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As you may or may not be aware of, if you're using motodev to develop Android on Eclipse you can actually have the emulator window integrated seamlessly with the developing environment and I was wondering if there is any way of replicating this without the need of installing all the extra things that motodev comes with.

Not that I have anything against them, I'm just wondering :)

enter image description here

Juan Cortés
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  • Why would you even use the emulator? It's terrible. Just use a VM with adb. – Apache Sep 23 '12 at 23:07
  • @Shiki Could you please elaborate? a VM (to me it's virtual machine), I fail to understand you :) – Juan Cortés Sep 23 '12 at 23:22
  • Please explain: Do you want (1) the existing [stand-alone emulator](http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/21831/how-to-test-drive-google-android-on-your-pc-without-buying-a-phone/) or (2) a [virtual image](http://code.google.com/p/android-x86/downloads/list) or (3) a slimmed-down motodev. – harrymc Sep 24 '12 at 05:48
  • The second from Harry's links. I always use VirtualBox + an x86 image. I know it's not the native image, but as far as the app goes, it's much faster, and I can roll out my changes in every second. And in the end when it's in shape, I can just fire up the Android VM and check if everything is OK. – Apache Sep 24 '12 at 08:51
  • I wanted an emulator that fitted inside the eclipse window as per the screenshot, but now I'm all confused about the virtual machine. Would that also allow me to have multiple devices with different versions? Where have I been hiding all this time? – Juan Cortés Sep 24 '12 at 09:25
  • Uhm yeah. It's not integrated. (I just put the two windows on the screen.) But it's faster and easier. Not relevant to your question, that's why it's a comment only. – Apache Sep 24 '12 at 09:37
  • @Shiki Can you elaborate on "roll out your changes in every second". Also how does the ADB come into play? thanks. – Lorenz Lo Sauer Sep 26 '12 at 07:17
  • @LoSauer I can answer the ADB part, your virtual machine connects to your network, and you connect via the terminal to the IP of that device. I tried, it's very fast and lovely, still not integrated which is a minor problem I guess. – Juan Cortés Sep 26 '12 at 08:24
  • @LoSauer - Roll out instantly as it's REALLY fast. With the official SDK, the emulated environment is really slow. It's a hassle to work with, to check every function. But with a VirtualBox guest... it's just smooth and awesome. – Apache Sep 26 '12 at 10:06
  • @Shiki Nice! Did you run into compatibility troubles with the (Intel) x86 android-port? – Lorenz Lo Sauer Sep 26 '12 at 12:10
  • @LoSauer - Nope. But the x86 images in the official SDK are slow too. (Just as the ARM ones.) Sorry Mayhem for the load of comments. – Apache Sep 26 '12 at 22:36
  • @Shiki absolutely no problem, just put your comment as an answer and I will upvote, accept and grant the bounty to you. Your answer deserves it. – Juan Cortés Sep 28 '12 at 09:12

1 Answers1

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No, I'm afraid it's not possible to integrate the emulator into Eclipse. The reason for this, is that the emulator included in the Android SDK is actually a separate binary built specifically for your platform.

The DDMS integration into Eclipse does show screenshots of a device, but presently that is only available through a separate window (from the Devices tab). Refreshing only happens manually, and is very slow. (Worse yet, it runs on the UI thread.)

Paul Lammertsma
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