The Developer Community

Part of the success of Android is its developer community, which gathers in various places around the Web. The most frequented site for developer exchange is the Android Developers group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers. This is the number one place to ask questions or seek help when you stumble across a seemingly unsolvable problem. The group is visited by all sorts of Android developers, from system programmers, to application developers, to game programmers. Occasionally, the Google engineers responsible for parts of Android also help out by offering valuable insights. Registration is free, and we highly recommend that you join this group now! Apart from providing a place for you to ask questions, it's also a great place to search for previously answered questions and solutions to problems. So, before asking a question, check whether it has been answered already.

Every developer community worth its salt has a mascot. Linux has Tux the penguin, GNU has its… well, gnu, and Mozilla Firefox has its trendy Web 2.0 fox. Android is no different, and has selected a little green robot as its mascot. Figure 1–2 shows you that little devil.

Figure 1–2. Android's nameless mascot

Although the choice of color may be debatable, this nameless little robot has already starred in a few popular Android games. Its most notable appearance was in Replica Island, a free open-source platform created by former Google developer advocate Chris Pruett as a 20 percent project. The term 20 percent project stands for the one day a week that Google employees get to spend on a project of their own choosing.