CS 371M Mobile Computing (Android Programming)

Teaching Assistants

Instructor

Demo code is required reading

The required reading for this class is the demo code that I will push to the class' shared github repository (see below for details about git). You are expected to read and understand all of the code in this repository. We will spend significant time in class reviewing and understanding this code.

To incentivize you to read the code and to give some shape to our in-class interactions, I guarantee at least one error per non-trivial file of demo code. We will find and fix these errors in class. You can discuss them on the discussion site. The online masters demos will not follow this pattern. They will be correct.

Online documentation

For this course the official Android documentation is essential, and I will often include links to their documentation.

Android device optional

You do not need an Android device for this class. However, you might enjoy using one for development. There are a variety of inexpensive devices available, some subsidized by showing you ads on the lock screen.

Discussion site (Ed discussion)

We will answer questions in ed discussion which is linked in canvas and also accessible here. We will use that forum to communicate about the course, and you are expected (required) to keep up with announcements on that site.

The discussion site is great for general questions and clarification. It is not appropriate for you to post specific code and ask your fellow students to debug it. Please do not do that. You can post code privately to course staff.

No official textbook

There is no textbook for this course, however, I highly recommend you get an Android programming book. When it comes to educating yourself, I believe in an "all of the above" approach. That means attending lecture, discussing the material with your peers, reading books, reading online sources, programming, experimenting, reading official documentation, etc. I've always found a book or two is a valuable part of learning.

There are many excellent Android programming books out there, and I encourage you to visit your local bookstore and figure out which one will work for you. They have different approaches, for example, some emphasize principles and some emphasize recipes. You should judge which approach works for your learning style. One trick that I use when evaluating a book is to have some specific question, like how does this book explain content providers? Then see if the book has a reasonable answer to your question. I've heard that Android Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide (Big Nerd Ranch Guides) is good. Google is your friend.

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Android studio

If you have a laptop, please download and install Android Studio. It can be a time consuming process (and it can consume significant bandwidth). We will use Android Studio extensively for in-class programming. It will behoove you to have it updated before class because updating in class is time consuming and boring. Bear in mind that Android Studio updates frequently and the updates are worth tracking. Please plan ahead. For example, if we have a flipped classroom activity, you should update Android Studio the night before.

Android Studio now comes with an embedded Java runtime environment (Java JRE), which would mean you don't need to download one. If you do want to download a Java JRE (or java development kit (JDK) which contains more software), google it and choose the one for your platform. Android studio should be able to find the one you install.

Download Android Studio as a development environment. We will spend most of our time in this class in Android Studio. Within Android Studio be sure to download the hardware-assisted emulator (which will be the HAXM installer for Intel x86 or for Apple silicon, the ARM version). Here there is help on how to get started with downloading and installing Android Studio.

You also need to run the standalone SDK Manager from within the GUI and then update it seperately. Here is a link that explains how to update SDK tools. Use the stable channel. Enable Google Play services (Tools > SDK Manager > Android SDK > SDK Tools > Check Google Play services > hit apply).

Use the builtin Java interpreter. I recommend Java 17. In fact, I require it in many of my build files.

Android studio has a "distraction free" mode that is now the default. It hides most of the useful menus behind an additional mouse click. I do not like this mode and I do not recommend it. Click here to see how my Android Studio is configured to disable it. Go to Settings | Appearance & Behavior | New UI to disable the new UI.

AVD manager

Android studio contains a nice emulator for Android devices. We specify that all programming assignments will be graded on the following virtual device.

• Google Pixel 7, API 34 (Android 14). You should not have to set these things yourself, but if you look in the gradle build files, our compileSdk is 34, our targetSkdVersion is 34, and our minSkdVersion is 31. The rest of the settings for the virtual device should use the defaults. If you want to change the resource sizes (e.g., giving your emulated phone more memory), that is ok with me (e.g., on my desktop I allow 2048MB of RAM and 512MB of heap to make development faster. Just realize that we will test with the defaults, so don't pass around huge bitmaps).

You should create a device with the above configuration for testing. If we are doing work that requires different devices (e.g., different screen sizes), we will tell you.

In order to see a valid preview for a layout, you might need to change the layout API to 33, as 34 is still not fully supported. You have to download API 33 from SDK tools to have it as an option.



Sometimes your virtual phone gets into a weird state and you can't install your app or update it or you get a weird error message or your phone does not start properly. Sometimes What is necessary is a cold boot (Device manager -> Cold boot your virtual device). That will restart your phone's operating system from the beginning, as opposed to using some cached state that can sometimes become invalid.

Android build system

The Android build system is called gradle, and there is a section in the project view called, "Gradle Scripts."

