Re: [android-developers] Hardware reccomendations: Next development laptop

On Sunday, September 30, 2012 5:42:43 PM UTC-7, Lew wrote:

I've used a Mac (tower, but same diff) for Android development. It's fine, simply because Mac looks 

just like Linux to an Android programmer.

 

I don't know how much "tinkering" Ubuntu needs if you're programming. I've used 

Ubuntu for Android development, too, and it, too, just works. It's pretty straightforward

as a programmer's OS.

I do value the time over money. When I set up the linux server, well, I didn't.

I would not attempt installing linux on new hardware.

 

And it'll be fast enough, for a given hardware configuration. But I'd guess you can 

get a lot more speed for your buck through memory size first, and multi-core 

architecture second. Get at least a dual-core, preferably more, CPU configuration 

and tons of RAM.

4 GiB is plenty for Linux. I don't know enough about Mac to set a minimum. More is 

always better.

Solid-state hard drives probably won't affect you as much.

They boot Windows faster, but maybe that won't be a problem. 

 

What do you mean by "complex build"? Any Android project I can imagine on any hardware 

that could reasonably run Vista should not take more than a minute or five to compile in Eclipse.

What are you doing wrong?

You need to imagine more. ;)

Whatever it is, I am not doing it just to torture myself. I do have a library project (ActionBarSherlock) including by another library project that is included by my DEMO and PAID version.
But I believe my biggest sin is having about 700 files in my drawables folder. Most of them are for a unique situation where I need a lot of icons. But then again, ActionBarSherlock has about 277 resource files just to make the actionbar look consistent across Android, and it would be more than that if I ever did a custom theme that worked across all Android versions.
I have the option checked to defer dexing and packaging until export or launch.

I have not done a complete scientific study. Sometimes a build takes a few seconds. Sometimes five minutes. Sometimes 30 seconds.
After a fresh build, it does take 1:25 to see the Device Chooser dialog. The next time, it comes up right away.
If I export a signed build from Eclipse, I am waiting more than 10 minutes. I usually have to leave the room as the laptop is unusable for much else in the meantime.
(Yes, I realize I should be doing this from the command line on a continuous integration server that has a barrage of unit tests and recorded functional tests, but we'll talk about that on another thread.)
These things all add up. I definitely have to wait if I've modified one file and I want to modify another one because the autobuild is still running. 1-5 minutes is definitely enough time to get distracted by something else I have to do or some browser window or some email from some pesky customer that wants me to fix some bug instead of completing work on some innovative new feature. ;)

Hardware is overdue for refresh, regardless, but I am open to other suggestions.

Nathan
 

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