What is the best IDE to develop Android apps in? [closed]

Answer 1

I Feel Eclipse IDE is more suitable for android applications rather than other IDEs. Because its providing us more than five perspectives which will make our project flexible and ease.You may try Eclipse ides starts with 3.6 and above will provide you better performance.

Eclipse_jee_indigo
Eclipse_java_indigo
Eclipse_classic

The above eclipses are belongs to the version3.7.2 which are all latest and supports all kind of access.

Answer 2

For me the best is Motodev is a Eclipse plugin developed by Motorola.

Answer 3

I am a huge supporter of using the environment that is most familiar to you. However this isn't always the best option. In some cases, a different environment can result in (far?) greater efficency in the long run.

In this particular case I suspect that sticking with what you already know is a good option, but someone starting new would benifit from the easy setup and sdk/ndk integration offered by eclipse. I also don't know how available geolocation manipulation (or phone state manipulation - ie incoming call etc) is in other IDE's, but integration within eclipse feels seamless.

AIDE is a fun option that I use while traveling or when I don't feel like sitting at my desk all the time. It is an extrodinarly well put together IDE that runs on Android, compiles Android appications, and then lets you install, all without touching a computer. It includes a logcat readout, syntax highlighting and some git compatibility as well. Obviously you don't have a lot of screen real estate available and things can get cluttered or you can't see everything you want to at once, but for quick touchups or early in a project it is more than adequate.

Answer 4

Eclipse is not that hard to learn (I use both Eclipse and NetBeans, and I switch back and forth pretty effortlessly). If you're going to be learning Android development from the start, I can recommend Hello, Android, which I just finished. It shows you exactly how to use all the features of Eclipse that are useful for developing Android apps. There's also a brief section on getting set up to develop from the command line and from other IDEs.

Answer 5

Of the existing IDEs, Ted Neward ranks them this way:

Best: IntelliJ IDEA

Second: Netbeans

Third: Eclipse

He seems to think that Eclipse throws up a lot of "friction"; hard to say what that means.

Edit, years later: After attempting to use Eclipse/Aptana for node development and using JetBrains products for node and ruby development I would absolutely start with IntelliJ IDEA and give that a try for the 30 day trial.

Answer 6

I've been using IntelliJ IDEA for the last 12 months now as my main IDE, but I am often forced to use Eclipse as well. So when I have to work in Eclipse I start biting my nails. I will sum up my pros and cons.

Eclipse pros:
- visual editor. IDEA has one as well, but it's rather primitive. I suspect that this feature will soon be deleted as IDEA will improve its editor.
- many projects into one right pane (this is also my personal con as I like IDEA's one-project-per-pane thing)
- faster compiles Android projects. IDEA has made its compilation process faster, so I also soon expect to delete this Eclipse pro

IDEA pros:
- faster intellisense (if you like Resharper, then you know what I am talking about)
- smarter autocomplete - my friend and I decided to write the same class. I finished before him simply because IDEA faster reacts to my wishes
- incredibly smart - do not know what to do? just press Ctrl+Shift+Space and IDEA will tell you what should come there. It also recognizes naming scheme to if you're filling name object, it will first display getName method.
- will add more as I remember of them

IDEA cons:
- Still the only con is that if you open Eclipse Android project and edit any XML layout file, Eclipse will no longer be able to display edited file into its visual layout editor. This has not been fixed as of this day and it's IDEA's bug as it somehow messes the XML.

Bottom line: if you're a person who does not see advantages of ReSharper in .NET (and we all coded in .NET), then you'll probably stick to Eclipse. It's official Android IDE and you believe it's the best.
If you liked ReSharper and want to code faster, then you'll appreciate IDEA and will stick to it forever.