For this class we will always use view binding, which is the recommended method for interacting with views generated from XML. Some of the activity templates included with Android Studio enable view binding by default, but Empty Activity does not. The new layout technology is Jetpack Compose, but we will NOT use compose in this class.

To enable view binding, you need to go into your Module build.gradle file (not the Project one, which is above it), and add these lines into your android { block. For all of our starter code, we will do this for you. You only need to do it for some Android Studio projects.

    buildFeatures {
        viewBinding true
    }
 

When you want to use a new library (as you might for your project), you add its dependence to the gradle file. This will allow the build system to understand the new function calls you are making into this new library. For example, when you want to use Kotlin coroutines, you need to add these two lines (to your Module:app gradle file).

 implementation 'org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-coroutines-core:1.7.3'
 implementation "org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-coroutines-android:1.7.3"

After editing the file, Android studio will ask if you want to sync this new configuration. You do.

Creating your project with the Empty Views Activity template in Android studio will populate your gradle files with some reasonable defaults. The Basic Views Activity template is also reasonable, but contains some more advanced features like Fragments and Navigation controllers.

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A course directory on your laptop

You probably want a directory on our laptop dedicated to course contents, which will consist of several git repositories.

git repository

The course uses the git software version control system. You can find much tutorial information for git on the Internet. For example, here is a nice visual tutorial on git branching, and here is a nice description of the model, and here is a very basic tutorial. More resources here.

The course will host all code on github, so you must make an account. Go here..

Our workflow with github is documented here .

The course will have a Demo repository that will have code with at least one error per non-trivial file. This code is required reading. We will understand the code together in class and we will fix the errors. You are free to discuss these issues on the discussion site.

We use github classroom (link). I don't think you will spend too much time on this site specifically, but it is nice to know about.

Here are some command lines, for reference. Please remember to push your code after commit.

• git clone https://github.com/utap-s24/hw0-(githubid).git
    OR as another example

• git clone https://github.com/utap-s24/fc0-(githubid).git
...then modify the README and the Android studio project...
...and commit all my modifications...

• git commit -a -m "Starting my awesome assignment early."
• git push

We will post an invitation link on the discussion site for each homework and flipped classroom. Github will create a repo for you after you accept the assignment. The repo will contain an Android studio project (directory) with starter code for the exercise. You can open this project directory in Android studio. Inside this directory will be a README file that you need to fill in (e.g., with your eid). The name of your repository will have your github id. If your github id is supercoder, then you will clone hw1-supercoder. If we need to correct anything about the starter code, we will post it to the discussion site. Github recently added the ability for us to make changes to starter code that you can pull.

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Flipped classrooms

We will hold many flipped classroom activities where students will program in class and the course staff will assist them. There will be a clear assignment and a starting point for the code. Your flipped classroom experience will improve if you have a good laptop.

Here are the rules for a flipped classroom.

• You may work alone or with a single partner. One (or both) of you must have a laptop.
• You may only work with a given partner once during the semester. (But you may do a project with someone with whom you have done a flipped classroom.)
• Results for flipped classrooms are submitted via git (just push and then you can check that the code is present in the repository using a web browser)
• Flipped classrooms will be due by 7pm on the Friday following the Thursday session.. We are giving you plenty of time for flipped classroom exercises and there will be help available. If you come prepared and work during class time, you will have access to personalized assistance and will likely finish the assignment in class. But if you need to keep working, we want you to finish the assignment and recognize that you will also have homework assignments to code and demo code to read.
• Each flipped classroom will have a PDF describing what needs to be done, a video demo that explains the task, and a github classroom link for starter code.

Course Policies

Collaboration

Students are encouraged to talk to each other, to the course staff, or to anyone else about any of the assignments. Assistance must be limited to discussion of the problem and sketching general approaches to a solution. Each student must write out his or her own solutions to the homework.

• All homeworks must be completed alone.
• NO collaboration on homework implementation, you may only discuss general concepts.
• If you have a significant conversation with someone about a programming homework, you should identify that person in writing in your homework.
• You should also identify any code you used from class or from the Internet (and such snippets should be largely inessential to the logic of the assignment).
• Students are encouraged to pair up for projects and flipped classrooms, but no more than pairs.

Sharing of Course Materials is Prohibited: No materials used in this class, including, but not limited to, lecture hand-outs, videos, assessments (quizzes, exams, papers, projects, homework assignments), in-class materials, review sheets, and additional problem sets, may be shared online or with anyone outside of the class unless you have my explicit, written permission. Unauthorized sharing of materials promotes cheating. It is a violation of the University's Student Honor Code and an act of academic dishonesty. I am well aware of the sites used for sharing materials, and any materials found online that are associated with you, or any suspected unauthorized sharing of materials, will be reported to Student Conduct and Academic Integrity in the Office of the Dean of Students. These reports can result in sanctions, including failure in the course.

