Learn to Program with App Inventor: A Visual Introduction to Building Apps

I found the book to be difficult to follow with the actual app. What is in the book does not always match up with the next step. I know absolutely nothing about creating apps and hopes this book would teach me. It did not. For example, many times I would follow the instructions to actually get the app, but the book would say something else, sometimes pages later, I would find the answer after I spend time to figure it out for myself. Also, when you get to page 9, there is supposed to be a HiWorld download but there are no instructions on how to get this to your ox. My ox starts out with This PC > Desktop >. I had no idea how to change it to what’s in the book. I tried everything, even the download. But there are no instructions on how to use the download in the app. Also, I picked a random picture of mine and could not delete it. Again, no instructions. I googled it as well. No luck. So, at the point I was stuck and plan to return the book. Awful

This book is great for beginners who wants to learn how to make 7 new apps. The book walks you through step by step of building your own app. It is rather a mechanical walkthrough of building apps than teaching beginners on the logic to build their own apps afterward.For those who knows programming, a quick tutorial (there are many) from the app site (appinventor.mit.edu) or through appinventor.org is a better tutorial to use their software App Inventor, and to develop your game logic.The book did a good job infusing key programming concepts, with increasing complexity, such as conditionals, loops, functions, etc, into its game. Some explanations of the key concepts seemed clunky and sometimes confusing. The loop explanation text, for example, were not correct according to what the machine actually did. For programmers who knows a little bit about writing programs, the 'how' and 'why' for each code blocks in this book could make you a bit frustrated.The graphics were great with numerical references for each snap-on blocks. This book also walked you through all features of what smart phones and App Inventor could do like using maps/GPS capability, voice-to-text and video recording features, etc, beyond the basic calculation or graphics game building.Some games could get a better logic build into them. For example, the stop, pause, and/or restart button for the Fruit Loot game. Another game like the bus tracking app could use names' display instead of just phone numbers. It was hard to locate within lines of button-clicking text where the explanations for how-this-block-works wasburied.Again, I'm disappointed this book didn't explain things in more details (the 'how' and the 'why' each block was created), but rather a step by step to copy the games. The exercise is great to get someone familiar with the site and build a few Android apps. Just thought this book would include more than just a visual guide on button clicking since the title said "learn to program with...".

I've been coding off and on for decades. My first introduction to visual programming was Visual Basic back in the day. How far we've come since then! This book is meant for kids 11 and up, according to the author, but it could also be a fun way for an adult to try their hand at programming a simple app without a need to know how to write a line of code. The book is filled with screenshots that take the reader from the very beginning of how to access this online app programming environment. The writing is simple and easy to understand. The projects are simple to start with, of course, but get progressively more interesting and complex. Honestly, some later projects are pretty interesting in and of themselves; the author provides excellent instructions about how to do all these projects. In the introduction, the author tells us how kids across the globe have made creative apps using this online software. Could you or your child use App Inventor to do the same thing? If creating simple apps interests you or your child, I recommend checking this book out and giving it a try!I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.

I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARC) of this book. This is an otherwise unbiased review.Learn to Program with Apps Inventor starts by explaining what Apps Inventor is, a free, on-line programming environment, empowering people to create apps for their phones, rather than just using the applications they bought. They walk the students through how to download, install, and use it.Learn to Program with Apps Inventor starts with Hello World (Hi World!), and goes from there. It shows how to handle screen images, user input, and how to use user-interface display.Learn to Program with Apps Inventor seems well laid out; each section starts with a program that illustrates some aspect of apps programming. It provides a path to analyzing the problem, and constructing easy to implement steps to the end goal. The reader/student is then given further exercises in these concepts to pursue on their own.Learn to Program with Apps Inventor has approximately 170 pages of instruction plus Appendix and Index. It seems easily understandable, technically correct, and free of disturbing typos that plague so many books these days.I would recommend it as a gift for a child (grandchild) or any younger person who is not content with just downloading apps and pushing the buttons.