
IntelliJ IDEA 13 Brings a Full Bag of Goodies to Android Developers - rdemmer
http://blog.jetbrains.com/idea/2013/12/intellij-idea-13-brings-a-full-bag-of-goodies-to-android-developers/
======
eranation
Has anyone tried using Kotlin for Android development? (it's supposed to be
lower runtime footprint than Scala, and it is officially supported by
Jetbrains [1])

[1] [http://blog.jetbrains.com/kotlin/2013/08/working-with-
kotlin...](http://blog.jetbrains.com/kotlin/2013/08/working-with-kotlin-in-
android-studio/)

~~~
ajselvig
Kotlin works well for Android development. The annotations have gotten better
recently, too, so you can interact with Android classes without too many null
checks.

------
btipling
Version 13 is very awesome. We've been finishing our intellij plugin and are
so close to having it be usable that it could be user ready in like 2 days
which will be awesome because then I can spend more time using the new
intellij. I'm also glad they fixed the git colors in the Darkula theme.

------
coldtea
Want to like IDEA, but using a Java (Swing) based UI, in both Mac and Windows,
makes me always feel like when someones scraps a blackboard with his nails.

I could live with Eclipse though, despite SWT being also quite removed from
the native experience. At least it had bloody native text boxes and scrollbars
and such.

~~~
switch007
Java also hates Xmonad (I spent ~30 mins trying workarounds and then gave up,
as each time it went wrong, I had to restart my session)

~~~
anglebracket
I haven't messed with my xmonad.hs in a long time, but adding

    
    
      setWMName "LG3D"
    

to my startupHook fixed most of the issues for me.

~~~
diadara
I had to install kde as I couldn't get matlab working in xmonad. Found out
about this fix only recently.

------
Omnipresent
Other than "multi device preview" I think Android studio has all the features
that IDEA13 offers for android developers. IntelliJ is great and I do all my
Java/Groovy based development from it, but I'm not sure about buying the
license just to go upgrade to 13

~~~
krschultz
The Sqlite debugger is also IDEA13 only I believe.

~~~
biafra
Isn't that the thing that requires the Ultimate Edition? That's why it is not
in Android Studio.

~~~
yareally
Database support has always been an Ultimate Edition only feature. However,
nothing prevents someone from building their own plugin. For example, there's
a third party one for MySQL that's fairly popular.

------
dkhenry
I really want to like Intellij since it is so much more responsive then
Eclipse, but I can't for the life of me get a working scala set up in IDEA or
in the community version. Eclipse might still be a bit of a sloutch, but it
works.

~~~
dsaber
What issues are you facing exactly? I've been successfully developing Scala
apps since IntelliJ 12 with no issues. It's leaps and bounds better than
Eclipse. One thing to note that for sbt-based projects, I recommend generating
the IntelliJ project from [https://github.com/mpeltonen/sbt-
idea](https://github.com/mpeltonen/sbt-idea)

~~~
dkhenry
Getting it to work with SBT. Even generating the project with sbt idea I still
can't get it to compile correctly. And I still haven't been able to get it
attach a debugger.

I think the current issue is with SBT 0.13 which isn't supported by them right
now.

~~~
dsaber
I'm using SBT 0.13 on a fairly complex project. Not sure why it wouldn't work
for you. What kind of project is it? Any specific frameworks you're using that
are causing compilation errors?

~~~
dkhenry
Play2 pulling it in via SBT resolution so I don't have it "installed" on my
development machine.

~~~
jfim
Are you doing "sbt idea" or "play idea?" From what I recall, "sbt idea" was
broken, while doing it using the play launcher works, as they have some broken
dependencies.

~~~
dkhenry
I use sbt idea. I can try play, but it would be great if it just worked.

~~~
eropple
Thing is, it _does_ just work...if you follow the directions Play gives you
once you create a new project. Namely, to use their play wrapper around sbt.

(I am not saying this is a good idea, but I am saying it "just works".)

------
hallucinating
I just recently started doing some Java development (despite vowing never to
again), and one of the reasons I'm kinda cool with it is Intellij. Intellij
makes it way easier. Things just work (subversion, Spring, hot swap).

~~~
jebblue
>> Things just work (subversion, Spring, hot swap).

The same has been true for me in Eclipse for over 8 years.

