If it's a brand new app for Android only, just use Android Studio. It's now base on IntelliJ instead of Eclipse, you should revisit it.
On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 7:33 AM, Eric A <[email protected]> wrote: > Many thanks to all contributors for the feedback. > > I just need to develop a Bluetooth App for Android devices only (with some > WiFi network transfer also). > > I did try Eclipse with ADT some years ago and was very disappointed with > the UI designer so gave up. I understand that Android Studio has a > completely new UI designer so I will give that a try. > > --- Original Message --- > > From: "Jolyon Smith" <[email protected]> > Sent: January 22, 2015 7:17 PM > To: "NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List" < > [email protected]> > Subject: Re: [DUG] XE7 and Android Development > > @David Brennan - I don't see how you reach the conclusion that XE7 + > FireMonkey makes sense "if you have an existing code base", given that if > you aren't already developing in FMX then that existing codebase is almost > certainly VCL and given all the observations you made about how utterly > UN-re-usable your existing VCL code base was in your case. > > The pre-amble seems to point to the exact opposite conclusion. No ? > > For Eric, I would ask why you are interested in using Delphi for this ? > > If it is to exploit existing VCL code, then you have little chance of > realising any benefit without an awful lot of work (perhaps even more than > starting from scratch with an alternative tool/tech). > > If you seek to leverage familiarity with Delphi to fully exploit any and > all Android devices, I suspect you will be similarly disappointed both > because the Android support is simply not complete as well as because > "Delphi for Android" is a quite different animal than the Delphi you are > used to. You might as well learn Java or apply any knowledge you may have > of C# with Xamarin. > > > Or, if you simply wish to continue using Pascal, you could look at > RemObjects Oxygene (also previously known as Delphi Prism, in it's .NET > garb as re-branded by Embarcadero for a time). > > I developed a very simple app in Oxygene for Android, iOS and WinPhone. > In all three cases the app was developed using Oxygene (ObjectPascal with > knobs on) but compiles to genuine, platform native binaries (i.e > indistinguishable from those produced by Android Studio, Xcode or Visual > Studio). > > The Android version is here if you are curious: > > https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=itchbox.txt2park&hl=en > > > The downside of the Oxygene approach (as some see it) is that you have to > learn how to develop for each platform since there is no comprehensive > cross platform abstraction library (although there is a library - Sugar - > which makes a certain amount of re-use possible at the RTL layer - sharing > common string manipulation routines etc etc). > > But imho this platform specific aspect of the approach is absolutely NOT a > downside for any serious mobile developer as you will quickly realise when > you come to appreciate the differences between the platforms and learn how > to write apps properly that look and behave properly on each platform, > instead of taking a "one size fits all" approach. > > It also means that you are learning those platforms and if necessary can > apply that knowledge directly to development using the platform native tool > chains. > > i.e. With my simple app I have learned how to program a (simple, VERY > simple) SMS sender app for Android, iOS and Windows Phone. I happened to > use Pascal, but what I learned about the platforms is just as directly > applicable in Java, Objective-C or C# (respectively). It also means that > you can *learn* from people with expertise in the framework even if they > are using other languages. > > It is worth mentioning that all 3 versions of the app were developed in > just one weekend even though there was zero code re-use between them. The > app is essentially 100% UI, and each platform works completely differently > when it comes to the SMS APi's so there was no real chance for useful code > re-use in such an app anyway. > > Actually, there were 6 apps in total since I also learned the advertising > API's and controls appropriate for each platform (again, different in each > case) and created two separate versions of the app for each platform, one > free/ad supported, the other paid for with no ads. > > Creating the 3 ad supported apps was another weekend. :) > > > But Oxygene also is not hosted on Linux, being a Visual Studio plug-in (it > is also supported by the free VS Community Edition, so there's no extra > cost for using VS "Pro" any more). > > However RemObjects are also working on "Fire", an OS X hosted IDE (still > not Linux but at least also Unix based) for all their languages, since they > also provide their own C# compiler as well as 'Silver' - a.k.a Apple > Swift. All three languages support all platforms: Java/Android, iOS/OS X, > .NET/WPhone. > > > Just my $2 (it was going to be 2c but thought I'd better protect it > against future inflation). :) > > > On 22 January 2015 at 16:29, David Brennan <[email protected]> > wrote: > > We created an Android app in XE6 using a moderate amount of code from > one of our big Delphi projects. It went OK and we successfully demonstrated > the app on phones at a trade show recently, people liked the app. During > development we had a few annoyances with how Firemonkey behaved but in > general it wasn’t too bad. > > > > However getting our existing code (even units with no forms/frames) to > work was a bigger issue than expected. We did it in a development branch > were we hacked things a moderate amount to get uses clauses and everything > to compile with ifdefs, commenting stuff out, etc. A surprising amount of > basic classes such as TPoint, TRect, etc (I think if I am remembering > correctly) are not available in Firemonkey so we had to do quite a bit of > hacking. As a result the ‘hacked’ development branch can’t be used to > compile VCL apps and will be thrown out (effectively it was a prototype). > The next step is for us to refactor our code properly to allow us to cross > compile between VCL and Firemonkey with a minimum of ifdefs. This will be a > reasonable sized project so it is waiting while other more valuable > projects are being worked on. > > > > Based on that fairly limited experience we believe Firemonkey to be viable > for serious apps and we think it makes good sense if you have an existing > code base which you want to cross compile between Windows and Android/iOS. > Whether Firemonkey is the best choice for someone who doesn’t need to cross > compile is a different matter, you get some benefits from prior Delphi > experience but the controls, designer and some RTL portions are different > so you still have a bit of a learning curve. > > > > Cheers, > > David. > > > > > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Eric A > *Sent:* Thursday, 22 January 2015 3:15 p.m. > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [DUG] XE7 and Android Development > > > > Has anyone in the DUG : > > > > a) done serious Android device development using XE? > > > > b) installed and used XE7, particularly for Android apps? > > > > If not XE, what are people using/recommending as the best development > platform for Android app development? (would be nice if it could be hosted > on Linux, but not essential). > > > > Eric > > _______________________________________________ > NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi mailing list > Post: [email protected] > Admin: http://delphi.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/delphi > Unsubscribe: send an email to [email protected] with > Subject: unsubscribe > > > > _______________________________________________ > NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi mailing list > Post: [email protected] > Admin: http://delphi.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/delphi > Unsubscribe: send an email to [email protected] with > Subject: unsubscribe >
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