Category: Jetpack Compose

Composable functions are the building blocks used to create user interfaces for Android apps when developing with Jetpack Compose. In the ComposeDemo project created earlier in the book, we made use of both the built-in compose functions provided with Compose and also created our own functions. In this chapter, we will explore composable functions in…

Now that Android Studio has been installed and the basics of the Kotlin programing language covered, it is time to start introducing Jetpack Compose. Jetpack Compose is an entirely new approach to developing apps for all of Google’s operating system platforms. The basic goals of Compose are to make app development easier, faster, and less…

In The Basics of Object-Oriented Programming in Kotlin we covered the basic concepts of object-oriented programming and worked through an example of creating and working with a new class using Kotlin. In that example, our new class was not specifically derived from a base class (though, in practice, all Kotlin classes are ultimately derived from…

Kotlin provides extensive support for developing object-oriented applications. The subject area of object-oriented programming is, however, large. As such, a detailed overview of object-oriented software development is beyond the scope of this book. Instead, we will introduce the basic concepts involved in object-oriented programming and then move on to explain the concept as it relates…

Kotlin functions and lambdas are a vital part of writing well-structured and efficient code and provide a way to organize programs while avoiding code repetition. In this chapter, we will look at how functions and lambdas are declared and used within Kotlin. What is a function? A function is a named block of code that…

Regardless of the programming language used, application development is largely an exercise in applying logic, and much of the art of programming involves writing code that makes decisions based on one or more criteria. Such decisions define which code gets executed, how many times it is executed, and, conversely, which code gets bypassed when the…

So far, we have looked at using variables and constants in Kotlin and also described the different data types. Being able to create variables is only part of the story, however. The next step is to learn how to use these variables in Kotlin code. The primary method for working with data is in the…

Both this and the following few chapters are intended to introduce the basics of the Kotlin programming language. This chapter will focus on the various data types available for use within Kotlin code. This will also include an explanation of constants, variables, type casting and Kotlin’s handling of null values. As outlined in the previous…

Android development is performed primarily using Android Studio which is, in turn, based on the IntelliJ IDEA development environment created by a company named JetBrains. Before the release of Android Studio 3.0, all Android apps were written using Android Studio and the Java programming language (with some occasional C++ code when needed). Since the introduction…

In the previous chapter, we created a new Compose-based Android Studio project named ComposeDemo and took some time to explore both Android Studio and some of the project code that it generated to get us started. With those basic steps covered, this chapter will use the ComposeDemo project as the basis for a new app.…