Re: [xml-dev] Engineering versus Science, Anecdote versus Evidence... [W

[Andrew Welch <andrew.j.welch@gmail.com>]

> I have a friend that is unemployed, and I have suggested him to make a
> iPhone app. He has learned Java in the university, he probably has not
> other real world tool in his toolbar. My logic is, don't go to
> interviews naked, being "another" like the one before you, and the one
> after you. Be to these interviews being more than that. Being smelling
> good, and having things and skill the company may be interesting, you
> are the product, the tool, machine, writter, composer, translator,
> etc.. that the company is buying.  Perhaps the company is just
> searching for a java dev, and ask for a java dev (but is planning to
> in the future make iPhone apps),  if you come as a java dev that has
> iPhone apps in the apple marketplace, you are more. More than the
> next, more than the one before you. Perhaps the odds are better.  If
> some people say "you are what you eat", I think make sense to say "you
> also are what you write", so you have to go, and actually write good
> stuff, and release to the public. Because things that are not released
> are not complete.

For what it's worth, knowledge of Java won't help you write an iPhone
app... in fact you are better not knowing Java, as the techniques to
achieve the same task are very different in Objective-C.

To bring it kind of back on topic, in Android (which uses Java so
would be the better choice for your friend) you can use XML for
specifying the layout, however whoever designed it made a bad mistake
- the elements are in no namespace, but the attributes are in the
android namespace... so you end up with the 'android' prefix
everywhere:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android";
              android:layout_width="fill_parent"
              android:layout_height="fill_parent"
              android:orientation="vertical" >
    <TextView android:id="@+id/text"
              android:layout_width="wrap_content"
              android:layout_height="wrap_content"
              android:text="Hello, I am a TextView" />
    <Button android:id="@+id/button"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="Hello, I am a Button" />
</LinearLayout>

...so as you can imagine, the xml layout isn't very popular.


-- 
Andrew Welch
http://andrewjwelch.com