Android programming and frameworks / IDEs to use?

Android programming and frameworks / IDEs to use? - android

I'm quite new to Android programming, I'm mainly a .NET guy =)
I've done several projects in Windows Phone, and I feel pretty comfortable with the MVVM pattern, C# and so on
However, I want to get into Android development, because it's an important platform
I wanted to know what's the best free approach where I can reuse some of my skills to reduce the learning curve
I've been investigating and I saw several options..
Xamarin seems like the best of everything, were you can use cross platform code using visual studio. This is great, but you have to pay to use it (even if I use the free version, I may want to publish some apps later, but don't want to spend that amount of money just to do a couple of apps on my own). So I'd say it's out of the queestion
I've seen something called MVVM Cross, however I don't know if that requires Xamarin or something else to work?
If I use pure android development frameworks, what's recommended? I've tried Android Studio, which is not that bad as eclipse, but compared to visual studio it has a long way to go. However it seems that the only way to use visual studio and android is to use xamarin..
Also, is there any approach to android programming that's the best? (as MVVM is the best for windows phone apps and the pattern embraced my microsoft)
Thanks!

I'm not sure it's a suitable question for SO...
Anyway, here is my opinion regarding the IDE.
Eclipse + ADT-plugin was the "official" IDE supported by Google. But Google decide to develop an other solution based on IntelliJ : Android-Studio.
So Eclipse is the legacy IDE and not the best choice if you are new to Android development.
On the other hand, Android-Studio is still in early development stage. I tried it a few weeks ago and in my opinion and for my use case (quite huge multi-module project) there was too many issues to work efficiently with it in it's current state.
Third option: IntelliJ-12 (free edition) is my current choice. It offers a smooth integration with android tools. It is stable. The UI is very similar to Android-Studio (and so switching to Android-Studio when it will be ready will be an easy step).

This is an other alternative for crossplatform app making:
www.phonegap.com
I don't know how relevant this is to your Question,

Related

What is the best ide for creating Android Tablet apps? [duplicate]

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Closed 10 years ago.
I am about to start developing an android app and need to get an IDE. Eclipse and the android eclipse plugin appears to be the natural choice. However I am familiar with intelliJ and re-sharper so I would prefer use intelliJ.
Has anyone used https://code.google.com/archive/p/idea-android/? Is this any good?
Should I just bite the bullet and learn Eclipse?

LATEST NEWS
Android Studio has officially come out of beta and been released. It is now the official IDE for Android Development - Eclipse won't be supported anymore. It is definitely the IDE of choice for Android Development. Link to download page: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
NEWS
As of Google I/O 2013, the Android team has moved to IntelliJ Idea with the new Android Studio IDE: http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/studio.html
Great to see Google endorse Idea. It is safe to say that Android Studio, and thus Idea, will from now on be the definitive IDE for Android development! :D
ORIGINAL ANSWER
IntelliJ now has support for Android. See Enabling Android Support from the JetBrains help page and the Google Code project page for the plugin. The Getting Started wiki page is pretty helpful.
If you are used to IntelliJ, I don't think it would be beneficial to switch IDEs just for Android tools. You can work on Android with any text editor (I use Vim). If you're more productive with a specific environment I don't see why you'd have to learn a new one. Not worth it in my opinion. Plus I'm a big IntelliJ fan. The IntelliJ plugin lets you make apk files and push the app to the emulator, that's all you need for Android app development. I'd say you're safe sticking with IntelliJ.
Update: there is now an official free IDE for IntelliJ android dev! http://blogs.jetbrains.com/idea/2010/10/intellij-idea-10-free-ide-for-android-development/

Eclipse is not that hard to learn (I use both Eclipse and NetBeans, and I switch back and forth pretty effortlessly). If you're going to be learning Android development from the start, I can recommend Hello, Android, which I just finished. It shows you exactly how to use all the features of Eclipse that are useful for developing Android apps. There's also a brief section on getting set up to develop from the command line and from other IDEs.

Of the existing IDEs, Ted Neward ranks them this way:
Best: IntelliJ IDEA
Second: Netbeans
Third: Eclipse
He seems to think that Eclipse throws up a lot of "friction"; hard to say what that means.
Edit, years later: After attempting to use Eclipse/Aptana for node development and using JetBrains products for node and ruby development I would absolutely start with IntelliJ IDEA and give that a try for the 30 day trial.

