New to android - newbie advice sought lazarus / 43-Android ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jack616 · 2012-12-08 15:18 I need to develop an android application - if possible sticking with lazarus/fpc What do I need to download and install to be up and running the simplest way. I have no practical experience at all of android or requirements yet. Can I just plug any android tablet USB port (I have one with that) into a PC and download code or are there limitations to that? How much control over other system features (in terms of shutting them off) can I get? Is there a FAQ for this I may have missed? thanks ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Phil · 2012-12-08 16:07 If you want to a get a feel for all things Android, using the standard toolset but substituting Pascal syntax for Java syntax, you could start here: http://web.fastermac.net/~MacPgmr/pba/PbaStatus.html Thanks. -Phil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Leledumbo · 2012-12-09 12:30 QuoteWhat do I need to download and install to be up and running the simplest way.Read the wiki first: http://wiki.freepascal.org/Custom_Drawn_Interface/Android http://wiki.freepascal.org/FPC_JVM_Android_Development As you can see, there are two ways to develop Android applications with Lazarus/FPC, none are simple and each has its own drawback. The Custom Drawn Interface with your application wrapped in a native arm-linux library called by a simple Java wrapper program is the way if you want to use LCL. This way, you can share the same code (including the GUI) between desktop and Android target, only differs in the .lpr (in can be in the same file though, just ifdef the targets). The drawback is that the look won't be native (in terms of Android UI), Android specific controls are missing, etc. FPC JVM is the way if you want to code using Java Android libraries but with Pascal syntax. You can use everything that Android has. The drawback is that you can't use many of the standard units, even the I/O must use Android (or Java) provided ones. Furthermore, the syntax uses some extensions so you may need to tweak some of your old units if it's improperly coded to be modular. You can try both and decide yourself, I've personally tested them all. It's faster to develop with Custom Drawn for me, because I can use the form designer. But using 3rd party Android form designer (.e.g droiddraw) + FPC JVM is also quite easy. For both, you'll need some specific directory structure with ant .properties files set up (yea, it sucks, though once set, you probably won't need to change anything forever). For Custom Drawn, you can take examples/androidlcl as a template. For FPC JVM, read the wiki. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jack616 · 2012-12-09 14:52 Thank you both for the replies. I'm taking a look now. I notice 1 option uses eclipse - thats one of the things I want to get rid of so that should reduce my options a little. Comment for the developers - for my use I dont care at all if google supports it. The less I have to do with them the better. If the compiler programs the devices I'm happy. Others may have different feelings but I think google has got way too big and has far too much control of everything. Something should be done about that. So - if you want user feedback - mine is like the nike ad ... "just do it"  I trust you guys far more than I will ever trust google again. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- felipemdc · 2012-12-09 17:46 Quote from: jack616 on December 08, 2012, 04:18:19 pmI need to develop an android application - if possible sticking with lazarus/fpc What do I need to download and install to be up and running the simplest way. There are step-by-step instructions for Windows here (Linux ones nearby in the same page): http://wiki.freepascal.org/Custom_Drawn_Interface/Android#Using_the_pr e-compiled_compiler_in_Windows QuoteI have no practical experience at all of android or requirements yet. Can I just plug any android tablet USB port (I have one with that) into a PC and download code or are there limitations to that? Yes, there are no limitations about that. You can install the APK in any device. QuoteHow much control over other system features (in terms of shutting them off) can I get? Is there a FAQ for this I may have missed? Could you explain better? What exactly do you want to shut off? Please be more specific. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Phil · 2012-12-09 17:49 Quote from: jack616 on December 09, 2012, 03:52:54 pmComment for the developers - for my use I dont care at all if google supports it. The less I have to do with them the better. If the compiler programs the devices I'm happy. No one said anything about Google, so not sure what you're going off on. QuoteOthers may have different feelings but I think google has got way too big and has far too much control of everything. Something should be done about that. You can do your part if you're concerned about that: Just don't use Android, Gmail, search, etc. Good luck with your campaign. Thanks. -Phil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jack616 · 2012-12-10 15:43 I "went off" on google because the documentation said the previous method of doing this was scrapped because it was not "supported by google" My fault - I should have made it clearer what my feedback was responding to sorry. What I'd like to dissable is anything to do with the internet - all wireless - and other communications processes. i.e. I want to just use the basic machine at the best efficiency possible without any network stuff at all running and to get it to start up as fast as possible. I dont know what is wrong with sourceforge these days but I had to download the .hdd.zip file twice and one of the others twice before they were any good. (crc errors) The virtualbox software all transfered fine so I guess it must have been sourceforge. I mention this in case anyone else has problems.