IDE Failures

I’ve been trying to work on my idea for an Android app, but so far most of what I have been doing is fighting Eclipse.  There are several contributing factors.  The version of Java I need for work is different than what Eclipse runs.   Unfortunately, I’m using my work laptop for development.  My ability to sit down and work at a physical desktop is limited.  I run about 900 miles an hour, and when I am home I get distracted every three to five seconds.   It’s not intentional.  I have a wife and three kids, and one of them needs something from me constantly. 

I’d try to upgrade Java and leave it upgraded for a bit if it just required an install to get it working.  But it doesn’t.  There are a few settings in Java that I’ve never documented that are required to get things to work.  And it’s some of those critical things that would keep me at the site during an install longer.  So Java 6 has got to stay.

The second part of this is the emulator.  I know I’ve messed with the Eclipse Android emulator before, but I’ve screwed the thing up somehow so all it does is crash on me.  Joy.  It didn’t have any virtual device created, and the instructions I’ve seen for creating virtual devices are different than those on screen.  So I tried to fake it and that broke. 

So I’ve found myself fighting with everything except code, and it’s driving me up the wall.  I haven’t had a single chance to even try to look at code because I’m busy trying to set up the environment.  I’ve messed with Netbeans before, and as an IDE I think I like it better than Eclipse.  It also runs fine off Java 6, so I don’t have to install/reinstall every day.  Really, it would be every day.  I’m working on site upgrades for the next three weeks, and every single one of those requires me to get in something that only works on Java 6. 

So I spent some time this morning tracking down the location of the source file, and until further notice, it looks like my editor of choice is going to be Notepad++.  So much for the wonders of IDE.