Unfortunately, there is no perfect IDE for Android. Eclipse has more features as it is the only IDE google developed plugin for. However, if you are just like me, tired of crashes and weired debug/develop mode swithes, Use Netbeans plugin from http://nbandroid.kenai.com.

If you do android native code development using NDK, give Visual Studio a try. (Not a typo!!!) Check out: http://ian-ni-lewis.blogspot.com/2011/01/its-like-coming-home-again.html
and: http://code.google.com/p/vs-android/

I think intellij is the best option for android. i have used both eclipse and intellij and found intellij is much easier to use with android as compared to eclipse because of these reasons :-
Intellij provides a built-in support for android and you don't have to configure it as you need to do with eclipse.
Intellij gives you auto-lookup feature which is really important for developer like us to increase our productivity. And if we talk about eclipse you have to type each and every method, classname etc on your own. (May be eclipse has this feature too but i never found it and trust me i tried to find it like anything)
Its much more user friendly and easy to use than eclipse.
I hope it will help you and other members of stack overflow to decide which IDE is best for Android development.
My personal choice is Intellij.
EDIT
But there is one thing i love about eclipse and that is visual layout creator. You can use drag and drop technique to create a layout and eclipse will automatically generate an XML file for you just like XCODE.
EDIT
Good News!! Intellij added a new feature which shows how your app's view is going to look like. It doesn't work exactly like Eclipse but it will give you a good idea about your layout.
My personal choice is still Intellij because it helps me to type faster than eclipse.
EDIT
Ok guys these days i am using eclipse juno and found its kind of buggy and slow. So if you still want to use eclipse better stick to some older version. And finally i am able to found how to enable auto-complete in eclipse. Below is a small tutorial.
Eclipse -> Preference - > Java -> Editor -> Content Assist -> Auto Activation
Now put following in the three given boxes
Auto Activation delay(ms) - 0
Auto activation triggers for java - .(abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Auto activation triggers for javadoc - ##
You are now good to go. Happy coding.
EDIT
As now Google has adopted Intellij for their own Android dev tool, there is no question now about which one is better. Intellij is far far better than eclipse. And i switched back to Intellij and it feels like i am back home!! :D

All of the full-featured Java IDE's are good and share all of the same concepts and main features. If you can find your way around one you can probably do the same for any other without much trouble.
EDIT: Google gave us a wonderful gift with the new and free AndroidStudio is very good. I highly recommend it over Eclipse.

If you haven't installed Eclipse yet, I'd recommend Motorola's MotoDev Studio. It does a lot of the annoying little tasks like set up your Android environment along with your paths, and adds a lot of nice built in functionality to Eclipse.
Even if you've already installed Eclipse, you can add it as a plugin (I haven't tried that myself). It is by Motorola, so they have some Motorola centric functionality as well, such as the ability to add your app to the Motorola market. Anyway if you're interested, give it a shot: http://developer.motorola.com/docstools/motodevstudio/

I've been using IntelliJ IDEA for the last 12 months now as my main IDE, but I am often forced to use Eclipse as well. So when I have to work in Eclipse I start biting my nails. I will sum up my pros and cons.
Eclipse pros:
- visual editor. IDEA has one as well, but it's rather primitive. I suspect that this feature will soon be deleted as IDEA will improve its editor.
- many projects into one right pane (this is also my personal con as I like IDEA's one-project-per-pane thing)
- faster compiles Android projects. IDEA has made its compilation process faster, so I also soon expect to delete this Eclipse pro
IDEA pros:
- faster intellisense (if you like Resharper, then you know what I am talking about)
- smarter autocomplete - my friend and I decided to write the same class. I finished before him simply because IDEA faster reacts to my wishes
- incredibly smart - do not know what to do? just press Ctrl+Shift+Space and IDEA will tell you what should come there. It also recognizes naming scheme to if you're filling name object, it will first display getName method.
- will add more as I remember of them
IDEA cons:
- Still the only con is that if you open Eclipse Android project and edit any XML layout file, Eclipse will no longer be able to display edited file into its visual layout editor. This has not been fixed as of this day and it's IDEA's bug as it somehow messes the XML.
Bottom line: if you're a person who does not see advantages of ReSharper in .NET (and we all coded in .NET), then you'll probably stick to Eclipse. It's official Android IDE and you believe it's the best.
If you liked ReSharper and want to code faster, then you'll appreciate IDEA and will stick to it forever.

An IDE which supports Android development is Processing for Android: http://wiki.processing.org/w/Android. Processing is its own language but it's easy to learn. Processing for Android requires the JDK and Android SDK to be installed but runs on its own. It runs on Linux, Mac OSX and Windows (on a side note: one can develop a desktop app in Processing and then compile it to target any of these operating systems). Its development is ongoing but it works. It's especially good for quickly sketching up an idea and running it on your Android phone (even if you plan to develop it further in another IDE).
There is an active support forum here: http://forum.processing.org/android-processing.

One good system is Basic4Android - great for anyone familiar with Basic,
Includes a visual designer for screen layouts
Can connect to the emulators available as part of the Android SDK
Makes it relatively easy to develop programs.

Eclipse and Netbeans are both horrible slow, and I'ts a miracle that even the serious developers has been sticking with it for years, not even try to stick with a better product.
Java as platform is a shame when it comes to non-handheld platforms (win,mac,linux) and if anyone are going to develop on the platform I say do what else but do not use Java at all. For mobility it's probably has a kind of good luck here, as the systems are more down-scaled.
As far I know, there aren't any existing IDE for Java which aren't iself written in a Java environment. This is horrible because Java is messing up the desktop environment.
I'm willing to spend hours on google to find an Java IDE/Editor which are capable for android projects but will use a native environment for itself.

I Feel Eclipse IDE is more suitable for android applications rather than other IDEs.
Because its providing us more than five perspectives which will make our project flexible and ease.You may try Eclipse ides starts with 3.6 and above will provide you better performance.
Eclipse_jee_indigo
Eclipse_java_indigo
Eclipse_classic
The above eclipses are belongs to the version3.7.2 which are all latest and supports all kind of access.

I am a huge supporter of using the environment that is most familiar to you. However this isn't always the best option. In some cases, a different environment can result in (far?) greater efficency in the long run.
In this particular case I suspect that sticking with what you already know is a good option, but someone starting new would benifit from the easy setup and sdk/ndk integration offered by eclipse. I also don't know how available geolocation manipulation (or phone state manipulation - ie incoming call etc) is in other IDE's, but integration within eclipse feels seamless.
AIDE is a fun option that I use while traveling or when I don't feel like sitting at my desk all the time. It is an extrodinarly well put together IDE that runs on Android, compiles Android appications, and then lets you install, all without touching a computer. It includes a logcat readout, syntax highlighting and some git compatibility as well. Obviously you don't have a lot of screen real estate available and things can get cluttered or you can't see everything you want to at once, but for quick touchups or early in a project it is more than adequate.

Eclipse is the best IDE. It easy to setup android and debug applications in eclipse

Eclipse is the most widely used development environment for the Android platform. The reason is that even Google itself providing the plug-in to be added in eclipse and start developing the applications. I have tried installing it from the eclipse market place, it is very easy and simple to create the android application. set up also very simple.

You can also develop rich UI filled Android applications using Adobe AIR. If you plan to go that route then Flex Builder Burrito is the best IDE. Take a look at this post as to how easy it is to build an AIR4Android app http://blog.air4android.com/?p=13

I advise Android bundle for TextMate: https://github.com/nesterow/Android.tmbundle It's lightweight and easy to use. There is no intellisense, but actually it just makes you remember namespaces better. :)

For me the best is Motodev is a Eclipse plugin developed by Motorola.

you can use Juno, i just find it. it's fastest than Helios that i worked with that. you can try it.

Is Titanium 1.8 finally free from the memory starvation issue from release 1.6 and 1.7

Hi there Im new to mobile application development. I had developed Android apps using Java and is just starting to get the hang of Cocoa Touch and Objective C. Now I am curious on mobile web application development to create cross platform/device applications which would at least run on Android and iOS(Apple devices: iphone, ipad). I tried Titanium and developing applications with this framework seems very promising. Although it is very powerful, popular, mature, documented and very easy to learn I had doubts investing time and to commit on using this framework for my projects after reading this blog which many Titanium users seems to agree with Why you should stay away from appcelerators titanium.
It seems that release v1.6 sdk and v1.7 sdk have the issue which they describe, the negative comments stopped right after the v1.8 sdk release was out.
My question is, is Titanium v1.8 sdk free from the memory starvation issue and other issues which were discussed on the blog post?
Would you personally recommend this for production use? And by the way I am using the 1.0.7.201112152014 Titanium build does this use the 1.8 sdk? Thanks in advance.

