# [POLL] Devs, how do you make Android apps?



## jimmyco2008 (Apr 5, 2012)

​
*How do you make Android apps?*

Eclipse 00.00%Eclipse with ADT375.00%SDK00.00%MIT App Inventor00.00%IntelliJ IDEA125.00%Other (explain)00.00%


----------



## jimmyco2008 (Apr 5, 2012)

I'm looking to develop, but what's the best, or at least the most popular way?


----------



## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

I use intellij idea. More about it is in my profile.


----------



## JBirdVegas (Jun 11, 2011)

Completely agree about Intellij IDEA. In fact the 12.2 community snapshot just when live the other day. The UI editor makes developing layouts any other way tedious. Its extremely fast has lots of features and the inspections will save you time later fixing silly derps.


----------



## jimmyco2008 (Apr 5, 2012)

Thanks for the tips, guys! How fluent should I be with Java for this? I feel like I need a lot of Java experience for Eclipse...


----------



## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

jimmyco2008 said:


> Thanks for the tips, guys! How fluent should I be with Java for this? I feel like I need a lot of Java experience for Eclipse...


If you don't already know how Java works, you'll be kind of lost writing Android code in any IDE (Eclipse or Intellij). The UI editer is just for creating the visual part, still need to write the code that makes it function. If you're not comfortable with java, do you know some other language? There are other ways to write apps using a programming language than Java on Android.


----------



## jimmyco2008 (Apr 5, 2012)

Ah.... Not really. I mean if I had to learn one, Java or C++. Seems like a lot of applications, Windows, Linux, and otherwise, are made with C++....What do you think?


----------



## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

C++ has the most reusablity if you plan on making it on other devices, but the user level stuff still needs to be a little Java unless you use something that does it for you. Qt had a framework out to write Android Apps in Qt with C++, but I'm not sure how stable it currently is. It's called necessitas.

Lots of third party solutions for games more than normal apps that use other languages like Lua. There's also Monodroid to write apps in C#, but to publish them, it costs $$ for the annual license. C# is a much nicer language than Java though and more or less functions the same with nearly identical syntax.


----------



## jimmyco2008 (Apr 5, 2012)

So Qt is like having a translator for your French, Italian and Spanish friends, among your English one. Very interesting... Well, I don't really plan on using Java or C++ for more than Android development, in which case...if you don't mind me asking, which would be _easier_ to learn? Assuming I know absolutely nothing about either.


----------



## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

I've used Qt for desktop apps and it's much nicer than regular C++. Can't say how it is for Android though. They have a decent IDE as an alternative to like visual studio for C++. I've used both and it's fairly comparable to visual studio for it (unless you add in visual assist pro for visual studio c++, then that's better imho, but costs $$).

If you don't know either, Java is easier. Java you don't have to manage memory (usually). C++ you have to deal with that and pointers.


----------



## jimmyco2008 (Apr 5, 2012)

Thanks for the info! I don't suppose you have a "best resource for learning Java" up your sleeve, too?


----------



## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

jimmyco2008 said:


> Thanks for the info! I don't suppose you have a "best resource for learning Java" up your sleeve, too?


Check my profile once again


----------



## jimmyco2008 (Apr 5, 2012)

I confused profile with signature lol.

Thanks!


----------



## BillySeth (Jun 30, 2012)

I voted Eclipse because of the huge amount of documentation for it, pretty much anything android dev related will reference Eclipse.


----------



## Icesteve (Aug 4, 2011)

I've been using eclipse, but will have to check out intellij as I can't stand eclipses editor.

Edit: to help with learning java other than tutorials, browse the questions on stackoverflow relating to java or android development, I had a question and some guy from Germany within like 10min of posting not only wrote the exact code I needed but explained in detail why my code wouldn't work. While you won't always get code written for you, you will be pointed in the right direction when your stumped.

Sent from my ADR6400L using RootzWiki


----------



## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

Icesteve said:


> I've been using eclipse, but will have to check out intellij as I can't stand eclipses editor.
> 
> Edit: to help with learning java other than tutorials, browse the questions on stackoverflow relating to java or android development, I had a question and some guy from Germany within like 10min of posting not only wrote the exact code I needed but explained in detail why my code wouldn't work. While you won't always get code written for you, you will be pointed in the right direction when your stumped.
> 
> Sent from my ADR6400L using RootzWiki


It's set up fairly the same as Eclipse, just the UI isn't as painful to use. It has several shortcut layouts (visual studio, default, eclipse and vim) as well as a few other things to help migrate from eclipse + the ability to open eclipse projects. Android tools are all built into it other than downloading the sdk. Never had any annoying issues with it like I have seen eclipse users face. The fact that tutorials use it really isn't that big of a deal as they're generally not telling you anything eclipse dependent. It might be a little difficult for some that have never used an IDE before, but otherwise, it should be fine.

If I have a complaint about it, it's the fact it's built on Swing instead of mostly native. That's mainly only a complaint because I can't use bitmap fonts in it (like Dina, but I use Liberation Mono, which is a good substitute). Otherwise it runs much faster than Eclipse, which is now mostly native (which is pretty sad on Eclipse's part).


----------

