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I have been developing software for over a decade. I wanted to give Android apps a try too. But when I tried to install the tooling, it was all so heavy and blo

by TekMol 4y ago

I have been developing software for over a decade. I wanted to give Android apps a try too. But when I tried to install the tooling, it was all so heavy and bloated and clunky that I gave up and never tried again. Compare that to writing web apps. You open an empty text file in a text editor and are ready to go.

sofixa 4y ago
> I have been developing software for over a decade. I wanted to give Android apps a try too. But when I tried to install the tooling, it was all so heavy and bloated and clunky that I gave up and never tried again At least it's cross-platform and it doesn't require you to buy special hardware like the main mobile competitor does.
- anaganisk 4y ago
  Main mobile competitor in US
  - jjcon 4y ago
    Are there countries where there is another main competitor? iOS is at like 30% global market share isn’t it (a bit higher in North America, uk, and some Asian countries like japan, lower elsewhere) I’m not aware of anywhere having a larger competitor to android though.
ismayilzadan 4y ago
I had a complete opposite experience a few weeks ago. It took me about an hour max to install Android Studio in Manjaro, install SDKs, spin up Android VM, pull open source Android keyboard app and add my own customised layout, then test it in VM and install to my phone. There were no errors at all. Just clicking buttons and waiting. -edit: typo
- ris58h 4y ago
  What opensource keyboard app was it?
  - ismayilzadan 4y ago
    Florisboard: https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard
gerash 4y ago
so you're comparing a simple text editor to a full fledged IDE. Do you also prefer notepad over visual studio for your development?
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
  Yeah, if we're comparing like that then I get to drag npm into the ring. At which point it's still better, but by a much narrower margin.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  Android Studio and the NDK experience is so bad that in order to get game developers on board, Google had to come up with the AGK and Visual Studio plug-ins. Even then, it is like a construction yard experience versus iDevices, Windows or game consoles.
- TekMol 4y ago
  Could be that I would prefer notepad. But I don't know it well enought to say. My favorite editor is vim.
pjmlp 4y ago
Had you been through the trouble of installing it, and tried the NDK, you would have found a primitive development experience requiring devs to manually copy code from GitHub to use NDK frameworks. How after 10 years Google thinks that is a good development experience baffles me.
anta40 4y ago
I feel you. That's one of the most commonly heard complaints about native Android development from newcomers: "why does Android Studio is such a resource/memory hog bla bla bla..." About a decade ago, when Eclipse was the default IDE for Android development, the situation was less worse. 2 GB RAM was fine. One of the quick solutions is to use VSCode and install the required Android SDKs manually.

by TekMol 4y ago

sofixa 4y ago

> I have been developing software for over a decade. I wanted to give Android apps a try too. But when I tried to install the tooling, it was all so heavy and bloated and clunky that I gave up and never tried again At least it's cross-platform and it doesn't require you to buy special hardware like the main mobile competitor does.

anaganisk 4y ago
Main mobile competitor in US
- jjcon 4y ago
  Are there countries where there is another main competitor? iOS is at like 30% global market share isn’t it (a bit higher in North America, uk, and some Asian countries like japan, lower elsewhere) I’m not aware of anywhere having a larger competitor to android though.

ismayilzadan 4y ago

I had a complete opposite experience a few weeks ago. It took me about an hour max to install Android Studio in Manjaro, install SDKs, spin up Android VM, pull open source Android keyboard app and add my own customised layout, then test it in VM and install to my phone. There were no errors at all. Just clicking buttons and waiting. -edit: typo

ris58h 4y ago
What opensource keyboard app was it?
- ismayilzadan 4y ago
  Florisboard: https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard https://github.com/florisboard/florisboard

gerash 4y ago

so you're comparing a simple text editor to a full fledged IDE. Do you also prefer notepad over visual studio for your development?

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
Yeah, if we're comparing like that then I get to drag npm into the ring. At which point it's still better, but by a much narrower margin.
pjmlp 4y ago
Android Studio and the NDK experience is so bad that in order to get game developers on board, Google had to come up with the AGK and Visual Studio plug-ins. Even then, it is like a construction yard experience versus iDevices, Windows or game consoles.
TekMol 4y ago
Could be that I would prefer notepad. But I don't know it well enought to say. My favorite editor is vim.

pjmlp 4y ago

Had you been through the trouble of installing it, and tried the NDK, you would have found a primitive development experience requiring devs to manually copy code from GitHub to use NDK frameworks. How after 10 years Google thinks that is a good development experience baffles me.

anta40 4y ago

I feel you. That's one of the most commonly heard complaints about native Android development from newcomers: "why does Android Studio is such a resource/memory hog bla bla bla..." About a decade ago, when Eclipse was the default IDE for Android development, the situation was less worse. 2 GB RAM was fine. One of the quick solutions is to use VSCode and install the required Android SDKs manually.