Take a close look at the progress of comments. It starts from people agreeing with him, and in the end everyone disagrees.
You can select the SDK you wish in the tiapp.xml editor, which is embedded in Titanium Studio. You should indeed use 1.8.x
The platform isn't, and probably never will be, memory issue free. But it also depends on how you build your app.
Stay away as much as you can from includes. And also stay away from creating a window/view/etc. with a file as url in it, this causes most memory issues because it's in a different space.
If you code well, you can use it perfectly without any issues.

Blog post author here. I don't fully agree with Topener - go ahead and read the comments yourself, it's just not true that "in the end everyone disagrees".
For what's worth: my experience is related to version 1.6.2. I've talked to people working with trunk and they told me that the memory issues are far from being resolved.
The only approach that seems to work is, as mentioned in the comments, the Tweetanium approach. But beware, that's not "if you code well". It's "if you code the way Titanium likes". If you take a look at Tweetanium (I suggest you to do it no matter what you decide to do in the end) you'll see that it has a very specific way to deal with architecture. If you follow that path, you should be good. If you think that the way Tweetanium is structured is good for you application, go for it. Be wary though, because (at least in what I consider to be complex) Tweetanium is not very complex, and with growing complexity I found that their approach is difficult to maintain. Again, evaluate for yourself.
Then there's the Android issue. Android support is far from optimal - Wunderlist decided to rewrite their Android version in native, I myself have had huge problems in making anything even remotely complex in iOS working decently on Android. If you need to support only iOS it's alright but, if that's the case, I don't see why you shouldn't write the app directly in Objective-C... considering also the (unavoidable) delay/mismatch between the Titanium and the iOS SDK.
Just my 2c. I suggest you not to take the decision lightly - it costed us a lot.

MonoDroid VS Java in android development?

I know C# rather well and just love Visual Studio as IDE. :) Yet now I want to start developing for android...
I found out about MonoDroid and wanted to ask if it has any downsides to it that would make Java more preferable, or should I uninstall Eclipse and dive straight into MonoDroid?
If I understand right, MonoDroid deploys/compiles native android applications and does not need any additional .net-like framework or anything?
Are there any significant limitations to what I can do with MonoDroid? For example, having the app run in the background or using some external .net libraries for image editing, etc. ?

I've been worrying about the same thing - productivity in C# instead of playing with an unfamiliar language, vs developing how the OS developers intended it to be.
Its easy to list pros vs cons -
pros (of monodroid, for C# developers)
familiar dev environment, can develop using Visual Studio
C# instead of Java
Reusable code assets - you can use a lot of code in your iphone project or Windows phone 7 project using monotouch and the WP7 SDK.
cons -
debugging could be difficult, due to lack of api documentation from Google. Will have to depend solely on monodroid documentation.
there could be a lag when it comes to latest cutting edge features - safe to assume that the monodroid team will require some time to wrap around the latest android features every time there is a new OS release
availability of libraries - I am not sure how you can use the open source libraries that would have evolved around the android platform, that could cut down on development time

Much of the documentation available is in Java: so if you run into difficulties with phone behavior when using MonoDroid you won't really find that much help or debugging information so you may want to stick with Eclipse.

There's a lot more than just a set of wrappers running under davlick, truth to be told, there is much more of a horizontal relationship between MonoDroid and Android;
When did using the same language as the OS developers become a big issue? There's lots of C++ programmers wondering how to use BSD or SVR5 and many C programmers who want to know what the heck to do on Windows++...

If you will write in c# anyway you will be have to wrap it into a Java code, so what's the point ? Also you may head with a very difficult issues while trying to understand the APIs who written for Java programming...

Here are some points that you can mull over:
Android applications are predominately written with Java. The Android SDK itself is natively written in Java.
Working in Mono may not provide all the functionality available in the Java SDK.
If you are a C# Developer you wont be able to find, in Java, some of the (cool) features available in C# (like Property Delegates etc).
Code written in .NET can be re-used for other environments - this may save a lot time that would have been spent learning a new language/environment (like Objective C), and coding in it.
.NET extends the Android development stack with it's existing libraries and API's.
I think both are good for certain reason. It will be very hard to say which one is preferable for Android development - in the end that is up to you too decide.

Also note that any release build using monodroid adds an additional 4mb to the apk filesize and increases app startup time with a few seconds.
For simple apps this can mean a 500-800% increase in filesize - whic is pretty bad in my book.

Starting Android Development: Native or cross-platform?

