Google's App Inventor program discontinued ;(

ricardocameron

http://appinventorblog.com/2011/08/09/app-inventor-discontinued-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

This comes as potentially VERY sad news for those of us interested in programming, and entering into it on a basic level(although I'm also self-studying Python).
What do you guys think? Anyone here use it?
I feel this really sucks, though, in light of I have in fact just finished a little application using App Inventor for Android. I made it for my wife, family and friends based on one of our favorite Miyazaki-san animes: My Neighbor Totoro. The "Totoro Happy Tap Music Box" has a Totoro mole-mash type mini-game and plays music box versions of the movie's songs.
It was fun, challenging and I hope to make more apps and put them on the appmarket. You can check it out and download it free on my Google Sites webpage here:Totoro Happy Tap Music Box

Victor Frost

Okay, it's not discontinued. Google is just giving it to someone else to deal with.

ricardocameron

Forgot the screenshots, sorry:




and the Music Box:




To Download:

ricardocameron

Okay, it's not discontinued. Google is just giving it to someone else to deal with.

Yes, if all goes well and transitions smoothly. We know how that usually works...

Apreche

Name one real app that lots of people use that was made with this thing.

Cramit

Name one real app that lots of people use that was made with this thing.

It was more of a tool for teaching programming logic, including threading. I have been considering using it in some of my classes to replace scratch since it outputs something a little more useful.

ricardocameron

Name one real app that lots of people use that was made with this thing.

Well, Scott, you have a point, as does Cramit. there are a FEW maybe worthwhile, like the "love You" text app with over 100,00 dwnlds: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source;=web&cd;=1&sqi;=2&ved;=0CC0QFjAA&url;=https://market.android.com/details?id=appinventor.ai_optimizationtutor_com.aWith_Love&hl=en&ei;=B5FKTqHFKqjC0AG0xY3rBw&usg;=AFQjCNEHqbRz4Z4xb7Vb8CamtQSGKp-4tg

So Scott, you're saying I should stick to learning the Python coding to become a career programmer lol? I'm using the book you recommended: "Think like computer scientist", as well.

Apreche

So Scott, you're saying I should stick to learning the Python coding to become a career programmer lol? I'm using the book you recommended: "Think like computer scientist", as well.

If you want to be a career programmer who doesn't suck you should be able to program in any language. If someone comes up to you and says they need you to fix a system written in LISP, Perl, PHP, Python, C, or any other language, you should be able to get it done. Obviously you will be more efficient with languages that you are more familiar with. Obviously just because you can do something doesn't mean you should or will. It's just if you know how to program, you know how to program in any language. If you can only use one language, and others make no sense to you, you don't know how to program.

ricardocameron

Gotcha, thanks. That's similar to what you were saying on the show recently. I think that book you mentioned is a good start, and can't afford the time or $$ for a CS degree, but I will plug away at it, if only as a hobby. It's fun! "A journey of a thousand miles.."