Objection to Tutorials

Jonny said:

If you want to know what smali functions do then download Virtuous Ten Studio by Diamondback and the rest of the Virtuous team then look in the included smali help section.

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Jonny said:

With smali you are basically just moving numbers around and calling other methods (invoke and invoke-virtual) - usually you store the result in a register for example v0. Then you've got you're comparison statements like if-ne (if not equal), if-eq (if equal), if-nez (if not equal to zero) etc. Then you can also call resources by using the hex values in public.xml, eg const v4, "0x070000" for example.

Once you know the basic functions and principals of the language then its fairly easy to follow the code of the mods to find out what they're doing and what they're changing.

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Jonny said:

Ha! I wish, to do for example the following in java

Code:

Integer i = 1;

if (i = 0) {
      return "wtf is happening!";
} else {
     return "everything is normal";
}

in smali would be something like:

Code:

const v1, 0x1

const-string v2, "wtf is happening"

const-string v3, "everything is normal"

if-eqz v1 :cond_0

return v3

:cond_0

return v2

My syntax is probably not correct but this was just something wrote off the top of my head so... :highfive: Point is what you can do relatively easily in java with a couple of lines of code can be a pain in the neck and take up a lot of lines to do in smali - especially with more complex functions.

For example I'd hate to have to try and do something like this in smali (code snippet from an app I've made for my school).

Code:

class LoadNews extends AsyncTask<String, String, String> {

        @Override
        protected void onPreExecute() {
            super.onPreExecute();
            mProgress = new ProgressDialog(getSherlockActivity());
            mProgress.setMessage("Loading news, Please wait...");
            mProgress.setIndeterminate(false);
            mProgress.setCancelable(true);
            mProgress.show();
        }

        protected String doInBackground(String... args) {
            List<NameValuePair> params = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
            JSONObject json = jParser.makeHttpRequest(AllNewsItemsURL, "GET", params);
            try {
                int success = json.getInt(TAG_SUCCESS);
                if (success == 1) {
                    newsItems = json.getJSONArray(NEWS);
                    for (int i = 0; i < newsItems.length(); i++) {
                        JSONObject obj = newsItems.getJSONObject(i);
                        Integer id = i + 1;
                        String title = obj.getString(TITLE);
                        String story = obj.getString(STORY);
                        String imageSrc = IMAGE_DIR_URL + obj.getString(IMAGE_SRC);
                        String date = obj.getString(DATE);
                        story = replace(story, imageSrc);
                        date = buildDate(date);
                        if (id > dbhandler.getNewsCount()) {
                        	dbhandler.addNews(new News(id, title, story, imageSrc, date));   
                        } else {
                        	dbhandler.updateNews(new News(id, title, story, imageSrc, date));
                        }
                        if (isCancelled() || FlagCancelled) break;
                    }
                } else {
                	Log.e("JSON Response", "success == 0");
                }
            } catch (JSONException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            return null;
        }

        protected void onPostExecute(String file_url) {
        	mProgress.dismiss();
        	getSherlockActivity().runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
                public void run() {
                	getNewsList();
                }
            });
        }
    }

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marcussmith2626 said:

@Jonny


Have a look at this tool I found - maybe useful maybe not

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=52853769

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marcussmith2626 said:

I dont have any experience of programming so I dont know the use of these things but I spose Its interesting to compare


My main expertise is end user software/hardware support and repair for pcs/laptops - I just look at android as a hobby for fun as something different

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