Software for Android Development

The Android Software and Development Architecture
Application Development
- Android Studio makes it easy to develop Android applications
- The Android SDK provides the libraries and tools you need. Different versions of the SDK are required for different versions of the Android OS.
- An Android Virtual Device (AVD) emulates Android hardware
- The Android Debug Bridge (adb) is a command line tool to communicate with an AVD or physical device.
- Android Studio provides a suite of debugging tools.
Installing the Software for Android Development
- Ensure you have a recent JDK (Java Development Kit) from any source, e.g., ...
  - From Oracle
  - From Adoptium
  - From OpenJDK
  ... but if you don't Android Studio comes with its own JBR (JetBrains Runtime).
- Install the Android Studio from Android Developer
- Use the Android SDK Manager, available from the "Tools->SDK Manager" menu, to get Android SDKs and tools.
  - SDK Platform Android 9.0 (Pie), API 28
  - SDK Tools
    - Android SDK Build tools - latest
    - Android Emulator
    - Android SDK Platform Tools
    - Google Play components, if you want to sell apps
    - If you have an Intel CPU, the Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator
    - For Windows users, the USB Driver for Windows
Starting an Android Virtual Device (AVD)
- Use the AVD Manager, available from the Tools->AVD Manager menu, to create an AVD.
- Create one called "Pixel XL API 28 Pie" ...
  - Pixel XL
  - System image for Pie - API 28 (you might have to download the image)
  - 2GB for all pieces of memory
  - Accept all other defaults
- Select and start the AVD (this might take a while the first time).
- Format the SD card (you'll get a popup prompt offering this)
Installing and monitoring applications from the command line (the hard way)
- You don't need Android Studio to run applications - the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is enough. Find the adb command in the platform-tools or cmdline-tools directory. Find that by looking in File->Project Structure->SDK Location.
- Enable USB debugging in your Android device, either real (see Enabling adb Debugging) or virtual (debugging is automatically enabled)
- Find the name of your device with adb devices
- Install LearnAnimation.apk with the command adb -s device-name install LearnAnimation.apk
  (or just drag-and-drop LearnAnimation.apk onto the AVD.)
- Start LearnAnim on the device
- In Android Studio open View->Tool Windows->Logcat to see the device log.
  In a terminal window use adb -s device-name logcat