wrote just-a-flashlight post

Author: JStech

Diff for: _posts/2015-03-22-just-a-flashlight.md

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+---
+layout: layout
+title: Just a Flashlight
+---
+
+A simple flashlight app was one of the first things I downloaded when I got a
+smartphone. The thing has an LED, why shouldn't have a simple way to turn it on
+and off? Of course, the app came with ads.
+
+I've made a few false starts at learning Android. I decided that I should be
+able to handle a flashlight app---after all, it can't be that hard to turn a
+light on and off, right? And then I don't have to sell anyone my attention, even
+for the fraction of a second it takes to ignore the ad completely.
+
+Unfortunately, it hasn't proven easy. Even after I gave up on using the new
+`camera2` interface, I was still adrift in a sea of Java. I found several
+examples online, and tried working from them to various degrees. I'm not sure if
+they were out of date, or they were doing things in a way that doesn't work with
+my phone, or if my customizations were to blame.
+
+Finally, I pared my code down to closely mimic one example, and I got it to
+work!
+
+. . . mostly. It doesn't release the camera, and misbehaves when the phone switches
+between landscape and portrait. I hope most of these problems will be fixed by
+moving code off the main thread. I'll also make it release the camera when the
+light is turned off, instead of in `onDestroy()`. But I still feel accomplished
+whenever I click the light on and off.
+
+My code is [on Github][gh].
+
+[gh]: https://github.com/JStech/just-a-flashlight