What are Android Application Development Tools and how to install them?

Android Development Tools

The following Android development tools are required in developing Android applications:

Android SDK

The Android software development kit (SDK) includes a broad set of development tools. These include a debugger called Android Debug Bridge (adb) (which is a tool that allows you to connect to a virtual or real Android device for the purpose of managing the device or debugging your application), libraries, a handset emulator based on QEMU, documentation, sample code, and tutorials. Currently, supported development platforms include computers running Linux, Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later, Windows XP or later; for the moment one can develop Android software on Android itself by using (Android IDE - Java, C++) app and (Android java editor) app. The officially supported integrated development environment (IDE) is Eclipse using the Android Development Tools (ADT) Plugin, though IntelliJ IDEA IDE fully supports Android development, and NetBeans IDE also supports Android development via a plugin. Additionally, developers may use any text editor to edit Java and XML files, then use command line tools (Java Development Kit and Apache Ant are required) to create, build and debug Android applications as well as control attached Android devices (e.g, triggering a reboot, installing software package(s) remotely). Android applications are packaged in .apk format and stored under /data/app folder on the Android OS (the folder is accessible only to the root user for security reasons). APK package contains .dex files (compiled byte code files called Dalvik executables), resource files, etc.

Android Developer Tools and Android Studio

Google provides graphical development environments based on the Eclipse and IntelliJ IDE to develop new applications. The Android Developer Tools (ADT) are based on the Eclipse IDE and provide additional functionalities to develop Android applications. ADT is a set of components (plug-ins) which extend the Eclipse IDE with Android development capabilities. Google also supports an IDE called the Android Studio for creating Android applications. This IDE is based on the IntelliJ IDE. Both tools contain all required functionalities to create, compile, debug and deploy Android applications from the IDE. They also allow the developer to create and start Android virtual devices for testing and provide dedicated editors for Android specific files. Most of Android configuration files are based on XML. In this case, these editors permit you to switch between the XML representation of the file and a structured user interface for entering the data.

Dalvik Virtual Machine

The Android system uses a special virtual machine called Dalvik Virtual Machine to run Java based applications. Dalvik uses a custom bytecode format which is different from Java bytecode. Therefore, you cannot run Java class files on Android directly. They need to get converted in the Dalvik bytecode format.

Installing Android Developer Tools

Google provides a packaged and configured Android development environment based on the Eclipse IDE called Android Developer Tools. Download the complete SDK ADT bundle for windows from the following url which includes all required tools for Android development:

http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

Extract the zip file and start the Android Developer Tools (Eclipse) which are located in the eclipse folder. You can do this, by double-clicking on the eclipse native launcher (e.g. eclipse.exe under Windows).