Working With Android

Ok, so, I've been doing an in-depth study of bitcoin software. I've looked at the crypto, I've looked at the hasher class and other portions of the more important functions. Windows based programming has a few issues, but nothing I would consider anything serious. there are easy to do work-arounds and a few ready made scripts to help compile code on windows for qt. Linux compiling has far fewer issues than windows and again, there are some ready made scripts even for linux users who want to save a little time when building the daemon. I've been getting familiar with the windows side of compiling qt. I'm already versed in bashing on linux. I have begun to delve into android programming. there seems to be a desire for more android based apps, for phones and tablets.

Android studio, so far, has given me few issues. The native development kit allows you to write code in different languages, and then compile them for android java. With the ndk, you can write code for a wallet in say c++ and compile it to run on a phone, without actually having to code any java at all. This seems to work fine so far in tests, but running these apps on a phone is not the same from one manufacturer to the next. The difference in hardware between phones is solved by just writing the code in java and compiling it in android studio. The AVD (Android Virtual Device) let's you test code on specific models of phones with a specific hardware setup. So you can see if your app will run on a certain phone, or every phone. Test it against different API's, like Ice Cream Sandwich or Lollipop. Cross-platform compiling using android java and a second language, like c++, can be tested thoroughly to see if it will run correctly. A lot of crypto currency software is cross-platform and can be imported into android studio. There are plugins that support PHP, Python, Ruby, C++, Javascript, JSON and other custom languages. Android could be used to eliminate the need to use a pc/mac at all. (Except for writing code and compiling.)

I have seen a wallet project for android. I'm not all that familiar with the project and I haven't delved into it's source yet. More than likely I'm just going to start a project from scratch and see where it leads. Most of the projects I've looked at have various vulnerabilities that I have already pointed out. Android libraries have built in functionality and libraries that I believe are better than those found in visual studio and similar IDE. There is better security, a more stable hasher, pretty good networking and a huge community. The documentation also covers almost any problem you might have. A few people have said that the current android wallet works, but not very well. I don't know if that's true or not, as I haven't used it. So, I'll be working on an android wallet, as soon as I finish my first project.

My first project is a ticker app that shows tickers for just about every exchange on the web. It comes with an internet radio player, my music folder access to play your own custom playlist, ability to sign in to your favorite exchange from within the app, connect using 2fa login, set a favorites list of your favorite tickers/exchanges and when you close the app, it does not stay in memory or active processes. It will clean itself up. Android ndk is good for this, because exchanges use very different api's. Some use Python, some use PHP, some use Ruby, some use JSON and other use Jquery. All of the tickers use some form of GET or POST and the ndk can use api's in all of these languages. Connecting to any exchange should be seamless. Just like using your favorite web browser on your pc or mac.