I set up an M1 Macbook Pro yesterday to build Android apps with LiveCode.
I hope this information is useful to others looking to build Android apps with this setup.
If anyone gets stuck anywhere, let me know, and I will update this information with more details.
My goal is not only to be able to build for the Google Play Store but to run emulators for testing.
I found the specific settings in Android Studio needed to make LiveCode and the emulators work together.
Much of this applies to Windows as it does to Mac as the setting are managed in Android Studio. My pathing instructions below are for Mac only because it is trivial to see invisible folders on Windows. On Mac, if you want to use Finder, you will need to use the terminal to reveal invisible folders. You can use the terminal directly as another option if you are comfortable with that. Alternatively, you can use 3rd party finder tools. I favor ForkLift these days. You can quickly reveal invisible content and use a GUI that is Finder-like.
Android Studio About Screen Details
Android Studio Chipmunk | 2021.2.1 Patch 2
Build #AI-212.5712.43.2112.8815526, built on July 10, 2022
Runtime version: 11.0.12+0-b1504.28-7817840 aarch64
VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM by JetBrains s.r.o.
macOS 12.5.1
GC: G1 Young Generation, G1 Old Generation
Memory: 2048M
Cores: 10
Registry: external.system.auto.import.disabled=true
Oracle JAVA installer: jdk-8u341-macosx-x64
Oracle JAVA SDK version: 1.8.0_341
Oracle JAVA JDK version: 1.8.0_341
(I decided to make LiveCode happy by following the guidance to use Java 8 SDK installer even though I am using an M1 (Apple Silicon) system. Since I can do what I want, I think it is safe to stay with this guidance.)
LiveCode 9.6.9 rc 1
In Android Studio/SDK Manager (You may need to uncheck 'Hide Obsolete Packages' in the bottom right of this screen)
SDK Platforms tab
Android 12.0 (S), API 31, Revision 1
Android 11.0 (R), API 30, Revision 3
(Both of these are installed. All others are uninstalled)
SDK Tools tab
30.0.3
In the emulator section, you need to build the emulator using Android 11 (R), API 30
This will allow you to use the Test functionality in LiveCode.
Notice that my JDK path does not show a value in the LiveCode preferences. It does not seem to affect developing for Android.
Pointing LiveCode to the Java SDK can be simplified by making an alias of the '/Users/Mark/Library/Android/sdk' folder.
Copy the alias to your Mac desktop. Point LiveCode to that folder. After you do this, you can delete the alias folder.
If you want to use the Finder to navigate to your SDK folder, you will need to reveal invisible items (temporarily).
Copy and paste each line, one at a time, into your terminal windows. Press the return key and do the next line.
To see your invisible files and folders:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder
To return your Finder back to normal
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder