Google App Inventor, the simplified Android app creation tool that went dark last year, is getting a new lease on life as an open-source project at MIT. The App Inventor source code was released by Google and MIT yesterday as part of a three-month project to create a full-fledged App Inventor server for public use. Eventually, MIT will be adding documentation and accepting contributions to the code, but for now a basic repository is available here. Users who download the tool are free to modify and redistribute it, as with any open-source software.
MIT's project is part of the Center for Mobile Learning, which announced several months ago that it would be taking over App Inventor when Google shut down the service on December 31, 2011. As a simple graphical interface for programming, App Inventor can be used to teach basic computer science concepts in a non-technical way, and has been incorporated into classes at Wellesley College and the University of San Francisco, among other places. MIT's App Inventor Developers' Blog has some more information, and will be posting updates and news about how to join an App Inventor pilot program.
There are 12 Comments. Add yours.
This is a cool project. It’s a lot like Scratch, MIT’s desktop graphical coding platform. It’s how I got started programming (sorta). http://scratch.mit.edu/
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 8:33 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
This stuff is great, but I’m still to dumb to understand it very well…
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 8:58 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Awesome! Software that nobody wants is now open source software that nobody wants.
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 9:24 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I am going to disagree. This is a very cool idea and something I’d love to poke around in during my free time. App development is something I’m interested in learning and because of the technical skills required to do so anything that helps make it easier is a win.
Think about an iBooks Author for apps. Yeah you might just flood app stores with crap, but it would open stuff up to users in a whole new way.
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 10:12 PM EST reply Recommend (7) Flag actions
I would say a great example of people wanting this software is the onslaught of website creation programs that forgo learning coding. You may not make the best site out there, or the most creative, but they are very powerful tools to put up good content. Same could be said with video editing and a lot of other creative industries.
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 10:14 PM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Google is in terrible need of a good SDK, their SDK and their emulator are both garbage, Apple is miles ahead, and Microsft is just a paradise (developing for Windows Phone 7 is a pleasure).
Posted on Jan 21, 2012 | 11:05 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
completely agree, I have using xcode for development. Android should have it’s own IDE just like apple and microsoft have it makes everything more integrated (simulator, documentation, etc.).
Posted on Jan 22, 2012 | 9:07 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Glad to see the project is actually moving and things are happening w/ it. I was afraid it would go away for good. The tutorials that went along w/ App Inventor were super easy to follow- I created my own version of HelloPurr in about 30 minutes. You can easily learn to create Android apps in a week if you dedicated some time to it.
Posted on Jan 22, 2012 | 12:47 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Under this article on the front page it says “Open-source Google Wave probably not on the horizon”. You can already get it, here is the source code:
http://incubator.apache.org/wave/source-code.html
Posted on Jan 22, 2012 | 6:47 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
It would be very cool if they could do a similar thing for iPhone development. Xcode and Objective-C are steaming piles of poo.
Posted on Jan 22, 2012 | 12:06 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Thats funny…. i was just trying to get this to work last night…. still didnt get it to work…. all i saw was a jar file
Posted on Jan 22, 2012 | 12:35 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Please tell me they’ve added multiple intents (screens) to it! I would have used it more but I ended up taking the plunge to teach myself real programming because I couldn’t have any other intents in app inventor apps.
Posted on Jan 22, 2012 | 4:14 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
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