CHAPTER 1: Setting Up Your Android App Development System 31There are also some very affordable 3D software packages, which you should take a look at as well,
including NeverCenter SILO 2.2 (Quad 3D Modeling), Moment of Inspiration 3D 3.0 (NURBs 3D
Modeling), TerraGen Pro and Bryce 7 (3D world generation), Hexagon 2.5 (Polygon 3D Modeling),
and Auto-Des-Sys Bonzai (3D Modeling, all 3D modeling paradigms are supported).
In audio composition, production, and engineering areas, impressive packages include: Rosegarden
(Music Composition, MIDI, Scoring) and Qtractor (Sound Design). The list of amazing open source
software just goes on and on!
Summary
In this first chapter, you learned about Android, and acquired the software you’ll need to be able to
create a comprehensive Android application development workstation, which we will be configuring
in the next chapter.
From Java SE 6, to Eclipse, to new media content production software, to UI prototyping to business
productivity tools, you downloaded and then installed the most impressive open source software
packages that can be found anywhere on this planet.
We did this to create a foundation for the Android application development work process that we
will be undertaking throughout this book, and rather than install these software packages as we go
along, I made the decision to get all of our readers set up with this amazing software right off the bat!
I did this in case you wanted to explore some of the many features of these powerful, exciting new
media content production software packages before you actually use them during this book. I think
that’s only fair.
The best thing about the process was that we accomplished it by using open source, 100% free
for commercial usage and professional-level application software packages, which is pretty darned
amazing, if you think about it.
We started by downloading and installing Oracle’s Java SE 6u45 JDK or Java Development Kit,
which is the Java 6 Programming Language’s SDK. This Java JDK is required to use Eclipse, as well
as to develop application software for the Android OS for consumer electronic devices.
We then visited the Android Developer web site and downloaded and installed the ADT Bundle,
which built an IDE and Android Developer Tools plug-ins on top of our Java SE 6u45 JDK
programming software development environment.
Next, we downloaded and installed GIMP 2.8.10, your powerful digital image editing package, which
is available for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh OSs.
Next, we downloaded and installed Blender 2.69 a professional 3D modeling, rendering, and
animation tool, available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OSs.
Next, we downloaded and installed Pencil 2.0.5, the popular UI wireframing and prototyping tool,
which is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OSs.
Next, we downloaded and installed Audacity 2.0.5, the open source, digital audio content editing
tool, available for the Windows, Linux, and Mac OSs.