To help you develop the skills to create new Android apps and maintain existing ones, we’re excited to announce the fifth edition of our popular guide to Android programming. While there are only four authors officially listed in the book, the making of this fifth edition was a group effort at Big Nerd Ranch. We consulted heavily with the entire Android team here (and also reached out to other experts in the field) to provide the best learning experience possible for someone looking to dip their toes in modern Android development. Read on to learn about what’s changing in this latest installation!

What’s New In The Fifth Edition?

In 2019, reactive programming was gaining popularity as a way to architect Android code into maintainable and extensible structures. With the release of Jetpack Compose in 2021, Google poured gasoline onto that flame, supercharging the reactive programming movement. Reactive programming and Jetpack Compose’s declarative framework fit together seamlessly and provide an excellent foundation to build modern Android apps.

While this book still provides readers with all the necessary knowledge to make apps using the best practices of modern Android development, Jetpack Compose is the future of Android development, and the fifth edition of the book is intended to prepare readers for that future. In addition to four new chapters introducing readers to Jetpack Compose, changes throughout the book are intended to ease the transition from developing apps with Android’s existing UI toolkit to developing apps with Jetpack Compose. For example, there are many ways to write asynchronous code on Android, but the book exclusively uses Kotlin coroutines to perform asynchronous operations. Coroutines are baked directly into Jetpack Compose’s API as well as being excellent tools to interact with UI written with Android’s existing UI toolkit. We also reworked many of our projects to follow the unidirectional data flow architecture pattern. The unidirectional data flow pattern is essential to building apps with Jetpack Compose – and it also helps organize code when building apps with Android’s existing UI toolkit.

Other changes in the fifth edition go beyond Jetpack Compose. For example, testing is an integral part of building modern Android apps, and we have rewritten the content around testing from the ground up with practical examples. Also, to reflect how modern Android applications are developed, the book leans on libraries from Google and third parties. Apps in the book now use the Navigation component library to manage navigation between screens and libraries like Retrofit, Moshi, and Coil – as well as the Jetpack libraries – to handle other core features.

On (Virtual) Shelves Soon

Whether you’re trying to create your first Android app or your 50th one, this book provides simple explanations and meaningful dives into the Android platform, helping you quickly harness the platform to create the apps you want and need.

The eBook version for the fifth edition of Android Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide is available for pre-order now and will launch in early May. Printed versions of the book will be available in early June. If you or your team would like the full Big Nerd Ranch experience, we offer instructor-led bootcamps where one of our expert instructors will teach you the Essentials of Android.

You can find more information on our books page or view a recording of our webinar, where we covered what’s new, tips and tricks, and more. Happy coding!

The post Coming soon: Android Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide, Fifth Edition appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

​**Updated on 10/5/21** The Kindle version of the book is now available on Amazon! We’ve updated this post to include the latest information about the book’s availability.

To help you adopt the language in your own projects and learn about these more advanced features, we’re excited to announce the second edition of our popular guide to Kotlin programming. Read on to learn about what’s changing in this latest installation!

​Kotlin 1.5 & IntelliJ 2021.2

​Kotlin 1.5 introduced language features for unsigned numeric types and value classes (formerly called inline classes). There are also a number of quality of life improvements that have been introduced since our first Kotlin guide, like better type inference, when expressions with variable declarations, and improvements to the standard library. The second edition of our Kotlin programming guide incorporates these new features and will guide you through writing idiomatic Kotlin code. We’ve also updated our guide for the latest version of IntelliJ IDEA, which has also gotten some power-ups in its Kotlin editing features.

​Whether you’re coming to Kotlin for the first time or are brushing up your skillset, we think you’ll love these new features.​

Coroutines

​The kotlinx.coroutines library has changed drastically since we teased it in the first edition of our Kotlin programming guide. Right off the bat, Coroutines have graduated from experimental to stable and have become widely adopted in many production codebases.

​We’ve also seen the introduction and adoption of Channels and Flows, which build on top of Coroutines to allow parts of your application to communicate more easily. The book has three brand-new dedicated chapters for Coroutines, Channels, and Flows.

​Kotlin Multiplatform

​Although many people think of Kotlin as a replacement for Java, that doesn’t paint the full picture. Kotlin is a multiplatform language and comes in three flavors: Kotlin/JVM, Kotlin/Native, and Kotlin/JS.

​The last part of the book will give you a taste of Kotlin Multiplatform. We will walk you through how to make a single project that compiles into a Java executable, a native macOS application, and a JavaScript script for use on the web.

