Android emulator versus real device

[John]

I don't have my Android device in hand yet (a Kindle Fire) so I thought I would develop using the ARM emulator. I don't know if it is the emulator or LiveCode but not much seems to be working right. My app launches but there are a lot of issues with things not working. The keyboard does not pop up (something looks like it tries to pop up but no keyboard) and my graphics seem to get clobbered when I move them around.

Is it Livecode or the emulator? The app runs fine on the desktop and under iOS (the app is a modified version of an iOS app). Any insight?

Thanks,
John

[John]

Android support is badly broken in 5.0. I don't know why they are bothering to sell this as a release version. It is not fully functional by any stretch of the imagination. Answering some of my own questions, keyboards DO NOT work, at least in the emulator, in landscape mode. In portrait mode only a numeric keyboard functions. Setting the compositorType to "software" (this is new in 5.0) seems to clean up most of the graphics issues although it still looks bad in process it manages to fix itself after a time. I am hoping on a real device this all occurs quickly enough so that the effect is minimal. "Ask" is also nonfunctional for the same reason. Looking at the documentation you get the impression that Android support was more than a beta release - not cool RunRev.

John

[jacque]

I gave up testing on the emulator a long time ago. It is far too slow and buggy to use as an evaluation tool except for the most basic things, and my experience has been that it barely functions in some situations. I now load all my test apps directly to the device.

The new accelerated rendering options do fix some speed issues I was having before, as you noticed too. The next release will include opengl, which should make rendering even faster for those apps that need it.

The keyboard issue may depend on which packages you have installed in the emulator. I haven't tested the keyboard enough to know for sure, but the docs do explain some limitations on the types of keyboards that can be supported. However, orientation shouldn't make any difference at all for keyboard display, so testing on a real device would tell us whether it is an emulator issue or a LiveCode issue.

I have two test apps that function very well on my device, but one of them is barely useable in the emulator. I think if you plan to release for Android you need to test on real hardware. I think you'll see a world of difference.

[John]

Jacqueline,

Thanks for the advice. I should be getting a real device soon (when Amazon ships) and I should have held my comments until I received it. I obviously became very frustrated as the day wore on and posted an inflammatory comment where one may not be deserved. I hope it all works itself out when I have hardware in hand. It is a shame that the emulator is marginal as I like to test frequently as I write. I suppose my experience with the iOS simulator lead me to expect something different.

Thanks,
John

[jacque]

Yeah, I think even the engineers just plug in their devices and test that way. It's actually pretty cool, and something iOS can't do. You just turn on Developer Debug mode on the device (you may need to reboot it after that, I did) and then cable the device to your computer. That allows you to select your device in the IDE's Test Target menu. When you click the Test button, it shoots your new app directly over to your device, installs it, and opens it.

It's easier than building for iOS, transfering your app to XCode, and then manually opening it. I definitely understand why Apple tries to protect apps by sandboxing them, but the ease of deployment in Android has its advantages.

[SteveHanlan]

Has anyone actually connected the Kindle Fire and seen it as a test device?

I connected mine and nothing! I have read elsewhere that the debug mode is automatically on, but whatever I do, it is not visible as a test device.

Also, in the emulator, I am having serious problems with DataGrids. In particular "the dgHilitedLines" returns nothing !!!

any help would be appreciated

Cheers
Steve

[jacque]

I don't have a Fire so I don' tknow about that device specifically, but in general you need to have the adb terminal window running first. You do not need to actually launch an emulator, but adb has to be active. (Every time I launch the adb script, it automatically opens the emulator choices window, so I've always just left that open.) After those two windows are open, cable your Fire to the computer via USB.

To check, you can open a new terminal window and type: <path to android sdk>/platform-tools/adb devices

If the Fire is recognized, you should see its ID appear in the terminal window. Once that happens, you're good to go in the LiveCode IDE and it should be available in the Development menu as a test device.

[SteveHanlan]

Jacque

I guess there really are significant differences in the Fire OS.
My list of devices is empty, and I don't see a way to add it.

Cheers

Steve

[jacque]

The OS on the Fire is just regular Android, so that isn't it. But I remember now -- you have to add a special ID to the terminal script's .ini file. I had to do that with my Archos too. Use the express method described here:

http://androidadvices.com/enable-adb-am ... ndle-fire/

The script won't see the device unless its ID is in that file.