Fraction+Calculator+Summer+2011

=**FRACTION CALCULATOR: Summer 2011**=


 * We had a fun quick three day class (3 hours per day) on writing apps for android using google app inventor with a small group of eight great students. Five had some prior programming experience with C++. We used both Ubuntu and Windows XP. App Inventor is apparently still in beta (June 27-29, 2011) so things were a bit quirky from time to time.

We had access to four LG Ally, one LG Optimus V and one Samsung Galaxy Tab android devices. Pretty much each android device requires some tinkering with drivers (on the windows side) or vendor ids in /etc/udev/rules.d (on the linux side).

All of the development is done on the web. To get started, you need a gmail account. Then if you go to: []

That link will help get your computer set up to use app inventor. If you are running windows, make sure that appinventor_setup_installer_v_1_2.exe actually runs at some point on your machine--not just downloads. You need to have the latest java installed and running--there is a link to a test page on the web to take care of that.

Once the machine is set up, you just need to go here to access your projects (you may need to restart your browser):

[|appinventor.mit.edu]

If the page doesn't load, reload it and it will ask you for your google username and password. App Inventor is made up of three components. The first one is the Designer where you build the visible part of your app. From inside the Designer, you launch the second component called the Blocks Editor which runs in a separate window in which you set the app behavior with a blocks programming editor like MIT's scratch. From inside the Blocks editor you launch the third component which is the emulator you can use if you do not have an actual android device. You can connect your android device with a USB cable and use that instead to run the program. Projects can be downloaded and uploaded from the web to your local machine so you can share them. You can also download the app to your connected android device.

All the students went through one or more of the google tutorials the first day, like:


 * []l** || [[image:screen_cap_calculator2.gif]] ||

Day 1: Introductions

Day 2: Group Work

Day 3: Completion and Wrap-up