I am an experienced professional programmer who wants to delve into Android programming. I also wish to investigate cross-platform programming using tools like PhoneGap or Titanium.
However, I am a bit in doubt of which learning strategy is best.
One approach is to get a good feeling of the Android environment and later on explore the possibilities of the cross-platform tools.
Another approach is to jump start using say Titanium (which to me looks like the better option of the two mentioned) and then after a while look into the underlying Android building blocks. The reason why this approach seems worth considering is that although I have earned my living on programming for 20 years, I have no experience whatsoever with Java. And the feeling of getting something done has always been encouraging to me.
What do you think? Does option 2 make sense, or would it be more sensible to get an understanding of the Android environment first?
Thanks in advance,
Martin

I think that all depends on what will you develop:
If you want to develop simple interfaces (parsing XML/Json/...) with some forms and nice transitional effects, then Titanium is yours.
However, the most advanced functionalities aim the iOS platform. For example, the augmented reality module or the push notification are not supported for Android.
On the other hand, if you want to develop advanced interfaces (Games for example), then you have no choice: Android SDK is the best way (you can use Flash for Android but it doesn't support very first Android OS versions).
In all cases, you have to understand how the Android platform works.

I had a similar decision to make, although I am not an experienced programmer like you with vast experience , I had no java knowledge and I needed to write an android app for a project in grad school ,and i'd tend to agree with you on which is the better option , although reading the dev guide and grasping the basics will be a must. And like Zakaria says , it also depends on what you plan to develop.
in my case I learnt basic java first , then used the SDK for my project. Its not that big a learning curve actually , I did not find too many problems with the API.

What is the best IDE to develop Android apps in? [closed]

As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.
Closed 10 years ago.
I am about to start developing an android app and need to get an IDE. Eclipse and the android eclipse plugin appears to be the natural choice. However I am familiar with intelliJ and re-sharper so I would prefer use intelliJ.
Has anyone used https://code.google.com/archive/p/idea-android/? Is this any good?
Should I just bite the bullet and learn Eclipse?

LATEST NEWS
Android Studio has officially come out of beta and been released. It is now the official IDE for Android Development - Eclipse won't be supported anymore. It is definitely the IDE of choice for Android Development. Link to download page: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
NEWS
As of Google I/O 2013, the Android team has moved to IntelliJ Idea with the new Android Studio IDE: http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/studio.html
Great to see Google endorse Idea. It is safe to say that Android Studio, and thus Idea, will from now on be the definitive IDE for Android development! :D
ORIGINAL ANSWER
IntelliJ now has support for Android. See Enabling Android Support from the JetBrains help page and the Google Code project page for the plugin. The Getting Started wiki page is pretty helpful.
If you are used to IntelliJ, I don't think it would be beneficial to switch IDEs just for Android tools. You can work on Android with any text editor (I use Vim). If you're more productive with a specific environment I don't see why you'd have to learn a new one. Not worth it in my opinion. Plus I'm a big IntelliJ fan. The IntelliJ plugin lets you make apk files and push the app to the emulator, that's all you need for Android app development. I'd say you're safe sticking with IntelliJ.
Update: there is now an official free IDE for IntelliJ android dev! http://blogs.jetbrains.com/idea/2010/10/intellij-idea-10-free-ide-for-android-development/

Eclipse is not that hard to learn (I use both Eclipse and NetBeans, and I switch back and forth pretty effortlessly). If you're going to be learning Android development from the start, I can recommend Hello, Android, which I just finished. It shows you exactly how to use all the features of Eclipse that are useful for developing Android apps. There's also a brief section on getting set up to develop from the command line and from other IDEs.

Of the existing IDEs, Ted Neward ranks them this way:
Best: IntelliJ IDEA
Second: Netbeans
Third: Eclipse
He seems to think that Eclipse throws up a lot of "friction"; hard to say what that means.
Edit, years later: After attempting to use Eclipse/Aptana for node development and using JetBrains products for node and ruby development I would absolutely start with IntelliJ IDEA and give that a try for the 30 day trial.

Unfortunately, there is no perfect IDE for Android. Eclipse has more features as it is the only IDE google developed plugin for. However, if you are just like me, tired of crashes and weired debug/develop mode swithes, Use Netbeans plugin from http://nbandroid.kenai.com.

