First of all, lots of respect to the devs for all the work they have done so far. The last few weeks we've gone from almost nothing to one of the most complete android ports of all windows devices.
Now for the topic: I'm a (beginning) software developer and after a lot of development on the .net framework I started learning java last year, at university.
I was wondering what parts of android are actually written in java. I know that the linux kernel and stuff is written in low-level languages like C(++) or even assembler. On top of that, Android runs a java virtual machine (called drupal if I remember correctly).
Does the built-in software, like for example the standard camera software, run in java, or has it been written in low-level languages to improve speed? If it has been written in Java, can we actually edit that code from the roms that are commonly used?
If so, I think there are a lot of people that could look at stuff like fixing the video camera (by changing the button layout in that mode for example) and other small bugs that occur on higher software levels. I think there are a lot of people that know nothing about kernel development but do know stuff about java (or similar OO-languages like C#) that could help out with stuff like this.
Am I on to something here? Any people that can tell me more about this?
i dont relly know
up up !!
in XTarantula's ROM the Stock Video Camera works with sound.
his build is based on Android 2.1 (Eclair) update 1.
Model Number is Nexus One and is fully stock (even with Stock Launcher, no launcher pro preinstalled.)
its a great build, im just waiting for a Froyo Build with the same features.
hope this will help: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/ui-events.html
I know how to do the WM stuff - and have some old kitchens. I used to be fairly involved in doing my own back in the Kaiser days, but never did publish them (there were always questions about whether it was REALLY kosher to do so)
Well, Android is Open Source (mostly) and so I'd like to get involved with it for the HD2. I'll publish here and maintain as well - if I come up with something useful.
Does anyone have a framework to start with on getting started? Is it best done from Windows (Win7 here) or do I need to build up a Linux box for this?
If it's already here (I looked around) please point me to it... or any online resource for that matter.
Mostly interested in cooking up NAND stuff....
(I build and write software - including kernel code in the FreeBSD realm, so I'm familiar with the "hows" - just need the correct pointers to the tools and bits I need along with a primer; I can take it from there.)
Thanks in advance!
I'm interested in the same kind of info, but it seems it's a secret kept somewhat close to the chest, and although there are tutorials aplenty for the end user, there is a clear lack of tuturials on how to make your own ROMs (be it WinMo, or Android). Either "chefs" don't want any more clutter and garbage around, or they don't think there is interest on such info...
Anyway, here is an article to get you started (little meat in the info, but dig around the wiki):
http://www.htc-linux.org/wiki/index.php?title=QuickDeveloperStartGuide
u Guy's even have take look to chef corner in this site
In advance, please excuse my own ignorance..
I've been an avid Android user since my HTC hero when it was first released, but haven't really gotten into the "meat and potatoes" of Linux...just some minor dabbling in UNIX as required in a few college classes.
I was wondering if anyone can explain exactly what the 'kernel' does, and how it's replacement can change the user experience and general functionality of a device. Down the road I'd love to be able to help the community, but I think a 'vocabulary lesson' would first be in order; amongst other things in due time.
Thanks in advance,
Chlballi
OK; this will be a bit simplified over reality, but here we go.
You've got the hardware that makes up your machine.
You've got the software you install on your machine (angry birds, whatever)
The kernel is kind of the bit in the middle that lets the two talk to each other. The kernel contains drivers that let your software interpret the touchscreen input, or talk to the graphics chip, or mount a filesystem (on your USB stick or on the internal memory).
A different kernel (or additional modules to the current kernel) will change how this operates. For example, it might allow the software to instruct your CPU to run at different frequencies than it would otherwise (overclocking/underclocking). It might support different filesystems (NTFS for example). It might have a different way of scheduling what tasks get sent to the CPU and in what order. Or it might just be better coded and have less random freezeups and so on.
I hope that helps!
EDIT: Incidentally, kernel isn't a uniquely linux term. All OS'es (that I am aware of) have a kernel of various types. Windows uses a proprietary MS kernel, Mac OS X uses a modified BSD kernel, etc etc.
You can also try here!
Very good Thanks all. I just needed a little refresher.
