Android Studio

On Google IO 2013, Google introduced Android Studio, based on IntelliJ IDEA, a new tool for Android developers. I liked it. Since it was a preview version, Google noted:

Caution: Android Studio is currently available as an early access preview. Several features are either incomplete or not yet implemented and you may encounter bugs. If you are not comfortable using an unfinished product, you may want to instead download (or continue to use) the ADT Bundle (Eclipse with the ADT Plugin).

As soon it posted on developer.android.com, I downloaded and installed on three platforms: Ubuntu 13.04, Mac OS/X Lion 10.7.5 and Windows Vista. On Ubuntu 13.04 with OpenJDK 1.7, I got this error message:

'tool.jar' is not in Android Studio class path. Please ensure JAVA_HOME points to JDK rather than JRE.

I have no problem using Eclipse Juno (4.2.2) for Android development on this machine. Ran android-studio/bin/studio.sh at a terminal, there was a warning:

WARNING: You are launching the IDE using OpenJDK Java runtime. ITS KNOWN TO HAVE PERFORMANCE AND GRAPHICS ISSUES! SWITCH TO THE ORACLE(SUN) JDK BEFORE REPORTING PROBLEMS!

Downloaded and switched to Oracle (Sun) JDK from OpenJDK on Ubuntu 13.04 according to Hendré's blog, problem solved.

On Mac OS/X with Java 1.6.0_45, I got Android Studio ran immediately without hicup. After I made a new simple project to test, I could not load any Android Virtual Device. To work around, I opened Android Virtual Device Manager from Eclipse Juno to load the Android Application launched from Android Studio.

On Windows Vista with JRE 7 installed only, Nothing running after executed Android Studio (c:\android-studio\studio,exe) application. Tried to replaced Oracle JRE 7 with Oracle JDK 7, no luck. Solution: Added environment variable JAVA_HOME with value "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_21) to system variables. Further reading:

• Getting Started with Android Studio. Need to read this page thoroughly to save time.
• IntelliJ IDEA and Android Studio FAQ. This FAQ is good.