How to make an Android app without using Android Studio?

Question

I downloaded the Android studio and installed it. When I launched it, it's all "graphical". My screen reader is reading nothing on it.

I'd prefer if I could use my Notepad app, but the "stand alone" tutorials are too tiresome, and not many tutorials on the web have instructions making apps using Notepad. I wanted to know if there is an alternate IDE, or another way to code Android apps?

The Java IDE Eclipse is also not very compatible with my screen reader. I use JAWS screen reader by Freedom Scientific. I used to code Java desktop software using my Notepad, so I'm familiar with programming using Notepad.

Also, if I somehow figure out how to make Android apps using Notepad, how am I going to test them? Do I need a phone? I'm sorry for all these beginner questions, but I'm a beginner :)

Answer 1

You can follow this link: http://developer.android.com/tools/building/building-cmdline.html If you only want to build, not run, you don't need a phone. If you want test without a phone you can use an emulator by running"AVD Manager.exe" in Android SDK folder.

Answer 2

I wrote two small scripts for Android development without using Android Studio. They are building apk and installing it on the connected device and opening the logcat with the output of the installed application. This two scripts not even near to complete when to think all the features of the Android Studio but they are allowing to at least run the project on your phone.

Answer 3

The good thing since the transition to android studio is that now the building of an android project is done using Gradle and can be piloted entirely by command line. So technically, you don't need an IDE at all.

Basically, every project has at least a build.gradle file that contains the instructions to build it. You only have to launch Gradle with the appropriate command to compile your app.

Yelliver mentionned the tools to build the app from the command line, there are also tools to create the project structure and the basic build files: http://developer.android.com/tools/projects/projects-cmdline.html (this documentation appears not to be entirely up-to-date, though, as it mentions the old project.properties format)

Having a phone to run your app is certainly going to be nicer and faster to develop. The emulator is far from perfect, quite slow, and sometimes not responsive. It is also easier to install other apps on your phone than on the emulator, in case your app interacts with other apps.