It's been a long time
coming, but Google has finally ended official support for Eclipse ADT (Android
Developer Tools) in favour of their dedicated Android
Studio IDE. In a post on the Android development blog, Google has announced that development and official
support for the Android Development Tools plugin for Eclipse will be shut down
at the end of this year.
Google first announced it would end support for Eclipse ADT back
in 2005 and warned developers to make the switch to Android Studio before the
end of the year. Over a year later, Google kept up support for Eclipse ADT, but
has decided now is time for putting it to rest. Google intends to focus
all of its effort on improving Android Studio and advises developers move their
active projects to Android Studio using the included migration tool.
With
an increasing amount of features in Android Studio there's little reason
to continue using Eclipse other than from habit.
"All of your favourite ADT tools are now part of Android Studio,
including DDMS, Trace Viewer, Network Monitor, and CPU Monitor. We've also
improved Android Studio's accessibility, including
keyboard navigation enhancements and screen reader support," wrote Jamal Eason, Product Manager for
Android, in a blog post.
Android
Studio's latest update, 2.2, added over 20 major new features including
the following highlights:
- Instant Run Iteration Engine
- Layout Editor
- Constraint Layout Engine
- C++ Support
- APK Analyzer
- GPU Debugger (beta)
- Espresso Test Recorder (beta)
Google
notes that the ADT plugin and related tools are open source and will continue
to be available through the and more project where developers are free to maintain and contribute
code.
At
just over two years old, Android Studio is now the single Google-supported
development environment for Android. Many app developers have already made the
switch, but this may come as a bit of a shock to NDK developers. Those stuck in their ways can still use the existing ADT tools
but don't expect official support from Google in the future. Eclipse's
open-source community, and more,
will continue to provide upkeep on Android support in Eclipse but it's
advisable to make the switch.
For
most developers, migration to Android Studio is as simple as importing
your existing Eclipse ADT projects with the File > New > Import
Project menu option.
Google
claims Android Studio is now the development environment used by 92% of
the top 125 Google Play apps and games. Android Studio is an open source project,
available to all at no cost.
No comments:
Post a Comment