ADT 21 plugin preview 5 now available for download [Android development]

The Android developers crew has released a new build of the Android Developer Tools plugin for Eclipse, and ADT 21 preview 5 is now available for download. As the ADT is getting older and more robust, we're seeing less glamorous changes and more maintenance "stuff", but that doesn't mean this build isn't feature rich.

Improvements include pre-dexing of librariesand jar files to speed up build time, new lint checks, big changes in the way the layout editor displays, and the Eclipse IDE will now remember the previous mode and open ready for editing. Of course, it also includes the requisite "large number of bug fixes" that we would expect from any preview builds.

Of course a good many of you re scratching your head wonderingwhat all this means, and that's OK. What you're seeing is a new version of the tools developers use to build and debug the awesome Android apps you find in Google Play. It's software geek stuff, but better tools means better apps. We all can get behind better apps.

If you're interested in taking the new ADT plugin for a spin, you'll need to be runningEclipse 3.6.2 or higher and the tools 21 preview. You can find the tools component update in the SDK manager by selecting the "Preview Tools" option, and you can grab the new ADT from the link below. Get coding!

Source: Google; via +Tor Norbye

Via: ADT 21 plugin preview 5 now available for download [Android development]