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Previously I was developing java code in eclipse, Later on after moving to android I was told to install the ADT bundle separately not the Install new software method when asked why I didn't get any valid answer .So I had to first un-install the eclipse version and then download the ADT bundle from the developer.android.com website.

user285oo6
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  • if you have already using eclipse for other development and now you try also development for android then you just get android SDK only not alone with eclipse. – Haresh Chhelana Jun 26 '14 at 09:06

1 Answers1

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First let's establish a couple of facts:

Eclipse

There are currently 13 different versions of Eclipse 4.4. The first three choices are Eclipse Standard, Eclipse for Java EE developers, and Eclipse for Java developers. A year or more ago, there also used to be an Eclipse for Mobile development for the previous versions of Eclipse (which also had nothing to do with Android development). This used to be super confusing for beginners who often downloaded the wrong version.

A year ago, the recommended choice was to download Eclipse for Java developers before installing the ADT plugin and updating the Android SDK. The people who downloaded Eclipse for Java EE developers and installed ADT on it would get all kinds of bugs with their Eclipse, so that version was definitely not recommended. The Eclipse Standard version was also not recommended, because it had some extraneous plugins not needed for pure Java development or Android development (although, I don't recall that combination having bugs).

Now combine this with the fact that people download Eclipse at different times, so you're going to have people with different base versions of Eclipse 3.6, 3.8, 4.0, 4.4, that they updated and upgraded over time. This turned into a real nightmare in terms of testing different combinations of Eclipse and Android Developer Tools. And that is one of the reasons, the employees of Google chose to only support and test a very limited subset of versions.

The fact is: Eclipse is a huge amalgamation of different projects and different plugins for different purposes. In theory, all the plugins should work together, but in actual practice, plugins are not always compatible with each other. So if you develop on Ruby on Rails and Android (just to give you one example). It's actually best to keep two separate Eclipse installations, each with their own plugins separate from each other. Or if you develop on J2EE and on Android at the same time, again it's best to keep two separate versions of Eclipse, one for Java EE and one for Java ADT.

This is also the reason Google eventually decided to have just one download link for a compatible version of Eclipse. By making sure that developers are not downloading exotic copies of Eclipse from other locations, which may work with ADT, but which also may not. Google is making it easier for Android beginners and it's also avoiding a maintenance nightmare in the long-run.

Android Studio

Android Studio is based on IntelliJ's IDE. IntelliJ's IDE has nothing to do with Eclipse. IntelliJ's IDE was developed independently from Eclipse. Currently, Google is supporting its Android Developer Tools on both Eclipse and Android Studio beta (IntelliJ's IDE).

That being said, Android Wear is only supported on Android Studio. This means that many developers are being forced to try Android Studio if they want to try developing for Android Wear.

my question is not regarding the method but the platform builds of the two(Intellij and the ANT) – user285oo6 Jul 7 at 11:03

Assuming you really meant ANT and didn't just mistype ADT (Android Developer Tools).

I'll also explain what ANT is.

Gradle vs. ANT

ANT was the original scripting language for building projects in Android. Gradle is the new build language for Android. Not only Google is hoping that developers will slowly start to use Android Studio instead of Eclipse, but it's also hoping that developers will convert to using Gradle as well. That is why Gradle has become the default way of building projects on Android Studio.

Stephan Branczyk
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  • the answer is really helpful and a small question if Google is doing like Apple to the developers aren't they making barriers among the developers to force to use their language(Gradle) in the future versions(Android 22.3 or the Beta version which supports the ARM Architecture). – user285oo6 Jul 31 '14 at 05:23
  • Android Studio supports the Intel Architecture, you just need to turn on VT mode in your BIOS (assuming you're on Windows), install haxm, and make an x86 image. As to ANT, the choice was either to upgrade to maven, or upgrade to gradle. Apparently, Google chose gradle. In any case, StackOverflow isn't a place to discuss opinions, it's a place to solve problems. If you want to discuss the merit of Google's decisions, you'll have to ask such pointed questions on forums, not on StackOverflow. – Stephan Branczyk Jul 31 '14 at 07:47
  • Also, I do not think gradle was created at Google. Please correct me if I'm wrong. So gradle isn't their language as such, it's just the build language they chose for the job. – Stephan Branczyk Jul 31 '14 at 08:47