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I recently bought my first Android phone (HTC Legend). Now I want to develop for it!! :) Is it possible under Ubuntu and what is the best tool? Eclipse or IntelliJ or maybe something else?

UPD: It takes about a year for me (sorry my lazyness ;) But this is my first Android app - https://market.android.com/details?id=com.maxsoft.balls Created by Eclipse + ADT in Ubuntu 11.10!

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4 Answers

up vote 12 down vote accepted

Probably the easiest to use, and officially supported, is Eclipse:

http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/eclipse-adt.html

The Eclipse ADT plugin allows for basic project creation and management, as well as step debugging and ability to easily export your app for deployment/publication.

Other IDEs, however, can also be used in conjunction with the Android SDK:

http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/other-ide.html

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up vote 6 down vote

if you have prior development experience with Java you can try Eclipse + ADT plugin - the best

or

App Inventor for Android - its very simple and easy, no need of Java programming knowledge

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up vote 4 down vote

As the other two mention, Eclispe + ADT is the best option. Eclispe + Android has a lot of features like logcat viewer, stack trace viewer, DDMS, from where you can also take phone screenshots. You can also simulate texts and incoming phonecalls to test your apps. Debugging is also a breeze. I myself have made an an app for android as part of my college syllabus, and I recommend eclipse + adt. Goto this page for installation help. You can download the SDK from here.

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And what about standard Ubuntu repos? I must install stock Eclipse, right? – Extender Jan 13 '11 at 9:33
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@Extender I am not aware of eclipse repos, it is a better practice, IMO to download the tarball from eclipse.org/downloads The first eclipse in the download list is sufficient, for you. Yes, you must "extract" the tarball in your home directory, and create a workspace in your home directory, where your projects are stored. After extracting eclipse, read the guide at developer.android.com/guide/developing/eclipse-adt.html to install the SDK and you are all set.If you face any problems while coding, stackoverflow is a good place to ask question beginner questions. – Kaustubh P Jan 13 '11 at 9:44
Thanks! My question moves to stackoverflow zone :) – Extender Jan 13 '11 at 9:48
Sure, not a problem! Hope to see some great apps from you :D – Kaustubh P Jan 13 '11 at 9:49
It takes one year to finally do something))) See UPD – Extender Feb 18 at 5:13
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up vote 3 down vote

It is all up to your personal preference. The Android SDK works fine on Ubuntu (I use it every day) and independent of the IDE you choose to use.

Personally I use IntellJ IDEA. The community edition has Android support and is free. Eclipse is the default tool and is also free and works well too.

I also know many people using other editors like vim, komodoedit and others. I would however suggest to use one of the first two suggestions.

In terms of building the app you should look into using the default build using Apache Ant or you could also build it e.g. with Apache Maven and the Maven Android Plugin. In any case find a build tool that is independent of the IDE you use and potentially even use a continuous integration server.

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