Android ++, an open source option for Visual Studio

Android developers using Visual Studio have more options now. They can select either Microsoft’s cross-platform toolset or an Android development add-on, which has been recently launched as open source.

The open source version of Android++ tool has been launched during the earlier part of January 2016, which permits commercial use. The main feature of Android++ is that it is focused on developers creating Android applications in C/ C++ with Android NDK.

According to Justin Webb, the developer of Android++, “Android++ is intended to support applications where performance is paramount—like a game or simulation. It also manages the debugging of those native applications via GDB, which is controllable within the Visual Studio IDE as if you were debugging a Windows application.”

Android++ is different from products of its type as it uses MSBuild. Android++ also permits developers to choose for the LLVM/ Clang or GCC compilers. It is integrated with the GDB debugger.

Android++ provides better build performance in comparison to Visual Studio 2015. The only major drawback with it is its lack of support for C# or .NET. In such cases, one can use Xamarin or Mono. As of now, there is no pre-built binary available for Visual Studio 2015, but Webb is optimistic and states that it will soon follow.