Fragmented - AI Developer Podcast

In this episode of Fragmented, Donn talks about a common problem almost all software engineers face in their career - Design Patternitis. So, you've read the books on design patterns and now you're applying them everywhere. Just because some code can be put into a pattern doesn't mean you should. Or should you? How can you apply them when needed? Donn shares 5 tips with you that you can use to hel...

In this episode of Fragmented, our friend and RxJava paragon of the Android - Dan Lew, returns for a record 3 and 1/2 time. We've been using RxJava over the years now and have even talked to Dan about it in previous episodes. How has our understanding of Rx use in Android changed over the years? We know some of the super standard usecases for RxJava in AndroidDev. But the important question to be...

In this second episode of our learning Kotlin series, we talk about Kotlin’s support for static members or … lack thereof. Kotlin as a language was designed so that there’s no such thing as a “static member” in a class but there are times when having static members can be useful. So what do we do in those cases? do we just avoid static members? are there better alternatives? what are the costs wit...

In this decompress episode, DF and KG kick it off with a brief discussion of the highlights from the recent reddit AMA that the Android Engineering folk conducted. What were the interesting things they learnt or were surprised by etc.? They then go on to briefly discuss two topics they've always chatted about (off-air) packaging by feature (not layer) and most recent thoughts on testing. Listen on...

At I/O '16 Google announced the super cool new feature Instant Apps. At IO'17 we started to see real world examples and third parties pull off this feature. In this episode, we talk to GDE Zarah Dominguez who's company "Domain" was one of the partners for this program. What is the Instant Apps feature? What are some usecases where this comes in handy? How does it actually work internally...

In this mini Fragment, KG talks about his journey learning Kotlin as a newb. Given that Kotlin is most likely going to be the de-facto language for most developers, it makes sense to deepen our understanding of the language (as we have strived with Java over the years). "Properties" in Kotlin are a first class language feature. But what does that actually mean? What are the nifty feature...

In this episode of Fragmented we talk to our friend Piwai from Square. Piwai's a pro at testing and breaking apps (he built LeakCanary - so not terribly unexpected). He teaches us some strategies on debugging app crashes and briefs us on this concept he calls "offensive programming" which has helped him a lot with his Android development. It's good stuff and we hope you enjoy the show. S...

In this mini-Fragment episode, Donn talks about Item #16 of the Effective Java series - Favor Composition over Inheritance. You'll learn why using inheritance is not always a great idea and how you can use composition in place of it to make your code more anti-fragile, resilient and clean. Show Notes Effective Java Book Contact @fragmentedcast [twitter.com] @donnfelker [twitter.com] @kaushikgopal...

In this mini-Fragment episode, Donn talks about Working Effectively with Legacy Code. He doesn't just talk about the book itself, but he talks about how to approach a legacy code base and start delivering value as soon as possible, yet with confidence. If you've recently started a new job, moved to a new team, started working on an existing code base, then this episode is bound to help you. Show N...

In this episode, we talk to Dan Kim about Kotlin. Dan is an Android developer at the company Basecamp and has some great Kotlin posts on the company's famous blog Signal Vs Noise. He was pretty early, on the Kotlin train and has been working with the new language for quite sometime now. Instead of trying to go into every single detail about Kotlin, the nuances of the language, it's syntax etc. we...

This was truly one of the most memorable IOs Google has ever conducted. In keeping with tradition, Donn and Kaushik talk with a bunch of awesome #AndroidDev and get their opinions/thoughts on IO and Android in general. As always, these are super fun episodes. Show Notes Dan Kim ( Basecamp ) @dankim or dan@basecamp.com Vysor app Mark Allison - being brave with the O preview Patryk Poborca ( Kozio D...

RxJava is considered a functional reactive programming library. But the paradigms of functional programming have existed for a very long time. In this episode we talk to Android GDE Anup Cowkur, about his experience experimenting with "pure" functional languages. He breaks down some of the basic concepts, explaining the different terms along the way. Download directly Show Notes Gordon M...

It's pretty awesome, when you use a third party library, love using it and finally get to talk to the person who actually helped build it. In this episode, we talk to Gabriel Peal. Besides having quite the illustrious career in Android development, Gabriel now works at Airbnb and helped build Lottie - an animation library. What is Lottie, how do you use Lottie? why is so Lottie so cool? how does i...

