Installing Android SDK

The Android SDK is a free set of tools used to create, debug, and run Android applications. The SDK is used by Eclipse as you’re working on Android apps.

You can download the SDK from the official Android website at http://developer.android.com/sdk. It’s available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

The Windows version is available as an installation wizard that walks you through the process of setting it up. The others, at the time of this writing, are a ZIP archive (Mac OS) or a TGZ archive (Linux).

Either with the installation wizard or a program that handles archives, put Android in a folder where you store programs—presumably the same parent folder where Eclipse’s folder was placed. On my computer, I put it in Program Files (x86).

The SDK includes an SDK and AVD Manager that will be used to update and enhance the SDK after it has been installed.

The manager, which is run from a menu command in Eclipse, makes it easy to keep the SDK current with each new release of the Android.

After you’ve installed the SDK, you’re ready to run Eclipse for the first time.