I have no background or knowledge on this. I would like to make an app for performance engine building that has various pages with various formulas, unit conversions, tool lists, etc. What program do I use to make an app? I’ve seen Surge, Bevy, and Godot but those seem to be for games.
Edit: Thank you everyone for your helpful responses. Unfortunately I can only see the responses left on my post, not replys to top level responses. I think this is an instance problem and I’m trying to find out because I would love to see everyone’s comments. All is working now
Android Studio is the primary toolkit for developing native android apps. If you have no background in programming, there are some more visual tools like Budibase (open source) or Softr (closed source), but you are likely to run into difficulty getting them to apply logic the way you’d like.
If you’re a tinkerer, then honestly I’d look into learning more about Android Studio and Kotlin, the language most used these days for app development on Android.
To add onto this, a good starting point is to clone the repo of an app you like from GitHub, Codeberg, GitLab, etc, then work on open issues.
Android Studio is proprietary
Imo that’s fine. It’s also still the best tool for learning since it’s the most widely supported one, and contains the greatest amount of documentation for working with android development. It costs nothing to use, and doesn’t lock you into any kind of ecosystem you can’t later migrate from.
Does that mean there is a free alternative?
Vscodium
And vscode.
That’s not Foss though
OP never asked for FOSS.
True, but this is F-droid. Not to mention there little reason to use vscode over vscodium.
Vscodium is basically vscode but without the proprietary stuff
Time to develop one, perhaps?
Command line tools plus fancy editor
You can use IntelliJ Community to develop Android apps with an Android plugin.
Android Studio is still free, while proprietary. And Intellij community is also proprietary, pretty much the same thing?
Oh wow, i didn’t know they opened those sources, that is nice.
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As far as I’m aware, Samsung or Amazon are the only other real app “marketplaces”. Most developers using Fdroid otherwise rely on donations or patreon for active development, depending on the nature of the app
Visual does sound nice but I’d rather go with something well used and stable. Is Android studio and Kotlin “open source”? I know what open source is but don’t know how to make it that way or not. I’ve got a lot of learning to do clearly so I appreciate your help!
Android Studio is just the work environment for code and app development. You could continue on to publish all your code/work as an open source application through whichever means you choose during or after the fact.
Good to know. Another comment thread was talking about how it wasn’t open source
When people refer to a particular piece of development aoftware as closed or open source, they are referring to the license/availability of that software’s code. You can use proprietary software to produce open source code, which is the case with Android Studio. The code that makes up Android Studio is not open source, but your own work made within it can be.
In general, “open source” is a broad term that just means “can I see the code that made this?”. There are differing degrees of open source software as well. The MIT license, for example, opens up code to some modification/re-use but protects some libraries. Something like a BSD or GPL license is far less restrictive, usually allowing free modification and use of the code. Android Studio falls under the Apache license, one of the more restrictive licenses that still applies copyright, and may employ proprietary libraries that cannot be modified or copied for use. Again, this ultimately isn’t likely to affect your own work or projects, but it does mean there’s less transparency about the tools you are using to make it.
I apologise if this is overwhelming, but the distinction is important, and I think that as a beginner it makes sense to start with where there is the most documentation and ease of entry. Once done, it’s definitely easier to move towards projects that more closely align with FOSS philosophies.
The answers about getting started with Kotlin and Compose are good, but I’d like to offer for your consideration that your app may actually be more appropriate to build as a website. Food for thought.
Worth considering a PWA too.
It’s a good point about the website and I’ve thought about that as well. I do want to go the app route however because I want instant offline access
Fair enough.
I’d say it’s kind of a good time to get into Android Development - Kotlin and Compose has made it highly pleasant and productive when compared to the days of Java and Views.
That’s great to hear and know I wouldn’t be learning a depreciated language. Thank you!
https://developer.android.com/codelabs/basic-android-kotlin-compose-first-app
and if you’ve never written a line of code in your life:
Thank you, those look like great resources! Android Studio has a flatpak too which is great
Godot can be used for any app, not just games. (Same goes for the other engines, I assume.) Though I can’t say if you would have an easier time picking it up, rather than the traditional Java or Kotlin route.
Good to know. Maybe I’ll tinker around with Kotlin I hear so much about as well as Godot and see what comes to me more intuitively
Thank you everyone for your helpful responses. Unfortunately I can only see the responses left on my post, not replys to top level responses.
Check your account language settings. Make sure undetermined and English are both selected.
That worked! Thank you so much! I was getting pretty disheartened about Lemmy but now it’s all good
Oh good! Glad I could help.
Try expo.dev
Looks like a good option. Thank you
Would say to you to use flutter, with VsCodium 👍
Android Studio is probably the right way, but it’s a steep learning curve.
I’ve successfully built apps using B4A: https://www.b4x.com/ and it’s a hell of a lot easier. Good documentation.