Chlballi
When starting with Android development most people start so by using Eclipse, so did I. Unfortunately for me this was a quite frustrating experience no matter if I developed on Windows or Linux. I often had troubles launching projects after some changes and was forced to rebuild the whole workspace (which takes a while esp. if you included a couple library projects). So after a while I decided to switch to IDEA which is a lot more satisfying. I never had any issues with broken projects and everything just builds so much faster.
One big difference (and it seems many people have troubles with it) is IDEA's handling of library projects. Unfortunately I think this is done in a very logical way, as each "project" is handled as a model. Means you create a project ("My app"), add a module for your main app project, and add new modules for each library project you would add. For each modules you can set the dependencies and say on which modules it depends.
In the newest version (12) Jetbrains also added an Android UI designer, which was one of the features not available before.
If you are curious you can download and install IDEA from their website, or when you are using Ubuntu you can simply download it from Software center.
http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/
And here's a nice article given a quick introduction:
http://www.itwriting.com/blog/7083-intellij-idea-the-best-ide-for-programming-android.html
IDEA rocks, +1. It makes my little Arch box work like a real PC at times
i use idea too,just feel good
Sent from my Nexus 4
What about the on-the-fly analysis performed by IDEA during development? Does it detect many bugs?
Have you never used this functionality?
Nobody uses this feature of IDEA?
I've only had a brief play with it so far - updated the Android SDK and loaded 1 project from GitHub, but it compiles like lightning compared to Eclipse. Thanks for letting us know about this - it's much appreciated
So how does it handle multi-module projects? The advantage of Eclipse/Qt Creator is you can keep multiple projects open at once plus the plugin integration with Maven and Git.
I briefly tried out IntelliJ a couple months back and immediately stepped away when it failed multi-module requirement for me.
More speed than molasses Eclipse would be nice, though the Windows version runs tolerably on fast i5 and SSD.
If it supports .webp on the UI designer (unlike Eclipse), then I'll be all over it!
IntelliJ IDEA has no workspace concept like Eclipse, but its project can have multiple modules: http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/documentation/migration_faq.html .
I'm a total noob/beginner when it comes to programming - never really been into it. That said, I've recently been giving it a go using Eclipse - creating my own Android app. I've just installed IDEA and find it far better to use then Eclipse. Really loving it actually.
I never got into Eclipse. The only Eclipse project I tried using was IBM's Lotus version of OpenOffice. The thing was huge, bloated with Eclipse libraries.
Netbeans is my preferred IDE (also good for C++ and others) but it, unfortunately, falls short for Android.
Intellij worked first try. Glad to see a forum for this on XDA!
Really happy this gets some attention, I've switched from Eclipse to IDEA a while ago and I can't go back.
IDEA is just so smart and works so nice!
I think the best part of IntelliJ is that when you are programming you do it in one environment, from IntelliJ I can see Jira stories, commit svn/git and everything else I do while programming, without switching to 5 different applications
I hope more and more people will switch to IntelliJ, thanks for this thread!
Isn't anyone here bothered by the slow compile times compared to Eclipse? I'm working on a relatively large project, and each time anything is modified it seems to rebuild from scratch. Eclipse in comparision is able to launch the app with the new changes almost instantly.
I love IntelliJ when it comes to it's editor and project management, but in the end it takes about 20s to get my changes on the screen. I'm probably saving some time not having to bother with corrupted workspaces and such though.
I have been using it for more than a year now, haven't looked back at eclipse again.
One thing that bugs me about all of these options is that they don't work on Android itself. Not a big deal for me yet, but I see it becoming more important as we start to see Android devices with bigger screens and keyboards.
I know that AIDE is a decent IDE that runs on Android, but it only runs on Android and it doesn't compare with Eclipse or IntelliJ (yet).
I heard that the current version of Eclipse (4.2) enables some degree of GUI independence, and the next version (due in June) enforces that. That would be a good step forward, but still mostly a theoretical one.
If JetBrain were to undertake the rather large task of making IntelliJ work on Android, as well as existing desktop platforms, they would certainly get my $.
I wonder - is the new Gradle based build system compatible with Android itself?
