Learning Android vs. learning iOS in 2020
Background: Coming up on 6 YOE, mostly in full-stack web. I've done some mobile work on-and-off, first with iOS (Swift) and then with cross-platform in React-Native. I'd like to re-commit to learning either iOS or Android, but it's been long enough since I took a serious look at the landscape from of either that I'm interested in knowing what the value of either is head-to-head in 2020. - If I pivot into either, as gig or FT work, which has the better job market? - How useful are Swift/ObjC/iOS design patterns outside of app development? Do any major enterprise companies even still use ObjC? - How useful are Kotlin/Java/Android design patterns outside of app development? How extensible is Java usage in Android to Java usage in other platforms? - What are the best (free) resources for picking up either? I know the Stanford course for iOS is the gold standard for beginning with iOS; is there something similar for Android? (i.e., course material that assumes you know the basics of app development, and has sprinkled in some tips that would be novel even for more advanced developers) Before commenting "Learn both" or "pick what aligns with what you use on a day-to-day" -- neither of these points are relevant for me at this time, I'm just looking for what has the better combination of 1.) pleasant to work with and has better community support, and 2.) what will age better over time, not only domestically but hypothetically in an international / remote-friendly job market. YOE: 6 TC: 260k
iOS is easier to learn than Android and I think there is more demand for iOS developers in US - because of relatively high entry barrier (you need a Mac and they are not cheap) and more iOS users.
Demand might be true, but ease isn't, because of the frequency of the updates to swift
Neither
If you have Java and Gradle experience then you should be able to get up and running pretty quickly with Kotlin on Android. Kotlin is more useful than Swift imo due to its increasing popularity as a server side language and the fact that it can be compiled to native iOS frameworks and transpiled to JavaScript.
Honest question: Assuming all new projects are being written in Kotlin, do you suppose there are any sufficiently large commercial applications that still leverage a non-trivial amount of Java? Or there are any commonly used Android libraries that are >85% Java? Or in both cases, has there been enough time and maturation that most codebases have been significantly rewritten in Kotlin?
Yes Java still exists in large commercial Android apps and libraries. The Netflix Android streaming app is one example. I'd guess that 90% of organizations write new Android apps/features/libs in Kotlin though. It's just so much better.
Learn lc
Joke's on you, I've already finished every problem on LC (I left Wayfair over a year ago):
@Kloonberg Take your time and enjoy the journey while you can. When you've solved enough problems you will realize the only "hard" problems are/were the ones written by self-flexing trolls who wouldn't qualify to be interviewers IRL at FAANG (e.g. awice -- smart guy, piss-poor communicator, literal basement dweller and proud of it).