What do you think is the best IDE to use for Cocos2d-x C++/Java Android Development and Debugging that can meet the following requirements?
IDE should have ability to:
- Add/edit Java and C++ classes
- Edit Android project config such as JAR dependancies, manifest, etc.
- Provide compile error/warning messages relating to Java and C++ code
- Package and deploy APK
- Contain a runtime debugger that provides information about native or java runtime crashes
- Debug with breakpoints
- Code completion would be nice
Can be a Mac or Windows dev environment, but would prefer Mac.
Could leverage the cocos console, but there might be issues with environment variable awareness and cocos console that would need to be fixed.
Potential Candidates
Eclipse with Android Tegra Developer Tools
I have used Eclipse for the past few years for Cocos2d-x 2.x and 3.x.
Has some stability issues that have been frustrating, but gets the job done.
Can jump through some hoops to setup a debugger using GDB with breakpoints and good native logging. But the since cocos2d-x 3.4 the build_native.py uses the cocos console and the cocos console cannot access system variables when run using python os.system for some reason. Can add ANT_ROOT, ANDROID_SDK_ROOT, and NDK_ROOT to c++ environment variables in Eclipse, but still has issues with the keystore…
Android Studio v1.2.2
Looks interesting, but doesn’t seem to have a native debugger. I tried getting the proj.android-studio in Cocos2d-x 3.7 to build, but was not successful. Might look into that further if there is hope for a native debugger there.
Edit: Looks like Android Studio has major improvements coming soon. And per Pandamicro’s comment here and given Android M’s rumored release coming in September, it shouldn’t be more than a few months before native debugging in Android Studio is possible (hopefully in a streamlined manner).
Technically Android Studio v1.3 Preview RC1 is currently available.
Taken from: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2015/05/android-m-developer-preview-tools.html
Android Studio v1.3 Preview - To help take advantage of the M Developer Preview features, we are releasing a new version of Android Studio. Most notable is a much requested feature from our Android NDK & game developers: code editing and debugging for C/C++ code. Based on JetBrains Clion platform, the Android Studio NDK plugin provides features such as refactoring and code completion for C/C++ code alongside your Java code. Java and C/C++ code support is integrated into one development experience free of charge for Android app developers. Update to Android Studio v1.3 via the Canary channel and let us know what you think.
Visual Studio Community 2013 and NVIDIA Nsight Tegra, Visual Studio Edition 3.0
https://www.visualstudio.com/news/vs2013-community-vs
https://developer.nvidia.com/AndroidWorks
Looks interesting but have not tried it.
Visual Studio 2015 RC with Built-in Android/NDK Debugging
https://www.visualstudio.com/news/vs2015-vs
Looks interesting, but uncertain when they will release the Community version. Curious if anyone has tried out VS 2015 RC.
Other Options?