Is there a PC vs Mac preference regarding Android?

[FireWorx]

Hi,
I have 3 Livecode apps in the IOS apps store and I am now looking to port them over to Android. I was wondering if there is any advantage to programing and testing for android on one platform vs the other. My PC is a little clunky and I have gotten used to working on the mac. My apps are already on my mac.

Can I code, test, and deploy just as easy from a mac?
Dave

[FireWorx]

Well I Spent the good part of a day loading the Java and Android SDK on both of my laptops. It was a back and forth race to see which laptop would launch my very first "Hello World" Android App. The performance seems better on my MacBook Pro So I guess I will Roll with that.

BIGGEST THINGS TO REMEMBER RE LOADING THE SDK'S

There is a lot of uploading to be done after uploading the java and sdk manager. Don't expect the LiveCode Mobile preferences Link to find your SDK to work until after about 45 minutes of downloading SDK's and tools etc. After you upload the SDK bundle you are going to want to navigate to the SDK manager which is in the tools folder among many other files and on the mac it is simply named "android". Click on that and it will bring up the SDK manager. (This file is more clearly identified in the windows version) Then select the latest SDK and the files needed to support that SDK and deselect all the other files. Upload those files and when finished select manage AVD's from the tools menu at the top of the screen. Click "New" and name the Emulation Instance, Select which SDK you want to use from the scrolling list (newer ones at the bottom out of view) and select the size of the sim card say "16 gig". This instance will be saved to the list. Select it from the list by highlighting it and click "start". The android Sim window will take its sweet time popping up and once it's loaded you should be good to open the Standalone applications settings of your "Hello World" stack and select android. Select minimum 2.2 FroYo. Open LiveCode preferences and select the mobile settings and identify the link to your SDK. It should be in the "android-sdk" folder. Then select the android test target in LIve Code development pull down menu and then hit the "Test" button. If you are lucky and skilled your "Hello World" app will load onto the android test devise. Mine did. Stoked. It took me a good part of a day though. Mission accomplished.

Dave

[jacque]

I do all my Android builds and testing on a Mac. I haven't had any trouble, and my Android apps are now in both Android markets. No complaints from customers yet.

I do have some issues with the newest emulator on my Mac. Some versions of Android simply don't work there; I've only been able to get Android 2.3 working. I haven't had time to figure it out, so I just test in that version and then build quick test apps to see how they run on my real devices.

[mwieder]

I've only been able to get Android 2.3 working.

Same here. I'm not sure what's up with the Android emulator, but I had to download several Android sdk builds before finally settling on 2.3 to get one that works.

[FireWorx]

Thanks for the feed back. I noticed this did bit which may have some significance here.

http://developer.android.com/guide/prac ... letLayouts

Note: Beginning with Android 3.2 (API level 13), these size groups are deprecated in favor of a new technique for managing screen sizes based on the available screen width. If you're developing for Android 3.2 and greater, see Declaring Tablet Layouts for Android 3.2 for more information.

I guess 3.2 and up handles adapting to screen sized differently.

So I guess I will need to rewrite some code to replace the "if the machine is "iPad" then do such such? etc to port my app over to droid.

I didn't read much in the Android release notes about switching the on iphonecreate-blabla commands to mobilecreate-blabla commands. Is that still an issue?

Anything else to add to make life easier regarding an iPad/iPhone app conversion to an Android 7" tablet/Android handset app? I'm all ears.

Now that the Android SDK is running on my mac I was going to dive in tomorrow.
Dave

[Nick Johnson]

Mac is very much useful for me to do all my Android builds and testing. My Android apps are in Android market. No trouble faced by me or by customers....

[Mark]

Hi,

I think that 2.3 is the last one that you don't need to change. In later versions, you need to copy the file adb on Mac or adb.exe and two adb dll's on Windows from the android-tools folder to the tools folder.

Kind regards,

Mark

[jacque]

Actually, you don't need to move anything from the default locations. Ian helped me debug the problem at the conference. There is a bug somewhere that causes VM images to fail in the emulator if any sensors are turned on. He removed all sensors (accelerometer, etc) from my VM and after that it worked again. I've got 2.2, 2.3, 3.2, and 4.x VM images working now (except some are so slow they're still almost unuseable.)

The emulator doesn't have any of the sensor readings anyway, so you don't lose anything by removing them.

[Mark]

Interesting, Jacque. The latest Android SDK (r18) didn't work for me and after copying over those files, it worked again. For a fact.

Also, I have no idea what sensors you're talking about. After copying over those files, it just works.

So, which Android SDK are you using?

Kind regards,

Mark

[jacque]

I believe you, but I didn't have to do it. I'm using the SDK I downloaded some time ago, but it's been updated all along, most recently just before I did the demo at the conference. The SDK tools are marked rev 19 (I see that 20 is now available but I don't have it yet.) The adb file is still in the platform-tools folder as it's always been.

The sensors that Ian removed were associated with AVD I was using. He was moving pretty fast so I didn't see all the features he took out, but he and Mark Waddingham talked about the accelerometer and I think GPS. Multitouch is now removed and some other things too like camera (but I don't think I had included that anyway.)

When they were done, my ADV worked again and they talked about how sensors aren't supported in the emulator so it wasn't necessary to include them. They mentioned a possible bug either in the LiveCode engine or the emulator, but didn't seem to think it mattered since we couldn't use sensors in emulation anyhow.

It may be that your issue was different than mine. On the ADV images that did not work for me, LiveCode apps launched to a black screen. The ADV still ran the built-in apps, just not LiveCode ones.

[jacque]

On second thought -- maybe you originally downloaded an older version than I did. I remember when I first got the SDK there was a big warning on it that adb had moved from Tools to Platform-tools. The version I downloaded already had adb in platform-tools so I didn't need to move it. Maybe that's what you're thinking of (only in reverse of what you wrote?)

Edited to add: If you're running an old version of LiveCode, then that would require moving adb back to its old location in Tools. LiveCode was updated to support the default adb location in platform-tools shortly after it was moved there.

[Mark]

Jacque,

That explains it: I'm using LC 5.0.2 and am still waiting for an update of LC that I like.

Kind regards,

Mark