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An iOS Developer Takes on Android

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Re: An iOS Developer Takes on Android

#71

Post by tomjen3 »

qeorge wrote: post #28
flyosity wrote: post #2

As an iOS developer, this is probably the best comparison between iOS and Android development that I've read. I'm pretty scared of Eclipse and the slow-as-hell emulator doesn't sound fun, but coding layouts that don't involve lots of "how tall is this text for this given width?" calculations is a welcome addition.

I jumped into Android development about a month ago, and after a slow start its really been fun. I hated Eclipse at first, but it gets a lot better with time. The emulator though - don't bother. The author is not exaggerating about several minutes to load. Just buy an Android phone and debug on that, or you'll spend more time cursing at the emulator than coding.

Just start the emulator op in the morning. There is no reason to shot it down when you go back to coding.

Re: An iOS Developer Takes on Android

#72

Post by tomjen3 »

flyosity wrote: post #2

As an iOS developer, this is probably the best comparison between iOS and Android development that I've read. I'm pretty scared of Eclipse and the slow-as-hell emulator doesn't sound fun, but coding layouts that don't involve lots of "how tall is this text for this given width?" calculations is a welcome addition.

Eclipse is big, but it is really, really good to.

And he is not kidding about the write your code for you, it really feels that way.

Re: An iOS Developer Takes on Android

#73

Post by jamesbritt »

pwelch wrote: post #47

"It takes the Android Emulator ~2 minutes to boot up on my perfectly-modern machine. But what really hurts is the edit/debug cycle. Every time I change a bit of Java and need to rerun the app, it takes about 30 seconds to redeploy and start up in the Emulator. Compare that to 5 seconds on the iOS Simulator. It may not sound like much but remember you’ll be doing this hundreds of times throughout your day." I do not h…

Every time I change a bit of Java and need to rerun the app, it takes about 30 seconds to redeploy and start up in the Emulator. Compare that to 5 seconds on the iOS Simulator. It may not sound like much but remember you’ll be doing this hundreds of times throughout your day."

Is there no practical way to reduce this by using unit tests? I understand if you're doing UI tweaks but otherwise it seems far more efficient to do targeted testing.

Re: An iOS Developer Takes on Android

#75

Post by smcj »

camtarn wrote: post #64
smcj wrote: post #61

This is a great and honest article and has changed the way I think about Apple users/developers. Before that, I considered Apple users to be a group of gay douchebags, but today I have learned that there is at least a sane person on the other riverside. (I have neither developed for any smartphone nor do I possess one, so no need for "Stupid FANDROID!1!")

Us gays also use Android, y'know ;)

Yes, sure. There is much less discrimination against "other" people on non-Apple platforms and that's great!

Re: An iOS Developer Takes on Android

#77

Post by scottjad »

> Apple has made it pretty easy to start writing iOS apps. Of course, Step One is “Buy a Mac.” Easy! Then just download the free Xcode Installer from the Mac App Store, and start writing code when it’s done.

> Android is a bit more involved. You can download the SDK easily, but to actually start writing code, you’ll want to setup Eclipse and install Google’s ADT Plugin.

Buying and setting up a new computer is "Easy!" but installing Eclipse is "more involved"? Having to sign up for a $99 developer program is omitted. The size difference, of a couple hundred mb for Eclipse vs 4gb for Xcode is omitted.

Re: An iOS Developer Takes on Android

#78

Post by ZoFreX »

A couple of points...

> Android has a system of layout containers (similar to HTML)

It would be more correct (I think) to say it's inspired by other Java layout managers, Swing and SWT aren't a million worlds removed from Android (but I can't really expect someone new to Java to know that!)

And the emulator. The Android emulator is not slow. I have a netbook, which is an absolutely fantastic way of finding out which applications do far too much but you never notice because your computer is very fast. Team Fortress 2 is slow. Eclipse is slow. I tried booting the Android emulator and gave up waiting after an hour and a half.

Overall, awesome article. Refreshing to see someone providing a useful comparison between the two rather than arguing over one or the other, and as a Java developer who knows a little about Android, I feel I just learnt a lot about iOS. I'm actually amazed at how much they have in common, you wouldn't think so from the arguments!

Re: An iOS Developer Takes on Android

#79

Post by bitwize »

scottjad wrote: post #77

> Apple has made it pretty easy to start writing iOS apps. Of course, Step One is “Buy a Mac.” Easy! Then just download the free Xcode Installer from the Mac App Store, and start writing code when it’s done. > Android is a bit more involved. You can download the SDK easily, but to actually start writing code, you’ll want to setup Eclipse and install Google’s ADT Plugin. Buying and setting up a new computer is "Easy!"…

You don't need eclipse.

You can get by with Emacs, JDK, and ant. Plus the Android SDK of course.

That's how I roll, and it works just fine.

Re: An iOS Developer Takes on Android

#80

Post by S_A_P »

This article was damn near perfect. I much prefer this style to "the problem with X" or "Why X will never succeed". This person isn't interested in platform evangelism, he/she wants to ship. A very inspiring attitude to have.
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