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Programming is hard work. Google App Inventor can't change that.
- yanw 16y agoIt's not meant to.
- zb 16y agoAny time a product is hyped as divorcing ends from means, you know it can be safely ignored.
- Niten 16y agoApp Inventor essentially fills the same niche as OS X's Automator: No, it doesn't make real programming easier. But there are plenty kinds of applications that honestly don't require what we'd consider real programming to implement, and this lowers the barrier to making them. And it may even be a great gateway drug to real programming. App Inventor looks a lot like MIT's Scratch, which I used to teach some fifth graders simple programming constructs last school year. As much as they enjoyed that, I think they'd love using the same building-block type program construction to make something for their phones (yes, apparently fifth graders have smartphones these days). > Like David says, it’s still programming even if you’re dragging around blocks rather than hammering out code. Yes, but it's _easier_ programming (you don't have to both learn the semantics and remember exactly what syntax to use at the same time), which makes it a wonderful way to start.
- sp332 16y agoIt's "making easy things easy, and hard things possible." That's what a friendly platform does well.
- Qz 16y agothat aims to let normal non-gearheads write applications for Android phones with no programming knowledge This is a misunderstanding. You need programming knowledge to make programs. App Inventor takes out/simplifies the coding requirement. If you want to make Tetris with App Inventor, you still need to know (or learn along the way) how to program.