Is it possible to use some kind of emulator? Or do I have to go, buy the Android telephone?
B4A does install and setup the emulator for you. And I find that it seems to work VERY good these days.
The emulator does gobble up a "really" nice chunk of ram. But computers today have a min of 8 gigs - and often more. So, say on a 4 gig machine? Use a phone. But with MORE the 8 gigs of ram? (ok, 8 works). I now find The emulator DOES run well.
And the whole B4A install + setup DOES install and setup a emulator for you. So, if you don't have a phone right now? The emulator is actually quite nice, and when I first used B4A and the emulator? It really seemed slow. I think now with better computer and LOTS more ram? The emulator does launch and run VERY well now on my computer. I use it now of recent MUCH more then when I first tested B4A.
So, in some cases?
My phone is on my coffee table - if I am too lazy to walk over and grab it? Then I will launch the emulator!
And to be more fair? yes, I really like the "bridge" of B4A to my actual phone. I will often whack compile, grab my phone and start my walk over to grab a coffee. While I am walking to get that coffee? The app gets sent to the phone - I tap install and by the time I am grabbing that coffee I have test run my app.
So I REALLY enjoy the convenience of the wi-fi and B4A bridge. So much so, I do plan to retire my existing phone to "mule" status and use that for some testing, and grab a new phone for personal use. However, the wi-fi bridge from B4A to my phone is a REALLY nice feature. Without that feature? I don't think I would get those coffee breaks!
However, the Android emulator that comes with B4A does work well. I don't know why it runs so much better today, but it does. (and I suspect this is due to having lots of ram).
So, you can get along quite nice with the emulator. But to really get a "feel" and run the application? You want to use a phone. So much of the Android experience is based on touch, scrolling and things like a "long click/touch". You don't get this experience with a emulator, and I believe that experience is VERY important.
The other day, I adopted the newer "tab" control. I wanted it since it has a nice "divider" between each tab. I bumped the phone the wrong way and noticed the screen would scroll a bit to the left. To my amazement - that tab control supports a left/right swipe. Absolute beauty at work. The results are just beyond words (fantastic). So, scrolls, and swipes etc? They are a big part of the user experience - and you don't get that with a emulator.
However, B4A does install a emulator - and if that is all you have, then it still great to get up and running. Just make sure your computer has more then 4 gigs of ram and a min of 8 - but with sufficient ram, the emulator does run rather nice on any basic computer today.
And B4A during the development cycle does play rather nice with the emulator. So I don't know if they changed something in B4A, but the emulator does seem to work and run quite nice nowadays.
Regards,
Albert D. Kallal
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
