CS 371M Mobile Computing (Android Programming)

Course Resources

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.

Development Environment Setup

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 21. 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 9, API 36 (Android 16.1). You should not have to set these things yourself, but if you look in the gradle build files, our compileSdk is 36, our targetSkdVersion is 36, and our minSkdVersion is 33. 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 a specific value instead of "pick best available" which is the default.

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.

Git & GitHub

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-s26/hw0-(githubid).git

git clone https://github.com/utap-s26/fc0-(githubid).git

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.

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.

For AI generated code

Please do not use AI to generate code for the flipped classrooms. The AI will generate the correct code, but you will not learn the API. You need this understanding if you are going to check the AI output as tasks get more complex. You can use AI to have it explain APIs.
For homeworks, we are asking that you do NOT use AI to generate code, but you can use AI to generate tests, XML layout, and to understand APIs. That means none of the code that provides the homework's functionality should be generated by AI and we will look for it. But you can generate XML layout using AI because that is a more mechanical task. You can use AI to understand how to use the APIs we are using, to help you with Kotlin and to fix compile errors. But please do not generate code.
For the project, please go crazy! Use AI for whatever you want. But you MUST clearly attibute all code generated by AI. Furthermore, you must also write a short summary describing what the code does at a high level. Failure to properly attribute code to AI will be considered cheating and we will look for it.

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

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.

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.
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 Program

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

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.