The department student code of conduct is here. Here is a nice quotation, "The University and the Department are committed to preserving the reputation of your degree. It means a lot to you. In order to guarantee that every degree means what it says it means, we must enforce a strict policy that guarantees that the work that you turn in is your own and that the grades you receive measure your personal achievements in your classes."

If you are not sure about whether some form of collaboration is acceptable, please ask.

Students may not acquire from any source (e.g., another student or an internet site) a partial or complete solution to a problem or project that has been assigned. You cannot simply search for homework/lab answers and turn that work in as your own. You also may not have a person or service do your work for your. If you do so, you will be caught and you will get an F in the course. I take academic honesty very seriously. I will look for any form of cheating and if found, I will persue it, and it will be painful for the guilty party.

Public posting of course materials

Please do not post any code or questions from this course to any public forum. That includes Stack Overflow, any question answering website, or any public site whatsoever. Posting materials from the course is very detrimental to the learning experience of your current classmates as well as those who come after you. I have worked hard on the assignments and by posting them publicaly, you reduce their value to all other students because those students could easily come into contact with the public material through a simple google search.

Because posting course materials publicaly is so deterimental to the course, I feel the penalty for such actions needs to be high. I will advocate for any student posting the course materials to discontinue their progress through the course with a failing grade.

Use of public websites and use of AI generated code

I encourage students to use Stack Overflow, the web, and any publicly searchable code bases to help solve their coding problems. Programming is a group and societal activity and you should benefit from the wisdom and experience of others. The Android documentation itself is fantastic and contains numerous code examples.

I am perfectly happy for you to use code from Stack Overflow, but such code must be used WITH ATTRIBUTION. Just put a comment in your code saying this function came from Stack Overflow. You will sometimes find such functions in my code (e.g., to dismiss the soft keyboard, what a pain). That is perfectly acceptable and is similar to quoting the work of another scholar. I will say that most code I find on Stack Overflow does have some problem or another and I almost always end up modifying it. You can note this in your comment saying you got the code from X website, but modified it. NOTE: if you find a repository from a student who took this course and they accidently make their repo public, you CANNOT use their code. And also, please let us know about it.

I view AI coding helpers like I view Stack Overflow--these are a terrific resource for the modern programmer. If you get a function or a big chunk of code from AI, please leave a comment to that effect in the code. If an AI fixes your compile error, you do not need to comment that in your code. With Android, we are making use of a large and complex API and AI has a role to help us find the functions we need and let us know the order we need to call them and a sense of what data we need to provide.

For AI generated code Please write what AI you used and what your prompt was. Also, please explain the code in comments. The idea here is just to make sure you are understanding what the AI generated and why.

AI is NOT appropriate for flipped classrooms, and I am asking everyone NOT to use AI for these exercises. A flipped classroom exercise is designed to train your understanding. You need understanding to determine if code on Stack Overflow or code generated by an AI is correct and useful. There is no substitute for your understanding and there is no shortcut to obtaining it. The use of AI to solve your flipped classroom is detrimental to your learning experience. Now, even for a flipped classroom, if an AI helps you fix a compile error, that is fine. But please be minimal in use of AI for flipped classrooms. Please ask your partner or the course staff.

For homeworks and especially the project, you can use AI. Just as we have a section in your README for people you collaborated with, we also want to hear about your use of AI. Be creative! Get it to help test your code. Use it to understand why one of your references is null at runtime. Get it to generate a complex XML layout. Generating complicated layouts by hand or in XML is error-prone and tedious. It is an example of a coding-related chore that benefits from higher levels of automation. Just comment your use of AI in your code and mention it in the README.

Students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from Disability and Access.

Late Policy

Assignments are due exactly at the indicated deadline. Any project submitted after the deadline, even by a trivial amount, will be counted as 1 day late. Technical failure of devices or services does not excuse you from a deadline, so please finish your work with time to spare.

If you are having difficulty submitting for some technical reason, the best course of action is to email the TA with your solution attached. Emailed solutions received after the deadline may still be counted as late.

For each day that an assignment is late the maximum score achievable will be reduced by 5% (with an eventual bottom around 60%). But no matter how late it gets, I encourage you to finish all course work. In this class it is always better to submit work than not to submit it. You will get some point value for all correct work submitted.

When you turn in a late assignment, it is imperative that you inform the TA (via email) that you have done so. Assignments are collected by a script which runs at the deadline, so late assignments may not be discovered by the grader unless you send an email.

I want you to do the work for this class. It is always better to turn in an assignment than not. Let course staff know if you are having problems keeping up.

Slip Days

All students are granted a total of 4 slip days over the course of the semester. A slip day negates the penalty of turning in an assignment late by one day (which is up to 24 hours from the due time). Slip days may not be used for the final project. Slip days are atomic, if you are 5 minutes late an entire slip day must be used.

