Android Eclipse

Android is probably the most famous operating system for the development of applications for Smartphones and tablet devices. Most of this is certainly because of its being open source and hence giving access to a major portion of its operating system. Android Eclipse is one of the most reliable and widely used compilers or software development environments for the development of apps in Android.

Android Eclipse basically consists of an integrated development environment and along with it, an extensible plug-in system. The compiler itself is developed in Java programming language and the main language of programming used on this compiler is also Java. Programming, however, can be done in various other languages such as C, C++, COBOL, Perl, PHP and various other languages with the help of various plug-ins.

Good thing about Android Eclipse, like most other services of Google, is that it is open source. This clearly means a lot of opportunities for third party and freelance developers. A distinguishing feature of Android Eclipse is that it is very light weight and the main compiler part consists only of a small run-time kernel. Other than this small part, everything else is based on plug-ins.

Everything that needs to be added can be added in the form of plug-ins. This can be done as per the requirements. This small kernel code is also open source and can be analyzed and further enhanced. The user interface employed in Eclipse is basically called JFace through which the development of applications is very simplified.

This interface provides specific guidance for development which is very helpful for third party free lance developers and those developers who are still at the initial level of development. The hierarchical method of synchronization and easy process of debugging are among the essential features.

Android Eclipse uses a special virtual machine in the process of development. This virtual machine is known as Dalvik Virtual Machine, utilizing the special bytecode. This is the reason why standard Java bytecode cannot be used with Android. For the purpose of developing web and Java EE applications another extension named Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) is used with the main Eclipse platform.

This provides support for various languages, wizards and build-in applications which considerably simplify the process of application development. Easy-to-use user interface, diversity of support and auto import of thousands of libraries is a few things that contribute toward the success of Android Eclipse.

An update manager comes with Android Eclipse which is used to automatically update the existing plug-ins and install the newly developed plug-ins, although the option of manual installation of plug-ins is also available. The modular approach and facility of the reusability of the components is what makes Eclipse very popular.

The applications developed in Eclipse very easily get integrated in other Eclipse applications. Eclipse concepts and applications can also be used in web-based environments with the support of Rich Ajax Platform (RAP). With the passage of time, Android Eclipse community is considerably expanding on both individual as well as commercial levels. Although other development environments exist and new would be developed eventually, but the widespread success that Eclipse is enjoying would remain for a long time.