Introduction
Android apps can be built in multiple languages using either Java, Kotlin, C#, Javascript, or DART, to name a few. A majority of Android apps are primarily built using Java though since the Android OS is written in Java. The primary software/program used for Android development is Android Studio.Android Studio is classified as an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that is used to build Android apps. So, it has all the functionality you would need to build and publish apps. This naturally makes Android Studio big, bulky, and slow to open and navigate as it bites into your computer's RAM, ROM, and Processor. Modern development has moved away from IDEs towards the use of lightweight text editors (think Notepad/TextEdit) because they can open your files in less than a second and are very handy in swiftly making changes.
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Microsoft's Visual Studio Code (derived from the open-source text editor Atom), is the most popular among developers. One of the features in VS Code popular among programmers is being able to install "Extensions", that were created for free by other developers. Dave Holoway, a compelling Senior Developer in London, created the extension "Android" to build and debug Android apps using VS Code, once you already have the right Android SDK installed.
Steps to Build and Debug with VS Code
Installing the Extension:
Install and then open Visual Studio Code
Then go to the Extensions tab and Search for "Android"
Look for the extension by "adelphes" and press Install
Building & Debugging your app
Connect an Android phone to your computer and open your folder containing the Android project in VS Code, making sure that is the folder directly containing your "app" folder.
Then go to the Run tab, tap on "create a launch.json file", type "Android" in the drop-down text field, and select "Android" and it will automatically populate everything needed.
Then just press the RUN or Play button and Voilà! The app was just built on my phone.
If that doesn't work, open your Debug Console (Cmd+Shift+Y/Ctrl+Shift+P), and review the error message to make the needed fixes. Here's a GIF from the GitHub repository:
