I have a fairly old computer, and to speed up and reduce the eclipse ram used, I would remove all the software and Pugin who do not serve the development of Android applications from eclipse
Right now I have installed
Equinox p2 (core function, CPR management, more ...)
Eclipse csv (client, resource)
Eclipse Help (dev resource, system)
Eclipse PDE Plugin developer resource
Eclipse RCP
EMF (code, common, UI)
Marketplace client
Tracer for opengl es
And of course, Eclipse and Android related software. Which of these can I safely remove?
You can remove the EMF(Eclipse Modeling Framework Project (EMF)) because is a modeling entity framework and is not necessary for android development.
You can find more info here : EMF
Can't say exactly, Unfortunately, if android plugin depends on one element of other plugins. It may require to download lots of things. Even if you won`t use these things from the ADT plugin.
That said, there are couple of ways to reduce your eclipse installation. You can try to install a barebone bundle of eclipse with only minimal things. Then install the ADT plugin. It will take care of installing required plugins.
Or here's the risky way. Remove everything you want. I'm not so sure about that but I'm pretty sure that eclipse will tell you to remove every plugins that depend on the thing you want to delete. Anyway this method isn't perfect because you may delete things that are needed and unrelated to eclipse.
Keep in mind that in the packages you listed there should be sub packages and not all of them may be required or installed. And that eclipse by itself is kind of a BEAFY IDE
Related
I want to target Android from Unity. I'll be teaching a class so want a fast and easy deployment of the SDK without messing with 30 students' different laptop setups.
Is it possible to download just the Android SDK for a given OS without going via intermediaries (SDKManager, Studio etc)? Where can it be found and are any installation steps required?
EDIT: Thanks to a comment on this question and a close look at what Studio was doing when it installed suggests this link works for Windows:
https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools_r26.0.2-windows.zip
Is there somewhere I can find a definitive list of such links? And is it sufficient just to grab and unzip this archive? Unfortunately I've installed Studio now so my environment is a bit hosed from a testing perspective...
UPDATE: I've now discovered that the Android SDK itself seems to require a full JDK installation (not just JRE). For that rather tangential reason it seems unlikely I can use this in my specific context.
I'd still be interested to know whether there's a place to grab the latest SDK as a direct download, in case I decide to try to repack these dependencies for my students.
I don't have experience in android development and I'd like to start writing an application.
The official developer tools page contains link to two different IDEs. The first contains a bundled ADT version of Eclipse.
Android Studio, the second IDE, is based on IntelliJ.
Apart from these differences I can't get if there is anything that I can do with only one of them (I guess the answer to this question is no) and what's the point of having two distinct official IDEs.
What are the differences between the two?
The first contains a bundled ADT version of Eclipse.
This is simply a packaging convenience. You are welcome to obtain Eclipse separately and add Android tooling to it.
Android Studio, the second IDE, is based on IntelliJ.
At the present time, this is an early-access preview. IMHO, it is not suited for someone who does not have experience in Android application development.
Apart from these differences I can't get if there is anything that I can do with only one of them
At the present time, Android Studio is an early-access preview, meaning that there are lots of things that it does not have integrated in. Now, by this time next year, and hopefully far sooner, Android Studio will have equivalent or superior integration than does Eclipse with the ADT plugin.
and what's the point of having two distinct official IDEs.
There are an infinite number of "official" tools. You are welcome to use a plain text editor and tools outside of any IDE, for example.
You are welcome to watch the Google I|O 2013 video on developer tools, where they describe a bit of the rationale behind the development of Android Studio.
Android Studio vs Eclipse – Main Differences:
Build Tools
Android Studio utilizes the fast growing Gradle build system. It
builds on top of the concepts of Apache Ant and Apache Maven but it
also introduces a Groovy DSL (Domain-Specific Language) that allows
for scripted builds which opens up many automation possibilities like
uploading your beta .apk to TestFlight for testing. Eclipse on the
other hand uses Apache Ant as its main build system which a very
robust XML based build system that many Java developers may already be
familiar with.
Advanced Code Completion/Refactoring
Both IDEs feature the standard Java code auto completion but in the
case of Android Studio, Google has baked in deeper support for
specific Android code and refactoring. Android Studio can refactor
your code in places where it’s just not possible using Eclipse and
ADT. In addition, in my opinion IntelliJ’s Java auto completion seems
more “intelligent” and predicts better what I want to do so there is
definitely an improvement in this area over Eclipse.
User Interface Design
One of the main selling point Google used to market Android Studio
when it came out was its completely redesigned user interface design
tool. After working with it for some time, it’s clear that the new
tool is much better than the old. It literally crashes it. The new
interface design too in Android Studio is faster, responds to changes
more rapidly and has more customization options that with Eclipse, you
had to manually set in the XML.
