From the very first day, I hated Relative Layouts. I struggled with layouts in general during my initial days till I figured out that Linear Layouts can create any kind of complex layout you need. By using only the Linear Layouts, you can create whatever you want. I had always wondered what was the purpose of the other available layouts.
I was a fan of the Linear Layouts till the day I hit the dead end. With SDK 1.5, pressing for the limit up to which your view hierarchy can be deep, problems started with my existing apps. I was able to remove the errors by removing a layout or two. And then, there was a case, where, I couldn’t remove a level. I was hitting the StackOverflow exception all the time. Frustrated, I posted my query to Google Groups, and guess what, Romain Guy responded, asking me to remove or simplify my view hierarchy. Well, if I were to listen to him, it would mean converting some Linear Layouts to Relative Layouts. And since I didn’t understand Relative Layouts then, I though it was a big big ask. But I tried, and guess what, now my UI is faster, simpler and I don’t get that StackOverflow exception.
I have now realized that though it is easy to use LinearLayouts, but RelativeLayouts not only make your UI load faster, but also is easier to render (at least for me). I have changed all my Linear Layouts to Relative ones, wherever possible.
I also watched the Google I/O videos that gave me a lot of information regarding how to code for Android platform. One of them I would like to mention in my next blog would be about the ListView, the most widely used widget, and i guess, the most wrongly used as well.
Keep droiding….
hi ,
ReplyDeleteI am beginner to android development as well as mobile platform. so i ask the simple question don't get me wrong. what is difference between linear and relative layout as well grid layout. please explain these layout usage or provide some tutorial to understand these.