Android Hints and Tips - Setting Up Your New System

I thought I would start a new series called Android Hints and Tips. In this series, I will be helping you create Android applications, and give you helpful helpful hints, tips, and tutorials on how to accomplish various functions within Android, from a beginner's perspective.

That's right, beginners need not apply! It may not be the most complex of tutorial series' (those will be saved for later), but I hope this series will help you learn how to develop, as I know how hard it was for me in the beginning.

So, ya wanna make an Android app?

This is basically where I began too. I had no clue where to go, or where to start. That's what I'm here for. There are a few things that you will have to do in order to make your machine ready for Android development. You will need to...

• Download the Eclipse Classic Java IDE (where you'll write all of your code)
• Download the Android Windows SDK installer (the .exe, not the .zip)
• Patients... lots of that. These downloads are big.

Now, once downloaded, install Eclipse to it's default location

The HELIOS splash screen. Ahh, that sweet smell of new software.

Once Eclipse is all set up, install the Android SDK - again, to the default path. If it asks you to install the JDK (Java Development Kit), do so... it's very much needed to do basically anything with Android. Once that's installed, launch the Android SDK Manager, choose the platforms that you want to install, and yet again, click through the installer.

Installer

Installer, the sequel

Once that's all done, launch Eclipse, create a workspace, and you're good to go! Now go and make some fart apps!