However, you are not tied to Eclipse as your Android development system. The Android SDK does provide tools that let you use other IDEs in place of Eclipse. For example, the IntelliJ IDE is mentioned specifically in the Android documentation.

The Bottom Line Android Software Development Kit The Open Handset Alliance, google.com/android/ Beta   Cost: Free under the Apache Software License, version 2 Platforms: Supports Eclipse 3.2 or 3.3 IDE on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later (x86 only), and Linux; JDK 5 or JDK 6 required Bottom Line: The Android SDK is a wonderful example of what can be done with open source applications and tools. When the SDK's parts work, they work reasonably well. However, at this point, would-be Android developers must be willing to assist in debugging the development platform itself; it's still pretty rough. Android's single best characteristic is prime mover Google. Whether that is enough weight to ensure Android's success remains to be seen. About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology

Hard-core developers will be satisfied to work solely with the collection of command-line tools that come with the SDK. For example, the activityCreator tool -- which is provided as a batch file for Windows, and as a Python script for Mac and Linux users -- will construct the framework for an Android Activity. (Activity is the Android equivalent of an application; more on this later.) Executing activityCreator will build skeletal Java files, create the Android project's required subdirectories, and build the necessary manifest XML files. The tool also creates an Ant script file for compiling the source and building the application. Once built, the application can be launched via the SDK's adb tool, the Android debug bridge.

Other command-line tools in the SDK include logcat, which outputs a log of system messages. Thanks to the stack trace provided by logcat, it is useful whenever an error occurs on the Android emulator. If you need deep analysis of what is going on in errant code, you can import a special Debug class into your application. This class provides methods for starting and stopping execution traces. When activated, Debug will log method calls to a trace file, which can be examined later with the toolkit's TraceView application. From within TraceView, you can view thread interactions, as well as examine execution paths. TraceView also shows the amount of time spent in each method, so you can use the tool as an execution profiler.

Finally, there is the Android emulator itself. When started, the emulator displays the skin of a hypothetical android device, complete with specialized faceplate buttons and QWERTY keyboard. It does its best to mimic an actual device, though there are understandable limitations (it cannot, for example, take incoming phone calls). The Android emulator runs a modified version of Fabrice Bellard's excellent open source simulation/virtualization environment, QEMU (see my review, "QEMU simulates with style"). Android's version of QEMU simulates an ARM processor, and on that processor executes the Linux OS.

Working with Eclipse
Once the Android Eclipse plug-in is installed, building an Android application is much like building any other application. The plug-in adds an Android Activity project to Eclipse's project templates tree. Start a new project, and the plug-in builds the foundational Java files, creates the necessary folders, and constructs skeletal resource files.

This screen image shows the Android Notepad executing from within Eclipse: The Eclipse IDE (foreground) launches the Android emulator (background), and transfers the application for execution. Status messages tracking execution progress appear in the lower-right console window.

The Eclipse plug-in handles compilation, conversion to dex, launching the emulator, and downloading the application. Because writing Android code is writing Java code, the editor behaves as it would were you constructing an ordinary Java application. Resource files, which are written in XML, are easily managed by XML editors already available in Eclipse. Debugging is likewise supported from within Eclipse, and Android opens a debug perspective that anyone already familiar with Eclipse will be comfortable with.