Beginning Android™ Application Development

Appendix A. Using Eclipse for Android Development

Although Google supports the development of Android applications using IDEs such as IntelliJ, or basic editors like Emacs, Google's recommendation is to use the Eclipse IDE together with the ADT Plugin. Doing so makes developing Android applications much easier and more productive. This appendix describes some of the neat features available in Eclipse that can make your development life much easier.

Note

If you have not downloaded Eclipse yet, please start with Chapter 1, where you will learn how to obtain Eclipse and configure it to work with the Android SDK. This appendix assumes that you have already set up your Eclipse environment for Android development.

GETTING AROUND IN ECLIPSE

Eclipse is a highly extensible multi-language software development environment that supports application development of all sorts. Using Eclipse, you could write and test your applications using a wide variety of languages, such as Java, C, C++, PHP, Ruby, and so on. Because of its extensibility, new users of Eclipse often feel inundated with the IDE. Hence, the following sections aim to make you more at home with Eclipse when you develop your Android applications.

Workspaces

Eclipse adopts the concept of a workspace. A workspace is a folder that you have chosen to store all your projects.

When you first start Eclipse, you are prompted to select a workspace (see Figure A-1).

Figure A-1. FIGURE A-1

When Eclipse has finished launching the projects located in your ...