~~~
vonmoltke
Two things that do not "just work" first drove me away from Eclipse:

a) git integration. Egit is bad and barely functional. I ended up abandoning
it and doing all my git interaction at the command line. I rarely need the git
command line with IDEA. b) Maven integration. We use a custom Maven setup that
I could never get Eclipse to work properly with; it insisted on using a stock
setup that could not build our projects. IDEA's Maven support just works; I
run the Maven goal from the sidebar and it runs in IDEA just like I typed "mvn
<rule>" at the command line.

I still use Eclipse for C and C++ development, but I will probably abandon it
for even that soon. I have just never been able to get into Code::Blocks.

~~~
Sindisil
If you love IDEA, you may well get the chance to use it for C & C++ soonish,
as well, since they're working on a C & C++ IDE now. Hopefully it really
_will_ be good for vanilla C - I have an aversion to C++, and little need for
that support.

The lack of native development is one of the main things keeping me from
giving IDEA a proper try. It may well be better than NetBeans, but NetBeans
works well _now_ , and has decent C & C++ support (at least as good as CDT,
anyway).

I do have a personal license for IDEA 12, and would have no problem paying for
an upgrade to 13 - it's just not worth my time (yet) to do so.

There are a few annoying bugs I've run into in NetBeans 7.4, and Android dev
isn't awesome in NetBeans, so maybe there'll be enough impetus for me to give
IDEA a real shot soonish.

Or the NetBeans bugs will get fixed, and I'll just stick tight. I'm happy
either way!

------
swanson
The only feature that really excites me is the Gradle support. Things like the
9patch editor seem horribly misplaced (you probably don't want your devs to be
editing those...) and others seem so situational (the autocompleting sdk
version - a one line config value that you set once per project).

Android Studio is not really usable as an IDE if you want to have a fully
featured test suite because of the weird, half-implemented Gradle "auto-sync"
magic ([http://www.sep.com/sep-blog/2013/10/17/android-studio-not-
re...](http://www.sep.com/sep-blog/2013/10/17/android-studio-not-ready-for-
primetime/)). Until then, it's still good ole' reliable Eclipse (I can't
believe I just said that). Until a different IDE can support Robolectric _and_
Robotium/Instrumentation tests in the same projct that can be run/debugged
inside the tool and report results in a window (command line and html test
reports don't count, sorry), I won't be switching.

~~~
lnanek2
Weird, I know we have Robotium and Robolectric working fine in Android Studio
at work. Although some versions do require a separate project, most versions
are just sub-projects under a main folder with a shared build.gradle now. Not
than any of us want to use it. You are just forced to if you want to use the
latest features like AARs with Gradle. Eclipse is unfortunately obsolete and
incapable of handling the latest stuff, even though we all used it for years
and prefer it.

~~~
swanson
Last I checked (October) I could not get the build.gradle to play nicely. Most
of the other material online involved using instrumentCompile to trick Android
Studio into running your unit tests and a custom runner/plugin:
[https://github.com/JakeWharton/gradle-android-test-
plugin](https://github.com/JakeWharton/gradle-android-test-plugin)

If you have gotten it working in Android Studio, I'd be very keen to see how
(if you are willing to share).

~~~
harpb
I followed: [http://www.peterfriese.de/android-testing-with-
robolectric/](http://www.peterfriese.de/android-testing-with-robolectric/) I
can't get it to run a specific (gives junit 3.8+ required error), but am able
to run the whole suit.

------
zidar
I am confused about how the IntelliJ IDEA with android plugins competes with
Android Studio. I thought that Android Studio is suppose to replace IntellyJ
for android development.

~~~
RyanZAG
Android Studio is a fork of the OSS IDEA by Google. IntelliJ IDEA is the
version released by the actual company and is not affiliated with Google.

~~~
rdemmer
IntelliJ IDEA and Android Studio FAQ:
[http://bit.ly/1d7U0Kg](http://bit.ly/1d7U0Kg)

Q: Is Android Studio a fork of IntelliJ IDEA?

A: No. Android Studio and the Android plugin for IntelliJ IDEA are built from
the same code, and all of the changes in Android Studio are, and will continue
to be, available in IntelliJ IDEA releases.

~~~
RyanZAG
It's a fork in the sense that it's a fork of the IntelliJ repo with
Google/Android related assets added. So it's more of a branding fork than a
code fork, but since its in a different repo I'd still call it a fork. But
it's just terminology I guess.

~~~
chinpokomon
But that ships with IntelliJ IDEA, so it isn't a fork. Android Studio is a
subset of IDEA 13.

