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i'am .net programmer for 10 years, now i need to work on the android.

what will be better to do

start learn java for android or to learn how to use mono (and work on my Visual-studio) ?

if the answer is to learn android - can i get any good links for this ?

(except of the android home site)

thanks in advance

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closed as not constructive by Kirk Woll, LarsTech, Brian Roach, Bo Persson, Konerak Sep 17 '11 at 6:58


You talk about mono? It's for use it with Android? like android.xamarin.com –  sahid Sep 9 '11 at 14:45
Hi! Did you start learning java or use mono? What is your impression? –  bizon Jul 10 '12 at 9:24

5 Answers 5

I'd say learning through Android is good, as that's how I did it. Google officially maintains an Android SDK for Eclipse IDE. It's a very nice IDE to use and doesn't differ that much from Visual Studio(which, coincidentally, I was also using before I started Java on Android).

You can take a look at the following links:

  1. http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html

  2. http://www.eclipse.org/

If you use C# then Java isn't too different actually, so you shouldn't have much trouble picking it up. The Android Developer site is very helpful. There is also a vast amount of resource you can use scattered around the 'web.

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The choice is your decision, depending on what you like, i dont think anyone else can decide for you.

If you choose Android and want books, Beginning Andorid 3 and Pro Android 3 are good: Beginning Android 3 Pro Android 3

Or try Lynda's training (i assume you can skip a lot of basic videos since you have been working with .NET for 10 years, you dont need programming basics)


Following a book is better because books explain what is happening inside the framework and what an API actually does, online links mostly only tell what to do but not how to do, which is ok for someone new to programming, but it cannot get you very far.

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That's depend what do you want, if you have the time and the envy I you recommend to learn Java and Android.

Why? Java is an language widespread and it's benefit for a developer to know this language, it's idem for Android. About resources? The official android documentation (I cannot recommend other sorry) and stackoverflow.com.

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A bonus for sticking to .NET and go the Mono for Android path would be reusing existing C# code you already have. Probably most of it could be used just replacing some Android platform specific code.

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I've been trying and struggling to use monodroid/xamarin now for android for weeks. So many things in the SDK are not where you expect them to be - I spend most of my time tracking down where they've decided to put things. The documentation for monodroid/xamarin is very very poor - I just spend my time banging my head against the wall. I love c# and visual studio, but I'm seriously considering learning Java.

The reason I came onto stackoverflow just now was to find how to use setId on an ImageView because surprise it isn't where it is in the SDK documentation or in the same place as all the java examples out there. (Update, after 30 minutes of searching for which packages I should use and just where I could find this elusive setId I found that they changed it just Id - great - thanks monodroid for wasting my time)

So in a nutshell, there is little support, the documentation is poor, and the docs say that the executable size is about 4mb bigger than a java app. I wish I could get my money back.


In fact sod it, I'm going to learn Java now.

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