I found the new-ish GAE Endpoints service to be quite interesting in that part of the build process (code generation) happens on the server as a service. This strikes me as very Googly and I wonder whether Google will provide Android build as a service sometime in the near to medium future. That would certainly help move us towards a platform independent future, though I guess AIDE has shown that it is not the build system, but the IDE, that is holding us back from developing on Android.
I've been using IntelliJ since just after I started Android development (2+ years ago). I had tried Eclipse before that, and besides the excellent feature set, always found the editor to be lacking in many ways (still no virtual space). So when starting with Android development I just hated it because I had to do it in Eclipse. No offense to the people who use and love it, I'm sure that it is a great IDE, it just does not suit me at all.
When I discovered IntellJ, I immediately felt comfortable within the IDE. This made me enjoy the coding that much more which, to me, beats out any feature that an IDE can ever have. IntelliJ has some shortcomings, but overall I find it an exceptional IDE for Android development. It can be a tad sluggish in large projects, but not to the point of annoyance. It is also insanely stable, and I have NEVER in 2 years of working with it had a single crash - just brilliant.
Also, having been using it over an extended period, I can safely say that they excellent developers at JetBrains have constantly been improving on the Android support within the IDE. Feature wise, I think that IntellJ is definitely almost on par with Eclipse, and they have done this without any official support from Google (as far as I know). If Google would take notice of IntelliJ and provide support (I'm thinking ADT) that would just make it even better - here's hoping.
I would highly recommend anyone attempting android development to give IntellJ a go - the Community Edition is free. Especially developers coming from Visual Studio
Thanks, tried it, but I prefer Eclipse.
I'm a new programmer (now learning), and it seems better for me now.
DubelBoom said:
Thanks, tried it, but I prefer Eclipse.
I'm a new programmer (now learning), and it seems better for me now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this is an important point. Try all the options available, and make a choice based on what you prefer.
I'm just glad that at this point Android has at least two very capable IDEs to provide that choice.
I really cant figure out how to get IDEA to see my install of the android SDK. It looks like their setup tutorial assumes default locations for jdk and android-sdk on windows. How do you setup paths if android-sdk is somewhere else? (using a mac)
Also, second link on the first post seems to be dead right now.
truehybridx said:
I really cant figure out how to get IDEA to see my install of the android SDK. It looks like their setup tutorial assumes default locations for jdk and android-sdk on windows. How do you setup paths if android-sdk is somewhere else? (using a mac)
Also, second link on the first post seems to be dead right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check my answer here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/16485929/104891 .
I am on my second attempt at using IDEA for Android dev and I am stuck at the same point as last time, and its the only thing that Eclipse has going for it: I want to create a new Android app, min SDK 8, target SDK 17 (or whatever). This is fairly easy in Eclipse and I can go though the wizard for a new project, choose my settings, even the app icon and end up with the bare outline of my app that has the ICS style (ie an ActionBar & Holo theme)... can I hell do this is IDEA. I know that there is something I am/am not doing that is causing this but I have followed tutorials for adding support libs and even had a go at ActionBarSherlock.
I think this is where a lot of users are scared off of IDEA - I think its interface and usability is better than Eclipse, hell, the GUI editor for the layout XML files is better in IDEA than in Eclipse! (Eclipse freaked out on me several times trying to put static, non moving buttons at the bottom of the screen with a vertical scrollview above them, IDEA, sure, no problem!).
If they could sort the basics out, like getting the wizards included and even if they could allow you to add in various other frameworks (ABS, ViewPager etc) then they would have a winner.
On that matter, anyone got a tutorial on setting up a new project in IDEA the same as Eclipse with Holo theme?
Thanks
Hi All,
I'm a software developer, reasonably comfortable with compiling apps in Linux, though still got more to learn on inner workings of the full system.
I've been thinking about following the Linux from Scratch book for a while - and also about converting my Nook e-reader into a useful device for developing on when out im the sun.
I guess there are some significant challenges here - device trees and commercial secrets, perhaps some crypto keys used for signing update images to boot (I'm familiar with these problems, but not solutions or good workarounds).
What I'd really like is a good understanding of:
- what tool chain I need to setup
- What has been tried already and what the problems were
- any further help/datasheets that can get me going
I'd have posted this in the 'android development' area as the closest forum for what l'm trying to do, but apparently I'm not allowed until I've got my post count up - so I'm being forced to post in 'general'. If someone agrees and can move it, that would be great.