​If you’ve been looking for a way to share code between platforms, give Kotlin Multiplatform a shot. We think you’ll be surprised at how much it can do for you. And if you want to learn more about Kotlin Multiplatform, may we point you in the direction of a few other blog posts?

​On Virtual Shelves Now

​Whether you’re an Android developer who wants to use Google’s recommended programming language, a web developer who wants a concise alternative to Java, a developer looking to share code between apps on different platforms, a new programmer looking to learn a modern programming language, or anyone in between, Kotlin is a great choice. We hope that you pick up our Kotlin programming guide and enjoy working with the language as much as we do at Big Nerd Ranch.

The Kindle version for the second edition of Kotlin Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide is available now from Amazon  and will be rolling out to other eBook retailers soon. Printed versions of the book are available for pre-order now and will ship in late October.

If you or your team would like the full Big Nerd Ranch experience, we offer instructor-led bootcamps where one of our expert instructors will teach you the Essentials of Kotlin. You can find more information on our books page. Also keep an eye on this blog and our social media for more updates from the Ranch.

Happy coding!

The post Coming soon: Kotlin Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide, Second Edition appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

Big Nerd Ranch just turned 20 and a milestone like this deserves a party, right? So join us from May 18th to May 20th and help us celebrate! 

Our 20th Anniversary Party is shaping up to be the nerdiest virtual event ever (well, we have no facts to back this up but we can dream) with three days full of webinars, opportunities to reconnect with your favorite instructors, deep dives into the history of Big Nerd Ranch, amazing limited edition swag, and more. It’s safe to say that we’re celebrating in style, and we want you to be there! 

Part of what takes this nerdy event into the furthest, nerdiest reaches of the Nerdasphere is the fact that we’ve surveyed the breadth of the Ranch and wrangled some amazing, informative virtual sessions on top of everything else. Interested in or want to learn more about Flutter, SwiftUI, or Machine Learning? We’ve got you covered. And you won’t want to miss the Q & A with our founders, Aaron Hillegass and Emily Herman. 

Nerds love celebrating others as well as each other. From win to win, class to class and book to book, we’re all in it together. That is a big reason why we’ve been able to succeed and continue to grow over the past 20 years—that is two whole decades! Please don’t ask if that makes us feel old because, well, it does. 

But we’re already looking towards the future, to the next 20 years and we can’t wait to see what all of the Nerds get up to. Our culture is one of a kind. If you’ve taken a class with us, worked with us, or hired a Nerd (or Nerds), then you know what we mean. Hardworking, smart, engaging, and always smiling, that is what being a Nerd is all about. So we want to celebrate with all of you. This event is a celebration twenty years in the making, but it is also a celebration of every Nerd, friend of a Nerd, and future Nerd. Let’s create something wonderful together. 

We have limited openings for each webinar and talk so be sure to sign up soon! Check out our basic schedule below and head to our 20th Anniversary Event page to get all the details and register. 

May 18th: 

• 3:00 pm: History of the Ranch 
• 4:00 pm: Founders Q & A with Aaron Hillegass and Emily Herman 

May 19th: 

• 10 am: Patterns are Garbage
• 3 pm: Kotlin Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide – 2nd Edition 
• 3:30 pm: Exploring Flutter
• 4 pm: SwiftUI Essentials
• 4:30 pm: Product Team Essentials
• 5 pm: Machine Learning Session with Chris Morris

May 20th: 

• 3 pm (closing): Engineering with Chris Stewart and Kristin Marsicano

We can’t wait to (virtually) see you there!

The post Big Nerd Ranch Turns 20!  appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

We have offered training on web development since the very beginning, but we felt like we were not quite hitting the right notes with our most recent course offering: Full-Stack & React Essentials. So, we have invested the past few months in developing an all-in course on React Essentials. The course, like many of our other courses, is designed to show experienced programmers what’s possible with React development and give them the confidence to explore more. So why the change?

Reason #1 – Client Feedback

React is no secret. It is a technology that has been around and is in high demand. You might say but I thought Big Nerd Ranch only taught the latest, up-and-coming, cutting edge technologies? We love teaching and working with the latest and greatest in technology. It’s how we got where we are today. At the same time, we want to teach and use technologies that can support professional, elegant products and that individuals, businesses, and enterprises can use to build their visions into a reality. 

This change also reflects a sentiment we have been hearing from our students and clients for the better part of a year. Time after time, we heard that folks were really enjoying the course, but they were hoping to learn more about React programming. The sentiment was the same for our corporate clients as well. One of our core values here is curiosity, so it is important for us to listen to our clients and to make adjustments accordingly.