------
bakerba
Does the Android Studio canary build get new features before IntelliJ?

------
jareds
I really hope the Gradle support is ported to Eclipse and that the Eclipse
Android tools are actively maintained. I tried Android Studio but it’s
completely inaccessible with my screen reading software. Since it is based off
IDEA I assume I would run into the same problem trying to use the new version
so haven’t bothered.

------
levosmetalo
After trying to use Android Studio with its Gradle integration behind a
company firewall that requires all outside network access through the proxy, I
just gave up and went back to Eclipse, where everything just works. Diving
through different configuration options was just to painful to put up with.

~~~
fridek
Personally I think "doesn't work like Eclipse" is a good thing. If you don't
mind trying again go to
[http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/documentation/migration_faq.ht...](http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/documentation/migration_faq.html)
first. You will also find CTRL+SHIFT+A combo useful - it's a fast search of
settings/actions.

Properly set IntelliJ will boost your productivity many times. It's just an
investment if you migrate from other IDE. I like to think about it as
something similar to migration from crappy unit testing solution to a better
one - it just pays off after some time.

------
Chico75
Is the gradle support really better than in IDEA Community Edition?

Sure I can open the gradle.build file and edit it with syntax colorization but
there is no smart auto-completion: you always see a giant list of objects, and
not all of them are available.

~~~
justafucker
The Gradle support is a part of Community Edition. Code completion should be
available for dependencies and plugins (available in the Maven central). I've
seen a few cases when there were no completion for the artifacts from the
local Android repository. It will be fixed shortly.

------
xinkr
Does anyone know a good software to create these kind of "screenshot gif"? I
know my question is not directly related to the content of the article..

~~~
larve
LiceCap is a great tool, and opensource:
[http://www.cockos.com/licecap/](http://www.cockos.com/licecap/)

~~~
boobsbr
What a terrible name for a project.

------
rogerthis
The XML code formatter (shilf+alt+L) is very strange. Maybe bugged. Eclipse
does a better work.

E.g.
[http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-103320](http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-103320)

------
omarkatzen
I'd like to try an IDE, since I usually end up using vim due to the fact that
my projects often mix languages (Python, C, Clojure, occasionally Scala). How
do Intellij, LightTable, SublimeText, etc. perform on those sorts of polyglot
projects?

------
trollingineer
Thank God for IntelliJ because Eclipse is the biggest steaming pile of shit
excuse for an IDE.

I'm really glad Google is ditching Eclipse as the go-to IDE in favor of the
IntelliJ-based Android Studio. Good riddance.

------
whizzkid
I wish, they would have a free and lightweight version of the IDEA, so i could
use it instead of Sublime Text.

~~~
computer
You mean the open-source community edition that actually exists?

~~~
whizzkid
Not really actually. With the free community edition, you only get to manage
"java" which doesn't work for me since i work with different programming
languages with lots of front-end stuff as well. I meant to use it from editing
xml, css, html to configure tomcat settings for example. On the other hand, i
totally understand that they want people to buy it for fully featured version.

~~~
jebblue
Eclipse is fully featured and professional and free as in beer and software.

~~~
peeters
"Fully featured" is not a binary condition. If Eclipse is fully featured for
Java development, IDEA is much MORE fully featured.

------
octix
The more comments about IntelliJ IDEA I read, the more it reminds me of apple
fans... It's just a tool and not a miracle! But hey, everyone is special and
has the right to opinion, right? :)

~~~
tlarkworthy
coding is our jobs. The IDE is our primary interface. Of course its important.
Its much more of a vital decision than what looks good (apple fans), its about
what gets the most real work done.

Look at vim Vs. emacs for a better analogy.

~~~
octix
What are you talking about? I use IDE everyday and I'm not questioning the
importance of IDEs, i'm questioning the fan base :)

All I'm saying is that the whole "it's worth paying extra", "it's so much
better and productive", "it has so many features"... is just bs... IMHO. Use
right tool for the job and be open minded, that's all. If I have to switch to
go lang tomorrow, should I start complain, whine and wait for IDEA for go or
just do whatever I have to do?

And you cannot compare vim vs. emacs anology with this one, since hey both are
free and open source, however IDEA is just a good commercial product, but not
a silver bullet, that's all.

~~~
hatchoo
I don't think there will ever be silver bullets. :)

IntelliJ has a community version with the source posted over at GitHub. They
also have a flavor for Python which recently had an open source version
released. But as you said, to each his own.

