Setting Up Android Development Environment
First, you can start Android application development on the following operating systems:
- Microsoft Windows XP or later.
- Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later with Intel chips.
- Linux systems including GNU C Library 2.7 or later.
Second, all the tools required for developing Android applications are free and can be downloaded online. Here is a list of software needed to begin developing Android applications:
- Java JDK 5 or later
- Android SDK
- Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
- Android Studio
- (Optional) Eclipse IDE for Java developers
- (Optional) Android Development Tools (ADT) Eclipse plugin
The last two components are optional and will be convenient for developing Java-based applications if you are working on a Windows machine. Let's see how to set up the required environment.
Installing Java Development Kit (JDK)
You can download the latest version of Java from Oracle's Java website: JDK Java SE Download. Find the installation instructions in the downloaded files and follow the given instructions to install and configure the settings. Finally, set the PATH and JAVA_HOME environment variables to reference the directory containing javac and java, usually java_install_dir/bin and java_install_dir respectively.
If you are running Windows, install JDK in C:\jdk1.6.0_15 and add the following content to the C:\autoexec.bat file:
set PATH=C:\jdk1.6.0_15\bin;%PATH%
set JAVA_HOME=C:\jdk1.6.0_15
You can also right-click "My Computer", select "Properties" => "Advanced" => "Environment Variables", and then update the PATH value by clicking the "OK" button.
On Linux, if the SDK is installed under /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_15 and you are using C shell, add the following code to the .cshrc file.
setenv PATH /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_15/bin:$PATH
setenv JAVA_HOME /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_15
If you use the integrated development environment Eclipse, it automatically knows where Java is installed.
Android IDE
There are many complex and sophisticated technologies for developing Android applications. Currently, the main and similar technologies are mainly the following two: