Could you maybe suggest a decent alternative? I picked up android a while ago and I definitely have not been happy with Eclipse, but haven't really found anything better either. Especially with all the instrumentation that google provides.

The instrumentation is still all there. I honestly am an old unix hacker at heart and use a command line and gVIM most of the time. Notepad++ and the terminal might be enough.

Really check out how to use ADB (android debugger) from the command line, it's surprisingly easy.

What tools would you recommend?

It's just programming. Use whatever you normally use for that task.

The SDK cames with a suite of command line tools that are far more easy to understand then the eclipse crud.

help > install. Really?

> The SDK cames with a suite of command line tools that are far more easy to understand then the eclipse crud.

I very much agree with this statement. Here are some resources:

http://benlynn.blogspot.com/2009/01/developing-android-witho...

http://java.dzone.com/articles/google-android-tutorial

http://blogs.nitobi.com/joe/2010/03/26/android-without-eclip...

I'd recommend maven and the maven-android-plugin (http://code.google.com/p/maven-android-plugin/) to be IDE-independent.

I would recommend an IDE (Eclipse, Netbeans, IntelliJ IDEA) because you then have the advantages a statically typed language like Java gives you. Code completion and instant feedback in the editor that your code still compiles.

Thanks guys for the sarcastic responses. Maybe I should clarify my question.

For .NET programming I use visual studio, for iPhone I use XCode, and for rails I use Textmate. I have not done any java programming so I was hoping to get some advice from people who have, particularly in the context of Android programming.

You can probably use TextMate and ADB in the command line.

http://www.onebitwonder.com/projects/android

For a text mate android plugin

$TEXT_EDITOR and $TERMINAL_EMULATOR running $SHELL. What else?