If you do android native code development using NDK, give Visual Studio a try. (Not a typo!!!) Check out: http://ian-ni-lewis.blogspot.com/2011/01/its-like-coming-home-again.html
and: http://code.google.com/p/vs-android/

All of the full-featured Java IDE's are good and share all of the same concepts and main features. If you can find your way around one you can probably do the same for any other without much trouble.
EDIT: Google gave us a wonderful gift with the new and free AndroidStudio is very good. I highly recommend it over Eclipse.

If you haven't installed Eclipse yet, I'd recommend Motorola's MotoDev Studio. It does a lot of the annoying little tasks like set up your Android environment along with your paths, and adds a lot of nice built in functionality to Eclipse.
Even if you've already installed Eclipse, you can add it as a plugin (I haven't tried that myself). It is by Motorola, so they have some Motorola centric functionality as well, such as the ability to add your app to the Motorola market. Anyway if you're interested, give it a shot: http://developer.motorola.com/docstools/motodevstudio/

An IDE which supports Android development is Processing for Android: http://wiki.processing.org/w/Android. Processing is its own language but it's easy to learn. Processing for Android requires the JDK and Android SDK to be installed but runs on its own. It runs on Linux, Mac OSX and Windows (on a side note: one can develop a desktop app in Processing and then compile it to target any of these operating systems). Its development is ongoing but it works. It's especially good for quickly sketching up an idea and running it on your Android phone (even if you plan to develop it further in another IDE).
There is an active support forum here: http://forum.processing.org/android-processing.

One good system is Basic4Android - great for anyone familiar with Basic,
Includes a visual designer for screen layouts
Can connect to the emulators available as part of the Android SDK
Makes it relatively easy to develop programs.

Eclipse and Netbeans are both horrible slow, and I'ts a miracle that even the serious developers has been sticking with it for years, not even try to stick with a better product.
Java as platform is a shame when it comes to non-handheld platforms (win,mac,linux) and if anyone are going to develop on the platform I say do what else but do not use Java at all. For mobility it's probably has a kind of good luck here, as the systems are more down-scaled.
As far I know, there aren't any existing IDE for Java which aren't iself written in a Java environment. This is horrible because Java is messing up the desktop environment.
I'm willing to spend hours on google to find an Java IDE/Editor which are capable for android projects but will use a native environment for itself.

I Feel Eclipse IDE is more suitable for android applications rather than other IDEs.
Because its providing us more than five perspectives which will make our project flexible and ease.You may try Eclipse ides starts with 3.6 and above will provide you better performance.
Eclipse_jee_indigo
Eclipse_java_indigo
Eclipse_classic
The above eclipses are belongs to the version3.7.2 which are all latest and supports all kind of access.

I am a huge supporter of using the environment that is most familiar to you. However this isn't always the best option. In some cases, a different environment can result in (far?) greater efficency in the long run.
In this particular case I suspect that sticking with what you already know is a good option, but someone starting new would benifit from the easy setup and sdk/ndk integration offered by eclipse. I also don't know how available geolocation manipulation (or phone state manipulation - ie incoming call etc) is in other IDE's, but integration within eclipse feels seamless.
AIDE is a fun option that I use while traveling or when I don't feel like sitting at my desk all the time. It is an extrodinarly well put together IDE that runs on Android, compiles Android appications, and then lets you install, all without touching a computer. It includes a logcat readout, syntax highlighting and some git compatibility as well. Obviously you don't have a lot of screen real estate available and things can get cluttered or you can't see everything you want to at once, but for quick touchups or early in a project it is more than adequate.

Eclipse is the best IDE. It easy to setup android and debug applications in eclipse

Eclipse is the most widely used development environment for the Android platform. The reason is that even Google itself providing the plug-in to be added in eclipse and start developing the applications. I have tried installing it from the eclipse market place, it is very easy and simple to create the android application. set up also very simple.

You can also develop rich UI filled Android applications using Adobe AIR. If you plan to go that route then Flex Builder Burrito is the best IDE. Take a look at this post as to how easy it is to build an AIR4Android app http://blog.air4android.com/?p=13

I advise Android bundle for TextMate: https://github.com/nesterow/Android.tmbundle It's lightweight and easy to use. There is no intellisense, but actually it just makes you remember namespaces better. :)

For me the best is Motodev is a Eclipse plugin developed by Motorola.

you can use Juno, i just find it. it's fastest than Helios that i worked with that. you can try it.

Develop Reference

The Android operating system is a mobile operating system that was developed by Google (GOOGL?) to be primarily used for touchscreen devices, cell phones, and tablets.