views:

83

answers:

3

I've been through the Android tutorials - these do a good job of introducing how we can hand-roll an Android user-interface. Actually, I do not need that level of control right now... I'm looking for something simpler...

I'd like to make an Android app which will mainly contain a number of standard UI widgets, nothing particularly fancy. Having done some VB development a long time ago (yes, I know it's crap!) - I particularly like the ability to paint user-interfaces with an interface designer and then add in the relevant callbacks via the IDE. I'm using Eclipse, so for now solutions requiring net-beans or other IDEs are not particularly helpful.

I'm well aware that this practice often produces sub-optimal code, and less than beautiful interfaces. That's not really a concern here. I just need to produce a certain effect quickly in order to prove a concept. There will be plenty of time later on for optimization if my idea is good enough.

+4  A: 

If you create a layout xml file you get "drag/drop" for the activity layout. It's not perfect, but you should be able to accomplish what you're asking for.

Ryan Conrad
+2  A: 

How you were used to VB development won't work out for you.

You will have to create your interface in XML, and put events to the objects by code. There is DroidDraw but it won't get you further then the plain inbuilt IDE of Eclipse.

When creating XML layouts think like it a HTML layout, nested objects, tables/linearlayouts etc...

Pentium10
+1  A: 

Released today: App Inventor

Schildmeijer
AppInventor is not yet released, it is "invite only". you can request access, but there is no telling how long it will take before you get access. But AppInventor does look promising.
Ryan Conrad