CHAPTER 16: The Future of Android: The 64-Bit Android 5.0 OS 601Materials will probably be implemented in much the same way as styles or themes, using XML
definition files, and thus the work process will be quite similar, if not identical, to style and theme
definition. In fact, since themes are backward compatible, as you learned in this book, your existing
UI themes will still work. You can just enhance them further using the new material capabilities.
It is said that Google is adding 5,000 new code additions (classes, methods, interfaces, constants,
and so forth) to Android 5, and the key here is the word “adding,” since existing core classes will still
function as they do under 32-bit versions of Android. In fact, I expect Google to continue to release
32-bit Android OS versions using the 4.x.x numbering schema, so look for a 4.5 and even a 4.6
version of Android to be released some time in the future.
This new material design leverages all of the new Android 5 capabilities, including new motion curve
interpolators (enhanced UI animation), Z-index layers for Isometric 3D (enhanced 3D UI design), new
ripple effects (enhanced UI touch feedback), a new home screen design, new lockscreen design,
“skinnable” notifications, a Rolodex-like information organization paradigm, and a couple of cool
new (View) widgets to allow developers to implement these features easily. Now that you have
looked over some of the many new features in Android 5.0, it’s time to download, install, configure,
launch, and use Android Studio 5.0 (and Wear SDK and Android TV SDK) to develop some of your
own 64-bit Android 5 applications!
Developing 64-Bit Android: The Android 5 IDE
You’ll start by putting together a 64-bit Android Studio 5.0 integrated development environment to
use as the foundation for your Android 5.0 application development. I strongly suggest using a
64-bit OS for your Android 5.0 development workstation. These days, it’s hard not to purchase 64-bit
hardware and software! You know that if Android smartphones are 64-bit, the computer workstations
for sale are certainly all 64-bit “clean.”
I am going to use one of my Windows 7, 64-bit quad-core systems that has 4GB of DDR3,
which currently is set up for development for Android 1.5 through 3.0. I am going to “reform” this
workstation from scratch for 64-bit Android 5.0 development by removing Java 6 and Eclipse ADT
and installing the latest Java 7 and the IntelliJ IDEA, which are used for the new Android Studio 5.0
integrated development environment. In case you may be wondering, IntelliJ IDEA stands for
“Intelligent Java Integrated Development Environment for Android,” and a company called JetBrains
created it. Don’t let anyone tell you that Java development isn’t rocket science!
The new IDEA supports the Wear SDK (wearables are covered in Chapter 15) and will soon support
the Auto SDK and Android TV SDK, using repository updates. This means that you will only need to
go through the process you are about to embark upon once, and Android Studio will update itself
over the Internet as new versions become available. In fact, later in this chapter, I show you how
I updated my beta 0.8.0 version to 0.8.2 and how I installed the Android TV SDK once it became
available.
Since Java is the foundation for IntelliJ IDEA, you will install that first, after you use the Programs and
Features control panel utility to remove any trace of Java or Eclipse. Then you will get the Android
Studio 5.0 Bundle, which will give you the IntelliJ IDEA and Android 5.0 SDK as one unified install,
so that you don’t have to go through dozens of steps like you did back in those Android 1.x, 2.x,
and 3.x development days.