Reason #2 – Mobile Focus

One of the other reasons we have focused on React is that it continues our focus on teaching developers how to build mobile applications. Because React is a mobile responsive framework, it is a natural fit along with our native mobile training offerings for iOS and Android.

Reason #3 – Experience and Expertise

We have been working on React projects for over five years, so it is a technology we know well. When we talk with clients about consulting projects where we are going to be building a new web product, we often recommend React because of its versatility, performance, and scalability. We want our training to be authentically useful, so we want to train on technologies that we would not just use but would happily recommend for a professional grade web application.

Reason #4 – Reskilling & Upskilling

While we are proud of our Full-Stack & React Essentials course, we feel like it isn’t quite hitting the mark. We’ve always provided a platform for existing developers to learn a transformative set of skills that could set them up for their next big project, and we found that the course in its existing form wasn’t meeting that mark.

Our goal with our Essentials courses has always been to prepare developers to start working on a project, and that goal hasn’t changed with our fully refreshed course on React development. We’ve packed the course full of foundational knowledge that existing developers need to begin work on a React project, and we are looking forward to helping individuals, teams, and companies build their capabilities in React.

Are you ready to get started?

Our first revamped React class is scheduled for March 22nd and spots are filling up fast. Now’s your chance to take a deep-dive into React and learn more about this modern framework for web development.

Check out the course page to learn a bit more about what you can expect from the class and register.

The post Why the Move to React appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

It has been our greatest passion to help developers learn and stay up to date with Swift programming and iOS development through our books and bootcamps. To share our love of Swift and all of the changes it has seen, we are proud and excited to announce the 3rd edition of Swift Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide!

So, What’s New?

While “Updated for Xcode 12 and Swift 5.3” is absolutely true, it doesn’t tell the whole story of this 460-page tome.

We have made a number of other improvements that we think you will love.

Tools for Standing Alone

After you learn Swift, a great next step is to learn about iOS programming and development (I can recommend a great book on the subject).

No matter what your next step is, you have already learned useful skills by the end of this book. With that in mind, we wrote a brand new chapter about writing command line utilities using Swift’s Argument Parser library.

In addition to giving you the tools to build CLI utility apps for your Mac, the new chapter also introduces some important discussion around the filesystem, project organization, and the modularity of Swift, including how to import external libraries using the Swift Package Manager from within Xcode.

Tools for the Future

Developers wanting to eventually learn SwiftUI will be happy to know that we have included coverage of opaque types and property wrappers in this edition, two language features that enable SwiftUI’s elegant syntax.

We have worked hard to expand our discussion around advanced concepts such as memory management and troubleshooting reference cycles, the polymorphism enabled by Swift’s type system, working with closures, generics, and the important differences between value and reference types in your programs.

Lastly, we have included a discussion of the newer language features which have shifted how we think about our programs, such as the generic Result type.

For Dessert: A Taste of SwiftUI

Speaking of SwiftUI, you didn’t think we would leave that out, did you?

The last chapter of the book is a Big Nerd Ranch take on an introduction to building iOS and macOS apps with the SwiftUI framework.

This new chapter, which replaces the old “First Cocoa App” and “First iOS App” chapters with a single multi-platform iOS/macOS app in SwiftUI, takes care to introduce and explain some of the fundamental building blocks of SwiftUI apps. We also take this opportunity to extend our discussion of the filesystem and saving user data.

We think you’ll like where it takes you.

What’s Next?

We will continue to provide world-class training on how to develop apps for iOS, and we are building a SwiftUI Essentials course which we hope to offer in 2021. We look forward to continuing to engage with you and teach you as Apple’s platforms evolve.

But you can rest assured that as we learn more, we will share our passion and love for the latest Swift developments with you.

Keep your eye on this blog and our social media for more. Happy coding!

The post Now Available: Swift Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide, Third Edition appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

Halfway to 4K

Over the past few months, Kristin Marsicano, myself, and many others on the Android team here at
Big Nerd Ranch have worked on the fourth edition of Android Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide.
We have a lot of good things in store for the next version, and we want to give you a
sneak peek of some of the improvements.

The biggest change in this version is that Big Nerd Ranch is going all-in on Kotlin. We’ve been
using Kotlin for our consulting projects for quite a while now, and since Kotlin now has
first-party support for Android, updating the book to use it was the obvious path forward. We
believe that using Kotlin makes development simpler and more fun, and we’re very excited to be
rolling out these updates. We have already taught our Android Essentials bootcamp using Kotlin and
we’ve gotten great feedback and support on the changes. This kind of feedback from our classes in
invaluable as it helps direct future changes to our books and class materials.

