14 DAY TRIAL // Google has just made an updated version of the Android SDK Tools available for download, along with a new version of the Eclipse plugin.
The updated tools should help developers come up with applications for the Android platform even easier than before, by fixing many of the bugs previously reported with them.
Google announces fixes in areas such as Lint or the build system, as well as enhancements brought to the Android emulator.
For those out of the loop, we should note that Lint was designed as a static checker capable of analyzing Android projects for a variety of issues, including correctness, security, performance, usability and accessibility, and more. Lint can be run either from within Eclipse or from the command line.
Some of the enhancements that were packed inside the new release include:
Added check for Android API calls that require a version of Android higher than the minimum supported version. You can use the new @TargetApi annotation to specify local overrides for conditionally loaded code.
Added over 40 new Lint rules for a total of over 80, including checks for performance, XML layouts, manifest and file handling.
Added ability to suppress Lint warnings in Java code with the new @SuppressLint annotation, and in XML files with the new tools: namespace prefix and ignore attribute.. Improved HTML and XML reporting and Eclipse integration.
A series of enhancements to the build systems for Eclipse and Ant was also delivered in the new release, such as strict dependency support for 3rd party Jar files, or support for custom views with custom attributes in libraries.
A new feature included in this release offers developers the possibility to run some code only in debug mode.
Some of the changes brought to the emulator include support for running x86 system images in virtualization mode on Windows and Mac OS X.
Additionally, there is an updated Support Library included in the release, with improvements such as ShareCompat, NavUtils and TaskStackBuilder, NotificationCompat.Builder and a new Library Project.
Download the updated Android SDK and Android Development Tools from Softpedia. More info on the changes included in the new flavors of these tools can be found in the SDK Tools Release Notes and ADT Release Notes.