Android Studio (For Windows) is a nightmare

Clearly there aren't many Android developers on Windows. Or perhaps that isn't so clear. I don't know. Android Studio 2.0 is just BAD.

Wanted to brush up on some coding skills and fit some Java skills in at the same time. So I figured "why not Android?". They released their own IDE (somewhat) and got away from the Eclipse one that ticked me off in the past. The new one is getting rave reviews. What better time to pick up Android dev as a skill. Especially considering I just bought and Android phone. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, first I tried it on my desktop. Windows 10 AMD based machine. Bad move. Android Studio on Windows hates anything non-Intel. Just looking at the Virtual Device Manager unveils an army of warnings on every single screen. It tells me to use ARM based images instead and then proceeds to still bombard me with warnings. Emulators doesn't seem to run at all. No problem... just plugin my device and debug from that? Cord is a bit short but seems like it should be easy enough. NOPE. Need drivers. Go to Huawei site linked from the Google help... impossible to find files!!!

OK f*** it. Entire experience was slow as hell to begin with taking 2+ minutes to compile a fresh project anyway. Switch to laptop instead. Got a Core i5 which contains the necessary virtualization instruction set supported. Everything eventually works but still starts up loaded with warnings. Disables Hyper-V, etc... But hey, the emulator actually loads... some of the times. Oh, and despite being "10x faster" than emulated ARM ones... still slow as shit.

Was thinking maybe I would switch to VS for my Android dev... but my interest is in Java, not Android specifically. But I think if I ever feel the urge again, that Xamarin will be chosen path forward. Or, rumours are that Google might make Swift a first class Android programming language. While I have no interest in iOS, that could change over time.

For now, I think I'm removing this IDE and everything affiliated with it and switching to something else for Java dev. Since I'm more focused on pure Java anyway, I might just do VS Code.

I know I sound like I'm hating on Android and/or Google. I'm just venting. Android Studio is better than Eclipse was. It is a step forward. And I'm confident that, in time, it will get to a better place. Today, it doesn't hold a candle to either VS or something like Notepad.

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