App Inventor for Android

So Google is cranking out a new programming tool for Android  called App Inventor. Instead of writing XML-based interfaces and coding arcane actions, you visually design actions, properties, objects, methods, events, etc. It makes more sense when Google tells it so hit the link: App Inventor for Android.

Just a couple of days ago, I set out to write a simple Android app to track my workout progress. I downloaded the SDK.. and Eclipse.. and the AVD.. and the JDK.. and the docs. By the end of it, I had lost interest and went back to job hunting. Eventually I came back to the docs and started reading. A Hello World app used to be simple. Even with MIDP Java programming for mobiles, a novice could have their mobile emulator spit out Hello World in five minutes flat. Android, not so much.

Android programming is not that complex, it just seems rather tedious. And tedium is a huge barrier to entry for a lot of people, especially tech savvy non-coders. This group has the enthusiasm but not the know-how. They’ve never coded before and so they don’t know their JDK from their XML and it all just blurs into one big messy grey blob of WTF right before they give up and walk away.

I’m hoping App Inventor will lower that barrier. Sure, the Android Market might see a sudden deluge of throwaway apps (hello iPhone Fart Button), but for every 1000 bits of trash, there’s bound to be one truly great app. iMovie, cheap DV cams and YouTube brought forth an incredible new generation of film makers and comedians filled with new ideas (relatively) free of stagnant echo-chamber thinking. Maybe coding will see a similar shift.