On Sat, 10 Nov 2018 10:43:10 +0000, Bill wrote:

OK, call me stupid! I have only just sussed out that, in the text based
"official" first app, the words KOTLIN and JAVA above the code were
actually switches that select the code shown by the website.

Hi Bill,
I went through the exact _same_ process as you did!

When I first noticed the Kotlin stuff was different, I rooted around, and
then realized, belatedly, what looked like an image on the web page of the
code was actually an "active" image, where you can switch from Kotlin on
the left in the web page to Java on the right of the same web page (making
it a completely different web page).

The good news is that the tutorial "remembers" your selection, so you only
have to do it once (if your browser remembers stuff). I had forgotten that
I went through that, so I apologize for not warning you.

So I've
been trying to understand why code for Kotlin (which I suppose I'll have
to research) didn't work in Java.

Like you, I have absolutely no idea what "kotlin" is, nor do I want to
worry about it, for now. Aw heck, let's do a quick searchnsee:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotlin_(programming_language)

The name comes from Kotlin Island, near St. Petersburg. It's just another
language. I don't see any value in it, for we noobs, at this point in time.

I am still surprised that there appears to be no sort of forum catering
for Android Studio, and how I still haven't found any living java usenet
lists.

Probably XDA Developers and other sites are good for that.
For now, I'm content to do this here as the Butterfield tutorials are good.

I have now got through the text based button and message build, which
works, and am starting on the first Butterfield video.

Good for you, Bill.
Let me know if you have questions.

Since I had downloaded the videos, I skipped the YouTube web page, but I
just now realized that the YouTube page has LOTS of comments (like about
five hundred for each video), where skimming them might help.

I'm running the third video (I don't think I'll do the fourth as it covers
stuff that is too advanced, I think).

Just remember he is using an older version of Android Studio than we are
(I'm using version 3.2.1) where some of his selections are in slightly
different places (but it only took me an extra minute or two to find stuff
he used).

In the third video, he uses "containers" with "ListView" objects which,
apparently, are now in the "Legacy" location, where parent constraint
matching no longer exists ... so I'm working on that problem right now, but
you will have the benefit of my solution by the time you get to that 3rd
video.

Let me know if you have any questions on that first video while you're
running it.