The example of ListActivit using BaseAdapter, the key is how to write the getView method.

public class MultipleItemsList extends ListActivity {
 
    private MyCustomAdapter mAdapter;
 
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        mAdapter = new MyCustomAdapter();
        for (int i = 0; i < 50; i++) {
            mAdapter.addItem("item " + i);
        }
        setListAdapter(mAdapter);
    }
 
    private class MyCustomAdapter extends BaseAdapter {
 
        private ArrayList mData = new ArrayList();
        private LayoutInflater mInflater;
 
        public MyCustomAdapter() {
            mInflater = (LayoutInflater)getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
        }
 
        public void addItem(final String item) {
            mData.add(item);
            notifyDataSetChanged();
        }
 
        @Override
        public int getCount() {
            return mData.size();
        }
 
        @Override
        public String getItem(int position) {
            return mData.get(position);
        }
 
        @Override
        public long getItemId(int position) {
            return position;
        }
 
        @Override
        public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
            System.out.println("getView " + position + " " + convertView);
            ViewHolder holder = null;
            if (convertView == null) {
                convertView = mInflater.inflate(R.layout.item1, null);
                holder = new ViewHolder();
                holder.textView = (TextView)convertView.findViewById(R.id.text);
                convertView.setTag(holder);
            } else {
                holder = (ViewHolder)convertView.getTag();
            }
            holder.textView.setText(mData.get(position));
            return convertView;
        }
 
    }
 
    public static class ViewHolder {
        public TextView textView;
    }
}