Building Android apps still kinda sucks, huh?

[swelljoe@mas.to]

Building Android apps still kinda sucks, huh? At least I don't need Eclipse, anymore.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

Also, Waydroid? How did they make it so complicated? Android is just a Java runtime, right?

[matt@toot.cafe]

@swelljoe There's more to it than that. For one thing, Android has this IPC system called binder that's partly implemented in the kernel. I think binder made it into mainline Linux, but it's not necessarily enabled by distros. On top of binder, Android implements a bunch of other services, like Surfaceflinger and Audioflinger. Basically the whole userspace stack is custom, including a custom not-quite-Java VM.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

@matt OK, but it still feels bad. You have to run the service as root, and then start a session as a user, and then install an apk, and then launch the package...but the package icon doesn't show up if I just use the `show-full-ui` option. It feels so fiddly. Seems like somebody who understands how all the pieces work ought to be able to make a single command that spins everything up and runs an apk, without this complicated dance?

[swelljoe@mas.to]

@matt it feels like this is one area where it's even less pleasant than in the old days of Android development. I'm pretty sure there was a button to click to run your app in an emulator right in the Eclipse-based development environment, and it would just fire up. Maybe I misremember details, as it really has been a long time. Last time I built anything for Android was when Android was new. I got that first HTC phone with a keyboard. I remember the dev process sucked, but the emulator was neat.