Tools of Trade

Development for Android usually involves Eclipse. I've tried Eclipse, but seriously, it is no fun. No graphical interface editor, the tools are not easy to set up, and besides, I am just so used to some kind of .Net tech or another.

Now, the development of my Android applications will use Basic4Android (http://www.basic4ppc.com/ , still awaiting the Android site to be up).

The IDE is really easy to use. I managed to get my first application up and running within minutes. It integrates well with the emulator and has quite a number of libraries to help in producing the desired functionalities.

These guys brought about Basic4PPC previously, and that was a rather kick-ass development tool. Imagine, you could even develop windows mobile applications in your mobile on the go.

The one superb feature of Basic4Android is the ability to create / use user created libraries. Referring back to Basic4PPC, there were a tonne of libraries available to help in development. And I believe this will be the case for the Android version too.

I am also using Evolus' Pencil (http://pencil.evolus.vn/en-US/Home.aspx) for my design and flow layout drawing. I just love the stencil look and feel in designing the layout and flow of my apps. It gives a more human feel to the overall application design process.

Well, that's that then...

PS - Also GIMP for image editing, and Inkscape for vector based drawing!