Project Organization
Both IDEs work differently in an effort to help you manage and
organize your projects. If you’ve used Eclipse then you must be
familiar with the concept of workspaces. When Eclipse starts, you
select the workspace that contains your projects and you can load all
project of that workspace in your tree navigation. If you want to
switch to a project in a different workspace, then you have to restart
the whole IDE. Android Studio treats this situation differently by
introducing the concept of modules. Your app could be one module, a
library that you just downloaded can be another and the Ad SDK you are
currently integrating could be a third. Each of these modules can have
their own Gradle build files and declare their own dependencies. To
me, Android Studio seems more natural but it takes some time to get
used to if you have been using Eclipse for a long time.
IDE Performance/Stability
Eclipse is a purely Java based software, and a big one. In order to
run it reliably you need to have more than decent amount of RAM and
good CPU power to back it up. Many user who do not strictly meet these
criteria are reporting very bad experiences with it. It is not unusual
for Eclipse to crash while exporting an apk or having to restart it
after using it for a few hours straight. Having said that, Android
Studio is still in beta so it comes with its own bugs that crash the
IDE every now and then but in the meanwhile, the whole experience
feels faster and more robust.
Conclusion
Having used both Android Studio and Eclipse for a while now, I would
personally say that Android Studio has the edge over the two. It might
be a bit unstable yet and some updates require a complete
re-installation of the software but when it eventually comes out of
beta, it will blow Eclipse with ADT out of the water. I especially
like the stability of the editor and not having to reboot every now
and then, the new and improved UI designer and the sexy themes that
make Android Studio a real eye candy. What side will you take in the
Android Studio vs Eclipse battle?
Besides the numerous points already made, while you can use the ADT tool for other projects outside Android, the Android Studio is purely dedicated to the development of Android apps.Android Studio also allows you to work faster as it gives you intelligent suggestions as you type, freeing you from the shackles of having to go back to your .java or .xml files to look up names of variable or other stuff you can't remember.I just started using Android Studio myself and i can say i am never leaving it.It is particularly good for new programmers.
I've used Eclipse and vim variously as development environments for Android applications and found both the Eclipse plugin and the command-line SDK tools to be of similar capability.
Since I haven't explored either in its entirety, however, I'd like to ask:
What advantages are there to using Eclipse over the command-line tools and vice-versa?
I could see:
(Eclipse) nice GUI for debugging
(ant/adb/android) more amenable to automation
(hybrid) you can have it all, can't you!?
I'm especially interested in specific features that may be a deal-breaker for one and move a developer in the direction of the other.
Using Eclipse as a development environment for Android doesn't preclude you from also building with Ant to hook into nightly builds or CI tools. You could even configure Eclipse to build using your Ant buildfile if you wanted. If you want some kind of CLI build tool, you might also consider Maven, as it also has plugins to enable building Android apps.
It has been some time (like six months) since I have used eclipse, so maybe it is better now, but I gave up on it because I found it to be very slow and buggy. Maybe it is the integration with ADT, but several times I spent hours hunting down problems that turned out to be fixed if I killed and restarted eclipse (and these problems were not fixed if I did a "clean" within eclipse). After doing that a few times, I felt like throwing the computer against the wall.
"ant clean" is much easier and faster than stopping and restarting eclipse.
Across my personal projects and multiple professional instances of building Android apps, I've always used both types of builds. You'll want to use Ant (or Maven, if you prefer) to set up continuous integration and automated testing. Trying to get that working with Eclipse (which I did a long time ago when the Android SDKs were first coming out) is a nightmare, while Ant/Maven is easily used from any of your favorite CI tools (I've usually used Hudson for this). If there's nothing unusual about your project, it'll be a snap to put together continuous integration, and off you go.
Meanwhile, for just day to day development work, using Eclipse to build your app locally works just fine. But that can easily be left up to the individual developer. I'd make the build that your CI system is running the canonical build, but I do use Eclipse for my normal development.
I'd use Eclipse until such time as you are happy with the debug build. Then you can set up Ant to produce the signed release build.
You can set it up to use the same source files as Eclipse but put the output binaries outside your workspace. You can also set it to use your release.keystore, sign it automatically and obfuscate the code all in one go.
I've set it up to do this. I open a command line (DOS box) move to the projects home directory (\dev\projects\Eclipse\Project1 say), I type "Ant release" and the apk ends up in \dev\projects\AntBuilds\Project1\bin as Project1-release.apk.
If you want the best of both worlds, you might want to look at the m2eclipse-android-integration Eclipse plug-in which allows you to use your command-line Maven build in the ADT/Eclipse environment as well:
https://code.google.com/a/eclipselabs.org/p/m2eclipse-android-integration/
Well for me im just a beginner, but I find eclipse much easier to work with. Android is a pretty complicated to get used to (for me) so having everything layed out in a GUI is preferable to command line. Plus SDK updates and such are easier to get.
