for an enum and apparently enums were already ok with Android SDK.

But then I decided yet to check this again.
And it turns out that nowadays using an @IntDef is the kosher way of doing things.

Crate Jump iOS release

Crate Jump is available on iTunes.

Built with libgdx and robovm.

Raise The Tower iOS release

Raise The Tower is now available on iTunes. 

 

Built with libgdx and robovm.

new versions for Speak It & Random People

SpeakIt for Android verison 4.2.2 released:

• removed intersitial ads
• modified back navigation from the ‘More Apps’ section

Random People has a new version 4.0.2 too:

• removed intersitial ads
• reduced apk size
• some navigation fixes

Catsii 1.1 release

Catsii for Android has an new version 1.1 release. Several minor fixes.

SpeakIt 4.2 release

SpeakIt for Android has an new routine maintenance release.

new in v.4.2.1:

• a quick fix for the existing bug in Samsung female voice implementation in Galaxy S6 more info here: https://github.com/ytrstu/softenido/issues/36#issuecomment-116635143 

new in v. 4.2:

• added the long awaited drop down list of the available languages. 
•  fixed Gmail 5 attachment denied permission problem
•  reduced apk size
•  added a ‘More Applications’ section
•  modified the UI workflow

Random People 4.0.1

It so happens that Random People has an unanticipated new version release. The UI is now er, different, to put it mildly. How on earth did we live before the material design? Unimaginable.

Catsii first release

Now this is a pet project indeed. I love cats and guinea pigs. Having a little of both in my flat it was only a matter of time before something like Catsii would be released. All your cats are belong to us!