3 ms·

> I've stopped counting how many times I came back to an Android project after only a few months, only to have Android Studio force me to update Gradle and depe

> I've stopped counting how many times I came back to an Android project after only a few months, only to have Android Studio force me to update Gradle and dependencies and whatnot, and break everything. This used to be 5-6 years back. These days it is very stable.

AshamedCaptain 2y ago
No, it's not. This year I still had to upgrade all my projects (I do this yearly) and they still broke in a myriad of different ways. Most of them fortunately and perhaps ironically the solution was one Google search away. I actually _like_ Java, so it's not that I hate Android, but frankly, I have no idea what it is even doing downloading and generating gigabytes of crap with inscrutable huge log files. Most of my applications' Java/GUI parts are no more complex than a hello world -- many times I find it easier to just rewrite them from scratch than even try "upgrading" them using Android Studio. The Android tooling is basically a textbook definition of oversized enterprisey software. I really wish there was just a frigging (resource) compiler, linker and maybe packer that I could invoke from the command line in simple steps.
- ashishb 2y ago
  > The Android tooling is basically a textbook definition of oversized enterprisey software. I really wish there was just a frigging (resource) compiler, linker and maybe packer that I could invoke from the command line in simple steps. Yeah, I feel the same. There are CLI approaches that I have encapsulated into Makefile ( https://ashishb.net/all/use-makefile-for-android https://ashishb.net/all/use-makefile-for-android) and GitHub Actions (https://github.com/ashishb/gabo/blob/master/src/gabo/internal/generator/data/build-android-incomplete.yaml https://github.com/ashishb/gabo/blob/master/src/gabo/interna...) but they do require time to set up.

3 ms·

> I've stopped counting how many times I came back to an Android project after only a few months, only to have Android Studio force me to update Gradle and depe

by ashishb 2y ago

AshamedCaptain 2y ago
No, it's not. This year I still had to upgrade all my projects (I do this yearly) and they still broke in a myriad of different ways. Most of them fortunately and perhaps ironically the solution was one Google search away. I actually _like_ Java, so it's not that I hate Android, but frankly, I have no idea what it is even doing downloading and generating gigabytes of crap with inscrutable huge log files. Most of my applications' Java/GUI parts are no more complex than a hello world -- many times I find it easier to just rewrite them from scratch than even try "upgrading" them using Android Studio. The Android tooling is basically a textbook definition of oversized enterprisey software. I really wish there was just a frigging (resource) compiler, linker and maybe packer that I could invoke from the command line in simple steps.
- ashishb 2y ago
  > The Android tooling is basically a textbook definition of oversized enterprisey software. I really wish there was just a frigging (resource) compiler, linker and maybe packer that I could invoke from the command line in simple steps. Yeah, I feel the same. There are CLI approaches that I have encapsulated into Makefile ( https://ashishb.net/all/use-makefile-for-android https://ashishb.net/all/use-makefile-for-android) and GitHub Actions (https://github.com/ashishb/gabo/blob/master/src/gabo/internal/generator/data/build-android-incomplete.yaml https://github.com/ashishb/gabo/blob/master/src/gabo/interna...) but they do require time to set up.