News
Google aims to make app creation easy
By: cnn.comPosted On: 07/12/2010 4:03 P
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It's not uncommon these days for people to know how to build websites and create blogs. That's largely because sites like WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr have simplified the process, so you don't have to be a code wonk to publish.
It's not uncommon these days for people to know how to build websites and create blogs. That's largely because sites like WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr have simplified the process, so you don't have to be a code wonk to publish.
Now, Google is trying to make smartphone app creation easy, too.
On Monday, the company announced a program called App Inventor, which claims to make app development easy enough for schoolkids.
"App Inventor requires NO programming knowledge," Google says on its new website for the program. "This is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app's behavior."
News sites have compared App Inventor to building with Lego blocks.
Google says it tested the program with kids.
"For the past year, we've been testing App Inventor in classrooms around the United States, and we've found that it opens up the world of computer programming to students in new and powerful ways," the company says on its official blog.
The program is an extension of research and product development done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
MIT's Lifelong Kindergarten Group created a building-blocks version of code programming for kids called Scratch, which Google says was one inspiration for its new app creator. The school's Scheller Teacher Education Program also gave Google some code to make the project possible.
Eric Klopfer, an associate professor at MIT and director of that program, said he hopes App Inventor gets young people -- particularly those in middle school and high school -- more interested in how phones and computers operate.
"It's not as easy as using a word processor, which is pretty close to what blogs have gotten to. It's not as easy as that," he said of App Inventor, "but it's a big leap forward."
The new program is an apparent attempt by Google to both democratize app development and increase the number of apps that are available for smartphones that run Google's Android operating system.
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