Slip days will not be automatically used when you turn in a late assignment. In order to use a Slip Day, include that information in the README file and mention it in the email to the TA when you inform him or her that you have turned in a late assignment.

The home works start easy, but get quite difficult, so budget your time accordingly.

Source code management

You are expected to be able to manage the source code for your homework and projects. That means you should make redundant backup copies, so the failure of the flash drive that you bring to campus (for example) should not mean that you have lost all of your work. This problem should be obviated by the course's git repository, which we encourage you to use for development. You must use it to submit your work.

Build/runtime Errors

A seemingly common problem when submitting code is that it simply will not build. These errors fall into two categories.

1. Submission errors, absolute paths (which are broken), and other silly mistakes. Projects that encounter this type of error will be allowed to resubmit for a 5% score penalty as long as the re-submission is done in a timely fashion.
2. Error errors, i.e., broken code. For this category of build errors, you must inform the TA via email within three days of receiving your grade. Please include the following in your message to the TA.
   • Explain what you fixed and how in plain English. i.e. "Fixed menu that wasn't working by removing divide by zero". If your changes are extensive, they will be rejected.
   • Because of our git repository, we will be able to track the diffs between your submitted and fixed version.

Grading

Your final grade for the course will be based on the following factors.

I use plus and minuses when I assign final grades. I am always at least as generous as UT's undergraduate grading scale and usually more generous.

This is a high workload course that does a lot to prepare you to be a professional software engineer. Student evaluations consistently rate the workload high but not excessive. The best way to stay on top of the course is to start assignments early. If you are having problems understanding course concepts, please ask questions on the discussion site and visit office hours. We are here to help.

I present approximate weights to give you some sense of the relative importance of assignments. I expect you to recognize that this breakdown is not infinitely precise. I might change these weights a bit as the course develops, for example, because we change a homework and it is too difficult so we count it a bit less. I will maintain your grade on canvas, so you can always check your current standing.

• 45% Homeworks
• 25% Project
• 20% Flipped classrooms
• 10% Quizzes, class participation, attendance

The homeworks and the project are the biggest contributors to your grade. The homeworks are not all worth the same. The first homeworks are easier and they count less, with each homework worth as much or more than the one before it.

Either you do a project or you do homework 6. A project can be with a partner, the homework is on your own. A perfect score on homework 6 is a 90, while a perfect score on the project is a 100. The idea is that coming up and executing a project is a tougher task than doing a homework. But if you are doing well in the course and/or find the idea of a poject daunting, you can just do another homework.

Grading Complaints

Everybody makes mistakes. If you think your assignment was not correctly graded please contact the TA via email.

Masters course

Most of the course as described above applies to the masters version. For example, assignments will be posted on canvas and will consist of a PDF with directions and a github classroom link. All technical material from above applies.

The TAs for the masters version of the course will be listed in canvas. Ed discussion is available via canvas.

Because there are no in-person class meetings, the flipped classroom activities will go out on a Monday and are due the next Monday. This is plenty of time to do the exercises, which should take about 2 hours. I politely request that you do not use AI for the flipped classrooms (unless the exercise calls for it). The point of flipped classrooms is to boil down a programming task to its bare essentials, so filling in the code is often what an AI is good at. But you should build your strengths so that you can understand and correct AI and other collaborators. We make the FCs due on Monday to prevent conflicts with other deadline. Everyone hates Mondays.

Here is the grade breakdown for the masters class.

• 25% Flipped classrooms
• 50% Homeworks
• 25% Project and demo

The homeworks and the project are the biggest contributors to your grade. The homeworks are not all worth the same. The first homeworks are easier and they count less, with each homework worth as much or more than the one before it. In the masters class, the project is mandatory.

Masters students are expected to adhere to the code of conduct described above. Please do not pass off the work of another (or of an AI) as your own. Explicitly acknowledge all outside contributors. The course staff is here to help you if you get stuck. We do actively look for cheating and we punish that behavior when we find it because that behavior devalues the work of your fellow students and the course staff.

Credit

We thank UT's Mike Scott for his version of the course. I got a lot out of Derek Banas' youtube videos. A bit of the course is copied from Stanford's CS 193A, Android App Development (Winter 2015). We really appreciate that the course authors have released their content under a creative commons attribution 2.5 license. To comply with the license, we link to the license, give Stanford credit, do not use the materials for commercial purposes, and distribute our own version of the materials under the same license. We have modified the originals in a variety of places.

This syllabus is subject to change; students who miss class are responsible for learning about any changes to the syllabus.

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Last updated: 2024-02-13 01:43:46 -0600 [validate xhtml]