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I am currently using the Helios version of Eclipse (v. 3.6) for Android development. I have read about the Galileo version (v. 3.5) as well. Before downloading I wanted to know what are the better features of Galileo over Helios (especially for Android development)?

Peter Mortensen
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user590849
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6 Answers6

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I'm using the 3.6.1 version, which is an Helios version -- the current one being 3.6.2 -- and experience no problem with it.

Considering that Helios is more recent that Galileo, you should probably go with Helios -- after all, for most android-related stuff, it's the ADT plugin that should matter, and not the Eclipse version.


If you have read much about Galileo, it's probably because it was the current version when many people started developping for android.

But the documentation only says :

3.4 or newer is recommended


As a reference : releases of Eclipse, on Wikipedia.

Pascal MARTIN
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I have had problems with Helios 3.6.1 in that content assist will freeze the system. This bug was introduced with the release of Helios (i.e. it does not affect Galileo). The bug is known and has been fixed for 3.6.2 and 3.7.

See: https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=325829 for more detail.

So short answer, use either one but be sure to use the latest version of that release.

-Dan

Dan
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    I had problems with the content-assist freezing Helios initially, but it is fixable! – Joseph Earl Feb 27 '11 at 12:50
  • i encounter the same problem with Helios. It is quite annoying. – user590849 Feb 27 '11 at 12:50
  • I got this bug too... (can reproduce by type .s and auto-complete freezes) – anticafe Feb 27 '11 at 13:57
  • To upgrade between versions, I believe you can use the "Check for Software Updates" inside Eclipse via the "Help" menu and go from there. Otherwise, you can just download "Eclipse IDE for Java Developers" from eclipse.org and overwrite your existing installation. – Dan Feb 27 '11 at 17:49
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If you're looking for a great Android development environment, you might want to consider IntelliJ IDEA (Community Edition) It's free, and editing all the Android XML files is a pleasure with it. Not too shabby for Java development either!

Peter Mortensen
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Otto
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There is an old thread where we talk about the slow auto-complete issue. I posted a fix there

Community
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Regis St-Gelais
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I'm using Helios as well. I found a good guide on how to get started, and if you aren't that good with Git and repositories for getting you the source code as well:

Here it is

Peter Mortensen
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Anders Metnik
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Both should be just as fine, but I've seen Helios act a lot slower when exporting signed APKs (that's an action I only do once in a while, so it doesn't matter much). Just make sure you're always using the latest ADT plugin.

Peter Mortensen
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zrgiu
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