First Steps into the Android Market ... And my backstory in Ada.

Hey guys, it's me.
After some fiddling around with programming, trying to learn different languages
(but never truly mastering any...), I've tried to take my first steps of preparation to
enter the Android Market, as a Developer. But let's get back in time 1 year.

I was sitting home, all alone. I didn't really know what to do,
since i had holidays, and my friends and family were on vacation. That was the time when I thought to
myself, "hey dood, you wanted to learn programming for so long... Now get out your tiger blood and
just do it, like programming rambo... or something along those lines". [ ... ]

Read the Glorious Story of my programming adventures, leading to mass deaths and country-wide destabilisation... wtf.





Hey guys, it's me.
After some fiddling around with programming, trying to learn different languages
(but never truly mastering any...), I've tried to take my first steps of preparation to
enter the Android Market, as a Developer. But let's get back in time 1 year.

I was sitting home, all alone. I didn't really know what to do,
since i had holidays, and my friends and family were on vacation. That was the time when I thought to
myself, "hey dood, you wanted to learn programming for so long... Now get out your tiger blood and
just do it, like programming rambo... or something along those lines".
The usual problem with learning programming is, deciding for a language. I had little experience in Visual Basic, C# and lua (very little), but I wanted to start something new, so I could learn everything from scratch.
Then I remembered the language Ada, which has not only a very beautiful syntax reminiscent of old english poems, but a very beautiful story, too (you can get a free Ada IDE and Compiler here).
The downside is, Ada is an nearly obsolete language in terms of personal and hobbyist usage. (It's still being used in highly critical situations nowadays, for example, the strongest laser of the world is driven by Ada.)

After learning Ada enough to make my Nerdlife easier by writing simple little applets, and actually reading and understand RSA, I kind of forgot about it, as my friends returned from their vacations, and I had, as Internet people like to say, "more important Real-Life stuff to do".

Time went on, and now we're on the present day again.
A few weeks ago, I was able to sell my Samsung Wave (running Bada OS) and bought myself a fresh, nice LG Optimus 3D, which I am very proud of (except for its poor battery life). On Bada I was trying to get myself into the market, and develope some nice, usefull apps for the people, but the developers' language was C++, which I had no experience in, and it's a shame that my Minecraft Database never saw the daylight.
But, as I said, I got a new phone, running Android, the one with the 2nd biggest market... The dreaming of making money by developing Apps was closer then ever....

That's what i first though. But it wasn't.
There were / are a few stepping stones lying in my way:

• Android apps are generally programmed in Java, allthough there's the NDK (Native Development Kit)
• Ada compilers for Android are currently only available for FreeBSD
• I don't know shit about Java
• To become an Android Developer, you have to confirm your Identity by Credit Card.
• To become an Android Developer, you have to pay a fee of 25$ / €

While the last point isn't so severe (I'd gladly pay that amount, considering that developing for WP7 costs you ca. 75$, and developing for iOS costs you 100 bucks.), the others are, for me at least.

Neither do I own a credit card or want to get one, nor  do I know shit about Java, as pointed out above ;P

But, to my luck, Java wasn't as frightening, confusing and bad as I allways thought it was. I happened to learn some Java allready, even if it's just enough to make one of those lousy App-Manager tools (Watch out, we've got an AppCeption in here! :o). The Credit Card is what I have to look at next.

And alltough the market is really overflooded with clones of the same apps (There's even a near-PERFECT clone of the iOS game Jetpack Joyride, called "RunRunBear"), I still have one ace up my sleeve: I'm a Graphics Designer. The main shit with iOS apps vs Android apps is, the latter tend to look like pure shit. I've yet to find a good looking Taskmanager (except Samsung's inbuilt one, which doesn't work on my phone) or a good looking file explorer (again, except Samsung's).

And that's what keeps me motivated, never let's me down, never runs around and deserts me.... Sorry, I'm getting off. Of course I'll keep you guys informed about my progress, as soon as it is worth blogging about.

Thanks for reading.

So, my question is:

what do you guys think about the Market fees?

What is it that keeps you motivated as a developer?