We are also overhauling the book to reflect current best practices in Android
development today. Architecture Components are a natural fit for the new materials as they provide
an opinionated guide to app architecture that is easy to implement and follow for new developers.
Room, ViewModels, and LiveData make appearances to teach best practices around data storage, as
well as loading and maintaining it across rotation. Other Architecture Components are being
investigated as well to see how we can add them to our existing examples.

The book will now use third-party libraries to focus on how modern Android applications are
developed, instead of strictly focusing only on the APIs within the framework. One example is
dropping HttpURLConnection in favor of modern libraries which allows you to focus more on what
you want your app to do instead of low-level implementation details. This is a big departure from
our previous books, but we believe that this will better prepare you to dive into professional
application development after reading our book.

At this point, the fourth edition of our book has fully been converted to use Kotlin. We are
finalizing decisions on new content. Writing that content will be our focus in the coming months.
Updating our books is always a huge undertaking, but we are very excited about what is in store, and
we can’t wait to get the book published. Stay tuned for more updates on the release timeline for
the fourth edition of our Android Programming guide, and leave a comment below if there is anything
you would like to see in the next version!

The post The next edition of Android Programming is coming: Halfway to 4K appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

Last year, we were excited to attend KotlinConf 2017, JetBrains’ official Kotlin developer conference.
Returning for a second year, KotlinConf is the place to learn about new Kotlin language advancements straight from the source – the language designers themselves.

It’s been a great year for Kotlin: Kotlin adoption continues to grow on Android, and Kotlin is being used in more domains than ever before, thanks to Kotlin/JS and Kotlin/Native.

We’ll once again be at KotlinConf, and this time, we’re official partners!
We’ve been working with JetBrains to deliver a unique track at KotlinConf 2018 with Q/A sessions, code labs, and great giveaways.

Josh Skeen will be talking about his experience building a modular synthesizer using Kotlin/Native and will be helping folks onboard onto Kotlin/Native in our Intro to Kotlin/Native session.
David Greenhalgh, Nikki Porter, and Chris Stewart will be on site for the Big Nerd Ranch track, featuring topics that you need to know if you’re adopting Kotlin: higher-order functions, interoperability, and how to make the most of Kotlin and RxJava.

If you’re in Amsterdam on October 4-5, 2018, stop by the conference and say hello!
We’d love to talk to you about the language that our Android team has fallen in love with.

The post Looking Forward to KotlinConf 2018 appeared first on Big Nerd Ranch.

The day is finally here: our guide to the Kotlin programming language will soon be on store shelves and in your hands, dear reader.
About a year ago, Josh Skeen and I sat down to start work full-time on a guide to the language that we had grown to love.

Kotlin went mainstream in May 2017 thanks to a welcome assist from Google, but Big Nerd Ranch’s Kotlin journey started in 2015 with an internal app called KoffeeKüp.
In our focus on delivering high-quality courses, books, and applications, it sometimes became easy to pass menial tasks like refilling the coffee carafe onto the next under-caffeinated developer.
We needed a way to encourage each other to refill the coffee, and KoffeeKüp was born.

KoffeeKüp provided us with a playground for playing with some of the technologies that were piquing our interest at the time: MVVM, data binding, Slack bots, and most importantly, Kotlin.
From that point forward, we started building internal apps and experiments in Kotlin.
We offered Kotlin work on our consulting projects, and once Google announced their official support, our clients were the ones starting the Kotlin conversation.

The Book

Our books are the result of our combined experience in application development and in teaching our courses.
By the time it gets to you, the content in Kotlin Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide has been taught in numerous classes, where we take your feedback and hear the problems that you’re running into as developers.

In Kotlin Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide, we start from core principles that you may know from other languages: basic data types, conditionals, collections etc. and introduce them within the context of the Kotlin programming language.
If you’re a Java developer, some of this will be familiar to you.
Kotlin adds useful twists to these tried-and-true standards; once you use conditional expressions, for example, you’ll see opportunities to clean up lots of existing code.

With that foundation set, we dive deep into object-oriented programming principles in Kotlin.
Kotlin gives you remarkable power in how you initialize objects – we have a whole chapter on it!
You’re not limited to object-oriented programming in Kotlin, though – we’ll also walk through how Kotlin gives you the flexibility to integrate functional programming into your workflow.

Kotlin Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide is platform-agnostic, but we make sure to take some time to highlight common patterns on Android.

There’s so much more to cover, from anonymous functions to extensions and beyond.
We do this all in Big Nerd Ranch’s example-driven style: we introduce concepts within the context of a project that you get to build throughout the book.
If you’ve ever wanted to build your own text adventure, then this is the book for you.

We humbly hope that you love the book as much as we love the language that spawned it.

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