Moving Forward

I’ll be honest, like many I am primarily a .Net developer. My favorite languages are VB and C# and I breath CIL. The world of Android is a little foreign to me and getting started seems like a challenge, however the more Android develops, the more I start to see similarities with .Net. Both languages have an extensive library of predefined functions to speed up development, both are what I call OO 2.0 languages, embodying and fully embracing object-oriented programming, and, with Froyo, both use just-in-time compilers to run the code.

Fortunately, unlike .Net, one of the requirements to get up and running with a full Android IDE is not a pocket full of bills (or enrollment in a major university’s CS program). Android is developed mainly in Eclipse, a development environment that you will form a strong love/hate bond with as your relationship with it grows.

Installing Eclipse

Android is a java-based language and uses Eclipse. To start out we must install Eclipse. So here are the steps required to install:

1. Go to eclipse.org’s downloads section.
2. Download the Java EE Edition. It is a zip file and you will need to extract it to your disk. I chose to extract it to C:android for convenience.
3. Launch Eclipse, in this case from C:androideclipseeclipse.exe (no install needed, +1), and set your default workspace.

Installing Android Development Kit

1. Go to “http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html to find the latest version of the development kit.
2. Download the windows zip file and extract to your C:android directory.
3. Add the newly extracted directory to your PATH
   • Right click on My Computer and go to Properties
   • Click on “Advanced System settings”
   • Open the Environment Variables tab. Scroll down in the System variables group until you find a variable called PATH. Click Edit..
   • In the Variable value text box append to the end “;C:androidandroid-sdk-windowstools” to add the Android tools directory to your PATH. This will make your life easier down the road when you just want to launch adb.exe without navigating to this directory.

Installing the Eclipse Android Plugin

1. Launch Eclipse as before.
2. Go to the Install New Software… menu
3. Click Add… and type in Google’s Android update location https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
4. Grab the checkbox for Developer Tools”. Click Next and Finish on the next screens until an install-like process begins.
5. Once the install finishes Eclipse will ask you to restart. Allow this to happen. Restarting is good.
6. When Eclipse restarted we must set the Android SDK location. To do this navigate to the preferences dialog.
7. Select Android and choose Browse… select your extracted directory C:androidandroid-sdk-windows.
8. Choose your preferred development platform. Since I will be developing with the EVO I chose Android 2.1-update1.
9. Click ok. You’re done!

At this point you have a fully functional build environment. From here you still have to prepare your emulator, run a sample project, and get started in the Android marketplace. As I work with my Android phone.