It is the world of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Google's answer to that is the Android Things. In this episode, we talk to the amazing Rebecca Franks. She explains how Android things works and talks of some of the adventures and examples she's embarked on with Android Things. If you've had that hobby Raspberry Pi or Arduino board lying around and not sure how to put it to use, this episode's f...

In this episode Donn and Kaushik recommend 10 books on Software programming that they think every Android developer would greatly benefit from reading. These are books that helped them become better programmers and have had the most impact in their daily lives as Android developers. Show Notes Effective Java - Joshua Bloch Effective Java Items (Fragmented fragments) Working effectively with legacy...

Have you ever thought about building VR (Virtual Reality) apps? Where do you start? How difficult is it? How similar is to Android development? Do you still code in Java? In this episode, Etienne Caron AndroidDev extraordinaire and expert VR hobbyist gets us up to speed on what you need to know, to start creating VR apps. Show Notes Shopify Engineering Blog (VR) Demoscene Save a cat from a skyscra...

In this episode, Donn sits down with fellow Android GDE, Michael Bailey to cover 10 testing strategies to help you get your application under test and to make sure your testing environment is top notch. They start off with the basics and then progress further down the testing rabbit hole eventually covering topics like cloud-based testing labs, hermetic testing and much much more. This episode wil...

Today on Fragmented, we talk to Eyal Lezmy. Eyal works as an Android developer for Genymotion. While working for Genymotion he had to deal with the Android Debug Bridge a whole bunch, so in this episode we dive into the details of ADB, some super slick commands and in general just get a better understanding of this tool we use every single day. Show Notes Genymotion ADB - Android Debug Bridge Droi...

In this episode Kaushik talks to Kristin of Big Nerd Ranch. You would think that the Android lifecycle is pretty standard and basic stuff. But as Kristin begins to unpack the nuances of the Android lifecycle, we learn there's a world of details that's easy to miss. Listen on, to get an ironclad grip on the Activity lifecycle. Show Notes Android programming : The Big Nerd Ranch Guide Activities in...

In this mini-Fragment episode, Donn talks about Item #15 of the Effective Java series - Minimize Mutability. You'll learn what mutable and immutable objects are, how and why immutability is a good thing and how you can implement it. Show Notes Ryan Harter's Intro to AutoValue Caster. IO Course on AutoValue Effective Java Book Sponsor Rollbar Contact @fragmentedcast [twitter.com] @donnfelker [twitt...

It's almost a given these days that most phones will have Fingerprint APIs. But how does the hardware actually work? How does the Software work? How does an Android developer make use of these APIs? Ben Oberkfell breaks it down for us in great detail. Listen on! Show Notes NY Times Crossword app Chicken Wing test - ADB Ep 38 Android CDD - Compatibility Definition Document Explaining public/private...

In this mini-Fragment episode, Donn talks about Item #14 of the Effective Java series - In public classes, use accessor methods, not public fields. You'll learn why it's important to use accessors in your public classes and some caveats to this rule. For example, you may decide that the class is a private inner class or package private. Donn digs into the details in this week's episode. This is a...

In this episode, we talk to Android developer Andrew Orobator. He gives us the lowdown on the new feature App Shortcuts that was introduced in Android. We talk about static and dynamic shortcuts, use cases for other shortcuts and how to implement them for your app. We also cover what the feature lacks and things to watch out for, while implementing them. Listen on! Fragmented also has spanking new...

In this episode we change the tune and talk with Raveesh Bhalla; Raveesh is a GDE for design specialized in UI/UX. He starts off by helping us get a good understanding of what UI/UX involves. He then shares his experiences and learnings from having conducted extensive research specifically for Android. What are some good patterns today, what are anti-patterns, what should we watch out for. Listen...

In this episode Donn and Kaushik have an honest discussion about Realm (a client side database). Donn has worked pretty extensively with Realm and even consulted for their Android platform previously. But Kaushik has only recently tried it out on a production app. In this episode they have an honest and frank discussion about using Realm, the advantages, the disadvantages, the gotchas and if it ma...