Common Mistakes in Android Programming

First of all, it should be mentioned that modern programmers write applications not for a specific phone, but for a specific mobile operating system. And there are far fewer such operating systems than mobile phone models. Most often, the latest versions of iOS (for smartphones from Apple), Windows Phone (for smartphones of the Lumia series), and Android are used. Android is currently rated as the most popular mobile operating system. If you go to the catalog, for example, the Yandex. Market search engine, which contains smartphones from leading manufacturers (Acer, Fly, LG, Samsung, Sony, HTC, etc.), then with Android OS of all versions (from 1.5 to 5.0) you will find at least 1,500 offers, with Windows Phone - only 50, and with iOS - no more than 20. Android is usually installed on smartphones of different classes - from ‘budget' models to expensive devices. 

Due to the high popularity of Android smartphones, developers have to work actively to provide customers with new functions and applications. Therefore, sometimes programmers need programming homework help online. In other cases, specialists make mistakes during coding. You should make sure you hire android developers that meet the qualifications. In our article, we will tell you in detail about the common mistakes in Android programming.

Mistakes in Android Programming

As it is known, errors in the software are all possible discrepancies between the characteristics of its demonstrated quality and formulated or those that meet the requirements and expectations of users. Since when developing programs, the programmer must first understand the problem, then come up with its solution and encode it as a program, we can identify three main sources of mistakes

• Misunderstanding of tasks. Software developers do not always understand what exactly needs to be completed. The analysis of the subject area is usually carried out to prevent misunderstanding of the tasks of the software system

• The incorrect solution of tasks. Maintaining constant contact with customers and users, providing them with the necessary information about selected solutions and their prototypes can help in choosing the right solution

• Incorrect porting of decisions into code. The correct representation of decisions in the code can be hindered by both common mistakes and forgetfulness of the programmer or his unwillingness to abandon the usual techniques that do not allow to accurately record the decision

Typical Mistakes

As for some types of common mistakes that a developer may make, they can be as follows:

1. The wrong algorithm (for example, there are various methods, in particular, Gauss's method, Seidel's method, run method, etc. for numerical solution of systems of linear algebraic equations These methods are similar when fulfilling certain (own for each method) conditions that are imposed on the system of equations, and this fact must be taken into account when choosing a method in each case)
2. Errors of analysis (incorrect programming of the correct algorithm)
3. Semantic errors (for example, an operator does not actually act quite exactly, or not at all as the programmer predicts). In this case, the program works but works incorrectly. The search for these errors occurs by means of logical analysis of the program and its testing
4. Errors in performing operations (loss of accuracy, going beyond the data type, etc.)
5. Data mistakes (symbolic instead of numerical, etc.)
6. Indexing with going beyond the array, i.e. the use as elements of the array of variables that are outside it
7. Unforeseen special cases of input-output - for example, when the end-of-file signal is not processed

There are different types of mistakes, depending on what stage of software development the error was detected:

• Syntactic mistakes are usually allocated by an assembler and prevent further compilation. The absence or inconsistency of open and closed parentheses can serve as an example here. Syntactic mistakes often arise in writing constructions of programming language (numbers, variables, functions, expressions, operators, labels, subroutines); these are errors related to the incorrect content of actions and the use of invalid values

• Compiler warnings. The application of an uninitialized variable can serve as an example in this case. The compiler may notice that the developer is doing something incorrectly and report about it, but the programmer himself decides to pay attention to the message or not

• Runtime mistakes. These errors occur during program operation. This usually happens when a program tries to perform an invalid operation. An example of such an invalid operation is division by zero, semantic errors (subtraction of variables instead of addition or segmentation error)

Ways to Eliminate Errors

Two operations are usually used in order to eliminate errors:

1. Debugging - elimination of syntactic and other elementary errors in programs
2. Testing - checking the correctness of the program on pre-prepared tests based on the already known exact result

Thus, in this article, we told you about common mistakes in Android programming. We hope this information was useful for you.