P.s. I have searched the xda site, but I'm not finding what I'm looking for. I'm sure it must be here somewhere, so any pointers/links on where it is would be appreciated.
SimonSimpson said:
Hi All,
I'm a software developer, reasonably comfortable with compiling apps in Linux, though still got more to learn on inner workings of the full system.
I've been thinking about following the Linux from Scratch book for a while - and also about converting my Nook e-reader into a useful device for developing on when out im the sun.
I guess there are some significant challenges here - device trees and commercial secrets, perhaps some crypto keys used for signing update images to boot (I'm familiar with these problems, but not solutions or good workarounds).
What I'd really like is a good understanding of:
- what tool chain I need to setup
- What has been tried already and what the problems were
- any further help/datasheets that can get me going
I'd have posted this in the 'android development' area as the closest forum for what l'm trying to do, but apparently I'm not allowed until I've got my post count up - so I'm being forced to post in 'general'. If someone agrees and can move it, that would be great.
P.s. I have searched the xda site, but I'm not finding what I'm looking for. I'm sure it must be here somewhere, so any pointers/links on where it is would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried to get info on such things three times over 2 years for different devices, no one every seems to point me in the right direction, the most i have been able to find out is how to make compile cm and a little bit of how to customize roms, not to be a downer but i think the process is often so different for ever device and difficulties usually happen that the only people that build roms are people that have either have experience I n some form from their job, just edit existing source for cm(updating to a new version, customizing roms ect...) or have screwed with the stuff for years till the point that they just figured out alot of problems themselves. Wish a could find a good guide myself to atleast get the basic dependencies required for a device to boot together, if i could get something to boot the rest of the issues could be worked out with trial and error, boot noone on xda, Android authority, Reddit or cm's own forums goes into enough depth to make that possible.
Hi jaykoerner,
Thanks for your reply - good to know I'm not alone with my echo!
I've discovered some useful links if anyone wants to begin getting to grips with all this...
1. XDA Devs has a wiki (not sure how to find from the forum links...?)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/BN_Nook_Simple_Touch
2. There's a (atleast one) customized kernel (and probably a dev-tool chain) available on GitHub:
https://github.com/javifo/NST/tree/master/kernel -- including kernel compilation instructions
https://github.com/javifo/NST -- root of the repository.
3. Parallel to Raspberry Pi kernel compilation (so you may want to learn from that as it probably has more articles)
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/linux/kernel/building.md
I'll post more when I next do something with the information (Still want to understand more on the android HAL)
Hope that helps someone!
SS.
SimonSimpson said:
Hi jaykoerner,
Thanks for your reply - good to know I'm not alone with my echo!
I've discovered some useful links if anyone wants to begin getting to grips with all this...
1. XDA Devs has a wiki (not sure how to find from the forum links...?)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/BN_Nook_Simple_Touch
2. There's a (atleast one) customized kernel (and probably a dev-tool chain) available on GitHub:
https://github.com/javifo/NST/tree/master/kernel -- including kernel compilation instructions
https://github.com/javifo/NST -- root of the repository.
3. Parallel to Raspberry Pi kernel compilation (so you may want to learn from that as it probably has more articles)
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/linux/kernel/building.md
I'll post more when I next do something with the information (Still want to understand more on the android HAL)
Hope that helps someone!
SS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My initial thought was that toolchain should match the underlay Linux kernel of Eclair (2.6.x.y) for us to be sure it could be run on NST. This info that I still have to search through is certainly helpful. Thanks!
SimonSimpson said:
I guess there are some significant challenges here - device trees and commercial secrets, perhaps some crypto keys used for signing update images to boot...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Neither the NST or the newer glows use device trees.
In the Glows this is all handled by the custom ntxconfig which allows simple configuration.
For building Android apps, you use the straight Android SDK, possibly also the Android NDK (for native code).
You'd also use the NDK for building command line utilities.
I've never built a kernel from scratch, but I have binary modified/patched them.
There is the simpler bit of patching system image ramdisks which can be conviently handled by my imgutil.exe in the signature.
If you want to do audio, you really are better off with the Glow4 (7.8") which actually supports it.