Building the core

We will build an application with one of the "standard" layout compositions, which will consist of a header, a body, and a footer.

Before we start coding, we need to make a prototype of the application, so we clarify what exactly we are going to build. A prototype can be done as a set of simple drawings on paper where we pretend the application is working. This recipe is not about prototyping, but it is mentioned here because the power of prototyping is underestimated and it is an important part of the software creation process. More about prototyping can be found on the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_prototyping.

We will draw the basic layout of the application. In the layout sketch, we concentrate on the static and dynamic parts. The static blocks will be the blocks that might be referenced from our UI class. The dynamic blocks are going to be the parts that are going to be loaded during the application's execution based on user interaction. The...