EDITED
Thought I'd follow up a bit more and add the info here (as opposed to adding more comments below).
After installing Galileo and finding it went well and no android problems, I installed Helios. It too went well and no Android problems (yet).
I did add the necessary lines to the eclipse config ini file to increase Memory size and added Garbage Collection. When I did this to Gannymede, it made a significant speed improvement but, I don't see any effect in either Galileo or Helios. Makes me think that since they are not natively added for these two versions (at least not for 64-bit Cocoa / Mac), they may not be used. Nonetheless, they seem to have no negative affect. If anyone has knowledge to share on this, I'm all ears...
Thanks
I'd like to get opinions on updating Eclipse for Android development.
I currently use Eclipse (Ganymede) 3.4.2. on a Mac (duo core intel)
I've read many posts regarding this and, while there are differing opinions, probably mostly with regard to the interface. I have read about issues with the Android SDK and ADT with Eclipse versions above 3.4.2. but, thus far, all posts seem to be prior to the Android Dev site recommending the following (they previously recommend not using above 3.4):
Eclipse 3.4 (Ganymede) or greater
Eclipse JDT plugin (included in most Eclipse IDE packages)
If you need to install or update Eclipse, you can download it from
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/.
Several types of Eclipse packages
are available for each platform. For
developing Android applications, we
recommend that you install one of
these packages:
o Eclipse IDE for Java Developers
o Eclipse Classic (versions 3.5.1 and higher)
o Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers
Some questions:
Is there an advantage in switching from 3.4.2 Ganymede to Classic 3.5.1?
Is it worth the trouble?
Is anyone having compatibility issues with Android and the ADT? using 3.5.1?
Thanks - any input/recommendations are appreciated...
I don't encounter noticeable problems with Helios (3.6.1). We bundle Helios (Classic more or less) and a bunch of plugins we write together with ADT to form MOTODEV Studio. As a general rule, the integration and support for Android have gotten better with each Eclipse release. I don't believe the Android team tests against Ganymede any longer, so at the very least I'd suggest moving to Galileo.
I am new to android dev, own an HTC Eris Droid (OS = 1.5 or 1.6 I believe). I am primarily a Microsoft .NET developer and am trying to figure out where to start.
What dev IDEs are suggested. I've seen the droid dev site and they suggest Eclipse. But which one?
Will installing Eclipse and the JRE interfere with .NET development?
What else will I need to get started? My OS is Win7.
TIA
As a .NET developer who has recently been looking at Android development, I can give you the steps I used:
Download Eclipse Classic 32-bit (as recommend by the Android docs) and extract it to a folder where it has write permissions (I use %homepath%\applications\eclipse\3.5\)
Download and extract the Android SDK to a permanent home and run SDK Setup.exe. Let it download/install all the packages
Add ANDROID_SDK_HOME\tools (expanded, obviously) to your %PATH% system environment variable in System Properties (WIN+BREAK)
Install the ADT (Android/Eclipse integration) plugin for Eclipse
Then to checkout the samples:
Create a workspace and a new Android project
Copy the contents of one of the samples (ANDROID_SDK_HOME\platforms\android-x.x\samples) into your project directory
Refresh your Eclipse view
I also strongly recommend checking out the Android Developer Guide and, in particular, reading the Application Fundamentals. It really gives a good overview of the terms used and the lifecycle of an application.
After that you can dive into the samples (installed by the SDK) with a little bit of clarity.
For development you will need*:
Java JDK - the JRE is not enough for Java development.
Eclipse - it doesn't really matter which "package" you choose, but for your needs the basic (smallest) one should be enough.
Android SDK + ADT
This should have no effect on .Net development, or on anything for that matter.
You don't actually need Eclipse and ADT, but since you asked about IDEs...
The android developer site system requirements says any version of Eclipse after 3.3.
Eclipse uses plugins to support different configurations that's why www.eclipse.org/downloads/ has so many different versions - they're the core IDE with different plugin configurations.
I'd recommend the 'Eclipse IDE for Java Developers' as this will have what you need without too many bits you don't - you can install additional plugins easily.
Of course, you'll also need to add the Android SDK once you have Eclipse - this is a set of tools and plugins that work with Eclipse.
Installing Eclipse and the JRE (Although you want the JDK - The Development Kit rather than just the runtime) will not interfere with your .Net development.
This version of Eclipse should work fine. Just select a download mirror.
You probably already have the JRE installed, but you should install the JDK from here.
Then you need to get the Android SDK, and ADT
After you install the Android SDK, it may be useful to create multiple virtual devices using the included Android emulator running different versions of Android. This will help you to learn features included in Android up to version 2.1 instead of being limited to your current device running 1.x.