I've downloaded and built the Android source... now what?

Question

I've built an Android app in the past (on a Windows machine using Eclipse), but having downloaded Ubuntu, the Android source and built it successfully (whew), I'm not sure how to tie it all together. How do I load my app into the Android that I've built?

Answer 1

If you really want to be building your own ROM you should head over to the Android Platform Developer's Guide and read it all through.

However if you simply want to develop your own applications then you only need the SDK (and on rare occasions when you want to add some native code also the NDK). The easiest way to develop Android applications is by utilizing the Eclipse integration, which does most of the work for you.

You also probably want to know what all of the SDK tools (even if you are building your custom ROM) that the Eclipse plugin is using behind the scenes do, so head over to the Tools Overview.