jetc.dev Newsletter Issue #5

Published: 2020-03-17

In this week’s newsletter, we look at wrapping a map, animating an animated character, and the relationship between Jetpack Compose and hand sanitizer.

One Off the Stack, One Off the Slack

You’ve got questions. That’s understandable!

adjustViewBounds Analogue in Compose

One way with ImageView to get it to fill a particular area is via adjustViewBounds. Here, we explore what it would take to accomplish the same thing in Compose.

Challenges in Using Views in Compose

Getting something like a MapBox map to work in Compose is not easy as of dev06 — this Slack thread explores some of the problems that one developer encountered.

Note: to view this, you need to be a member of the Kotlin Slack workspace — sign up at https://slack.kotlinlang.org/!

Composable Commentary

Posts, videos, and other new information related to Jetpack Compose!

Exploring AdapterList in Jetpack Compose

AdapterList is Compose’s alternative to something like RecyclerView. Learn more about how to use it here!

Intro to animations with Jetpack Compose

Zsolt Kocsi outlines how he pulled off the animations in his Compose-based Pokedex implementation.

Jetpack Compose Playground

A resource site with notes about how to use Compose, samples, etc.

Resource Roundup

100% pure code!

GitHub - mvarnagiris/compose-navigation

This is another take on how to implement navigation within a Compose-first app.

GitHub - adibfara/ComposeClock

A particle clock inspired by the Flutter equivalent.

…And One More Thing

COVID-19 is scrambling plans all around the world, including the Googleplex. It remains to be seen how our measures for slowing the spread of this coronavirus will impact things like the development plans and release schedule for Jetpack Compose. In theory, Compose work can be done form anywhere. In practice, switching a workforce from 100% office to 100% work from home will add uncertainty at best and inefficiency at worst, as developers shift where, when, and how they are getting their work done.

There might also be knock-on effects from other slowdowns. For example, perhaps Android R will be delayed, partly due to challenges in getting the OS itself ready, but partly due to slowdowns affecting the release of next-generation Pixel hardware. Would this sort of change impact Jetpack Compose? In theory, no. In reality, this sort of stuff can get intertwined and may not be as loosely coupled as we would like.

In short, while we never really knew when Jetpack Compose might ship its first alpha, any of our previous guesses probably should be tossed out the window.