First Problem! AVD Creation with Android 4.0.3

Ran into my first error today, and it was before I wrote a single line of code.

When creating your Android Virtual Device (AVD), Professional Android 4 Application Development recommends using the Galaxy Nexus skin (WXGA720) to skin your emulator, like so:

So I went ahead and did that, and then tried to run my AVD...

The error reads:  

Failed to allocate memory: 8

This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.

Please contact the application's support team for more information.

Well that's not very helpful.  Failed to allocate memory for what?  And what does the 8 mean?

I did some Googling, and found my issue.  It turns out the default resolution for the Galaxy Nexus skin is 720x1280, while my PC's resolution is a measly 1920x1080.  When trying to launch the emulator, it seems Eclipse tries to fit the AVD's display inside your screen, and, if it doesn't fit, crashes with a not-so-helpful error message.

The Solution was simple enough: I switched my skin to WVGA854, with a native resolution of 480x854 -- small enough to fit on my screen -- and boom, Hello World!

"But you said you hadn't written a single line of code yet," you exclaim with bewilderment.  "Hello World" is the default activity created by Eclipse when you start a fresh Android Application Project.  Technically, I deleted a couple of lines that centered the text, but deleting is not writing...

Note: I also ran into the following error starting my AVD a few times:

ERROR: Unable to load VM from snapshot. The snapshot has been saved for a different hardware configuration.

This just means you've been messing with your AVD hardware configuration too often.  Launch your AVD from the AVD manager with "Launch from snapshot" unchecked and "Save to snapshot" checked, and it should do the trick.

The Android Adventure Begins

So I've decided to get serious about Android development.  I still see it as a new technology, but it's really starting to spread its wings, and I'd love to get in on the ground floor, or, I suppose, as close to the ground floor as I can get with a technology that's been around for 5 years.

I've tinkered with some Android development over the past few months -- messing around with a prototype app at work -- but, up until now, my knowledge has come from cutting/pasting/tweaking existing code, and Googling "how do I [something] with Android?"  I've realized that this is a frustrating approach to learning any language, as you end up reading questions posed by people at the same knowledge level as yourself (close to none), but answered by people who seem to have vast expert-level knowledge, whose tips and advice fly right over your head.  I ended up with rough ideas of how to perform the specific tasks I was looking for, but I wasn't getting any closer to having a solid understanding of the Android language as a whole.


So today I went out in search of a book to help guide my way, and by "went out," I mean I went to Amazon.com (c'mon, who goes to book stores anymore?).  After scanning reviews for a while, I settled on "Professional Android 4 Application Development" by Wrox (as of this writing, the Kindle edition is $24.74).

I'm just getting started with this book, but I'm already pretty fired up about tackling an interesting new (ish) language.  Not only do I hope to enhance my marketability, but I also hope to be able to create some cool editions to my own phone.  It should be fun.

Addendum:

Since this is my first blog post, I guess I should lay out a mission statement of sorts...

This blog is intended to be an amalgam of my experiences with software application development:  musings on particular coding issues, code samples, and anything else related to development that might pop into my head.  I hope that it not only helps me to keep track of my growth as a developer, but also acts as a helpful resource to other developers who might be tinkering in similar areas.  For the record, I don't expect this first post to help anyone, except for maybe Amazon if anyone reads this and decides to buy the same book I bought.  So, you're welcome, Amazon.