The introduction of smartphone has revolutionized
everything, with every passing day people are relying more and more on apps to
organize their lives. The advantage to this is that there is diverse applications
that will cater for your every need and if not the case, your needs can be
catered with little customization. The other benefit of smartphones is their
ability to back-up all you documents, setting, contacts, and application via
cloud. Unlike earlier days when losing a phone meant starting from scratch searching
for contacts, and downloading application, nowadays, it is much simpler. If you
accidentally lose your phone, in case of an Android phone, all your data will
be restored as per your original phone thanks to dynamic cloud storage.
I favor android over all the other phone operating systems. The
main reason being that Android is open source unlike its counterpart windows
and Apple iPhone and iPad operating systems. You can download the source code,
tweak it to your preference, and have your personal customized Android OS. There
is also the ability get the latest Android release by building Android from
source (“The Android Source Code”, 2015).
Since Android is a fully featured OS, it would be incomplete
without the inclusion of developer tools. Google app store has hundreds of integrated
developing environment (IDE) applications. Most of these apps are for purchase,
but also come with free versions that have limited capabilities. For example,
most of the free developer apps do not provide the save feature, or do not provide
code highlighting features. If one needs these features enabled, they must pay
a certain fee.
TERMINAL IDE
Terminal IDE is an IDE that runs on terminal. Spartacus Rex
develops it and according to their website; Terminal IDE is a fully featured
java and android development environment. According to Chris Duckett 2012,
Terminal IDE is a developer version of the Swiss army knife. As a developing
environment, you will notice that Terminal IDE surpasses you normal IDE. It
comes integrated with fully collection set of different language support. You
can create website in HTML, CSS, and JAVASCRIPT and test it directly with your
phone browser. Also you can develop java, Android and C application with
minimal difficulties. Terminal IDE also partly supports C++, but your code is
unlikely to break apart from large projects.
The downside to Terminal IDE is that it lacks advanced
features that one would expect in a normal IDE. Functionality like code
highlighting, auto completion, and intelisense features are not included. The
IDE runs on terminal, code writing is done by VIM editor, a Linux based editor.
Terminal IDE is not designed for people new to programming. Beginners can find
the app a little challenging; though Terminal IDE Help section will get you
going.
BENEFITS
Terminal IDE comes with command line tools like nano, vim,
gcc, javac among others for development. Nano and vim are for editing source code
while gcc and javac are for compiling written source code.
Terminal IDE can both be used offline and online thanks to
Git, a version control system. The integration of Git in your projects will
enable you to download, share, create, branch, and destroy repositories,
locally or online over GitHub.
Terminal IDE comes with its own full keyboard, optimized for
programming. The keyboard is accessed by going to android phone setting,
language and input under keyboard and input methods. The option of adding
external keyboard using Bluetooth is also possible.
Disadvantages
Terminal IDE runs on user instance, since each Android
application gets its own group and user id. This may result in some
restrictions and limitations (“GarageLab, 2013).
References
The Android Source Code. (2015, October 23). Retrieved from https://source.android.com/source/initializing.html
Duckett, C. (2012). Programming
for Android on Android. Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/australian-technology/programming-for-android-on-android/
GarageLab. (2013). Development
Environment for Android. Retrieved from http://thegaragelab.com/development-environment-for-android/
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