Learn Programming @programming.dev linuxPIPEpower @discuss.tchncs.de 2 mo. ago

Can I learn android development in a non-javscript IDE? DAE find electron/javascript IDEs confusing?

Does anyone else find javascript/electron-based code editors confusing? I can never understand the organization/hierarchies of menus, buttons, windows, tabs. All my time is spent hunting through the interface. My kingdom for a normal dialogue box!

I've tried and failed to use VSCodium on a bunch of occasions for this reason. And a couple other ones. It's like the UI got left in the InstaPot waaaay too long and now it's just a soggy stewy mess.

Today I finally thought I'd take the first step toward android development. Completing a very simple hello world tutorial is proving to be challenging just because the window I see doesn't precisely correspond to the screenshots. Trying to find the buttons/menus/tools is very slow as I am constantly getting lost. I only ever have this in applications with javascript-based UIs

Questions:

Am I the only one who faces this challenge?
Do I have to use Android Studio or it there some kind of native linux alternative?

edited to reflect correction that Android Studio is not electron

15 comments

I don't know what JavaScript has to do with the ui. You can design a bad ui in any language, a good one too.

So no I don't understand it. Maybe you need a different type of approach like a modal editor?

Look into helix, (neo)vim or (Spac)emacs. They could be a better fit from a visual point of view. But they have a steep learning curve.
Android Studio is based on IntelliJ, it is not an electron based IDE.
- aaah hmmm you do seem to be correct
  
  what is it then? the javascript-based UI?
  
  What IDEs have you used in the past?
  Is it perhaps just modern (not necessarily better) layouts? Or tooling?
  Software dev these days is a hell of a lot more complicated, however we are also standing on the shoulders of giants so it seems really easy as the complexity has been abstracted away.
100%. Not intuitive at all
Am I the only one who faces this challenge?

No. There are a lot of small frustrations that add up to a sense of futility. These frustrations can only be addressed one at a time and are annoyingly orthogonal to the task you're trying to complete.

Even more frustrating is that the people who write tutorials are typically well past that early stage of learning and have forgotten about many of the little details they no longer need to think through and are unconscious of the knowledge they are leveraging gained from their early stage of learning. So you can find a lot of tutorials that simply don't address the issues you are likely to run into. Which is understandable to not want to include every possible issue in a focused tutorial, but there are often no hints or resources linked to help someone with the unstated prerequisite knowledge.

Also, you seem to be using Linux and that tutorial has a bunch of screenshots examples for MacOS. This is another annoying trend from the silicon valley based developers of assuming that everyone outside of their bubble is using the same technology stack as they are and often the newest and most expensive hardware options. (Which I suspect is a big influence on Android Studio being as resource heavy as it is.)

Do I have to use Android Studio or it there some kind of native linux alternative?

You don't need to use Android Studio for Android development, but it's probably the path with the least friction for getting started.

But there are a few non-Kotlin options for Android development, Flutter and Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) are two different pathways for Android development which don't require Kotlin.

Ultimately, I suggest that you stick with Android Studio and learn the annoying details that it requires to be used effectively. You'll feel like you're moving much slower than you want to at first but you'll get up to speed eventually. And you can ask here or on forums or chat rooms for help as you're figuring out the details of Android Studio.
Since some folks already suggested Android studio, I want to throw the "new UI" vs "old UI" on JetBrains products into the ring. I'm not sure if it already arrived in Android studio s well, but the new UI sucks in a similar vscode sucks, so maybe that (turning off new UI) is an angle you can investigate.
I've been programming an Android app using flutter/dart in visual code studio. It's far more basic than Android studio and I found it rather quick to pick up. Took me about 40 hours to setup, learn the basics and make a functional app that can take and manipulate images

Not saying it will be right for you, but worth a look
I'm pretty sure Android Studio has a search function for its menus.

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