Differences between Android apps and Windows Store applications on development tools

Compared to the Android Application development tool, Visual Studio 2012 is a full-featured integrated development environment (IDE), and with Visual Studio 2012, we can quickly and easily design, develop, and debug Windows 8 store applications. The development tools for Windows 8 store applications also provide richer functionality. The following table outlines their functional differences in development tools, and the tables contain development tools that correspond to the development of applications in Windows 8 and Android development applications.

function

Users

Android Tools

Windows 8 Tools

Software Development Kit (SDK)

Developers

Android SDK and Windows-oriented SDK tools

Windows 8 SDK

Main UI design, including color, level and animation

UI Designers

DroidDraw such UI design tools through XML definitions (not WYSIWYG WYSIWYG) or similar to ADT UI Plug-ins

Can be designed with WYSIWYG design tools blend for Visual Studio 2012来

UI Design

UI designers and Developers

Visual Studio 2012

Application Development Code

Developers

Eclipse and ADT Plug-ins

Visual Studio 2012

Testing and Simulation

Testers

Android simulator

Windows 8 Flat-panel simulator

As you plan to develop a Windows 8 store application, you can continue to take advantage of the Android application development team's architecture and development process and continue to play your role in the Android development process. The Windows 8 Application Development toolset ensures that designers, developers, and testers who are familiar with Android development tools in your Android development team migrate quickly to Windows 8 store application development.

To develop an application product, the Software Development Kit (SDK) is definitely the first one to install. To develop an Android application in the Windows platform, you should install the Android SDK and the corresponding Windows SDK tools. Of course, in the development of Windows 8 applications, we should install the Windows 8 SDK (download from here to the relevant SDK and tools)

Developers typically use the integrated development environment (IDE) to write and compile code. In Android application development, we typically use the development environment with the ADT plug-in eclipse. For Windows 8 store applications, Microsoft provides visual Studio 2012, which already includes the components that are required for development in the Windows 8 SDK, so if you install VS2012, you can install the Windows 8 SDK separately.

Designing the user interface for Android apps, we can use ADT UI plug-ins or DroidDraw in Eclipse. In Windows 8, VS 2012 has integrated UI design tools, and it also includes a more powerful design tool Blend for Visual Studio 20,121 WYSIWYG design tools.

In the development of Android applications, the Android simulator is used to simulate the use of virtual devices to test our applications, and to detect the operation of the real Android device environment. In Windows 8, the emulator is not a necessary tool for testing because Windows 8 store applications can still run under the Windows 8 platform. However, to facilitate testing in different flat-panel environments, Microsoft still provides a flat-panel simulator in Visual Studio 2012, which allows us to test the operation of applications at different resolutions, test multi-touch and simulate geographic location information.