Programing Android | Your Toolkit

This chapter shows you how to install the Android software development kit (SDK)
and all the related software you’re likely to need. By the end, you’ll be able to run a
simple “Hello World” program on an emulator. Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux systems
can all be used for Android application development. We will load the software,
introduce you to the tools in the SDK, and point you to sources of example code.
Throughout this book, and especially in this chapter, we refer to instructions available
on various websites for installing and updating the tools you will use for creating Android
programs. The most important place to find information and links to tools is the
Android Developers site:
http://developer.android.com
Our focus is on guiding you through installation, with explanations that will help you
understand how the parts of Android and its developer tools fit together, even as the
details of each part change.
The links cited in this book may change over time. Descriptions and updated links are
posted on this book’s website. You can find a link to the website on this book’s catalog
page. You may find it convenient to have the book’s website open as you read so that
you can click through links on the site rather than entering the URLs printed in this
book.