Android developers will know that there are some serious issues of fragmentation on the platform. These issue have been well recorded and, at times, greatly exaggerated. The truth is that in the last year Google has taken great steps toward making the Android development experience more on par with iOS and it could be argued that developing for Android is now as enjoyable as developing for iOS. However, there is still one larger of weakness is the blessed Android development tool chain: a good GUI designer.
Let’s face it — there really aren’t any good GUI designers for relative layouts. Certainly, the one Android developers are provided in Eclipse is a far cry for Apple’s Interface Builder. To be fair, Interface Builder traditionally has not had to deal with relative layouts and there is an element of added complexity in dealing with them. Still, that doesn’t excuse Google’s lackluster tool.
Like many Android developers, I’ve taken to working almost exclusively with layouts by editing the actual XML code. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it can be somewhat tedious when developing a complicated layout, since you have to keep rebuilding your application as you make changes to the layout.
If Google could improve or replace the Android layout tooling, I am confident that we would see more complex and attractive user experience in our Android apps. So, what do you say, Google? Questions? Comments? Find me on Twitter and Google+. This post was brought to you by Code Journal and Fingertip Tech, INC.
