well folks,
I'd like to share a little journey I took for the past week.
I've been writing code for the desktop for over 20 years now and use C-family and Visual Studio most of the time. This year, I want to try something new. I want to get into Android and possibly other mobile app platforms. And so, I am evaluating different IDE and platforms.
Mainly, I'm testing these four: Xamarin Studio, Eclipse, Visual Studio and Android Studio.
let's start with the IDE that got crossed out from the list real quick.
Visual Studio: Visual Studio mobile SDK won't work in Windows 7. it needs Windows 8. so, Windows Phone app development is out of the way for now...until I get Windows 8 machine.
Android Studio: after many crashes with Xamarin Studio (build 54), it forces me to look at alternative solution. Android Studio seems like a good candidate. but, it's being beta means it's very unstable. for now, Android Studio is not ready for real development.
Eclipse: next, I tested Eclipse for Android. very stable but running the emulator for the first time for the first time Android coder might be a bit a daunting task!! nonetheless, Java has come a long way since I tried it in 1998!! today Java, I found numerous samples, tutorials, etc. which it can get me up to speed really fast!!
and so for this testing purposes, I want to develop a simple calculator. this allows me to be familiar with the classes, events, GUI, etc. I got my calculator to work with Eclipse in about 10 hours of coding, reading documentation and learning a lot of stuff along the way.
so, I'm at a cross road to make a decision. which IDE shall I be learning to develop real app? I like Xamarin because of C# and code readability. however, because my main goal is Android, Eclipse might be my top choice after all. video tutorial is the future of learning but Xamarin video tutorials are scarce. :-(
thanks for reading. happy coding!!