CS 104 October 12, 2011 Potpourri

Agenda Scratch Kinect demo Quiz discuss Getting Ready for App Inventor Next Monday  Exam

Motivation: Teaching CS – 1980s style Typical example was text-based, trivial, and uninspiring

Motivation: Newest Context Teen cell phone adoption at 84% March 3, 2011  Android marketshare (29%) passes Apple (27%)  Android sales soar 888% Social networking and crowd sourcing a daily activity Increasing adoption of smartphones in science and medical applications

App Inventor Overview URL: Purpose  Teaching  Prototyping Components of App Inventor  Designer GUI builder  Block Editor Provide behavior behind the GUI Based on MIT OpenBlocks and Scratch

App Inventor Overview

Installing and Running Requires Java  Install App Inventor setup App Inventor environment loads in a web browser  Login using Google account Run from a phone or the Android emulator Stores programs in the cloud

Designer Provides a WYSIWYG editor for designing the visual parts of the app Also provides ability to attach non-visual components

Blocks Editor Provides an ability to give behavior to an app; the programming part Typical and expected basic predefined constructs (logic, conditionals, iteration) Ability to refer to the components and their properties from the Designer Very similar to Scratch  Built on Open Blocks library from MIT

Limitations File I/O Custom objects Printing your code! Reliability

Next Wednesday We start moving into app development! Please bring your own laptop for hands-on exercises, or find a teammate that you can work with