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Android Studio vs npm: What are the differences?
Introduction
Android Studio and npm are both popular tools used in software development, but they have key differences that set them apart from each other.
Programming Language: Android Studio is mainly used for developing native Android applications and primarily supports the Kotlin and Java programming languages. On the other hand, npm is a package manager for JavaScript and is commonly used in web development projects where JavaScript is the primary programming language.
Platform Compatibility: Android Studio is designed specifically for developing Android applications and is compatible with multiple platforms including Windows, macOS, and Linux. Conversely, npm is a command-line tool that can be used on various platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, for managing JavaScript packages.
IDE Functionality: Android Studio is a full-fledged Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that offers advanced features such as code completion, debugging, and visual layout editors tailored specifically for Android development. Whereas npm is primarily focused on package management and does not provide an integrated development environment like Android Studio; it primarily focuses on package installation, version control, and dependency management.
Project Structure: Android Studio follows a specific project structure for organizing code, resources, and assets, making it easier for developers to navigate and maintain Android projects. In contrast, npm does not enforce any particular project structure as it primarily focuses on managing JavaScript packages and dependencies, allowing developers the flexibility to structure their projects as desired.
Build Tools: Android Studio utilizes Gradle as its build system, which allows for efficient compilation, testing, and deployment of Android applications. Conversely, npm doesn't have its own build system but can be used with other build tools like webpack or gulp to automate tasks and build JavaScript projects.
Documentation and Community Support: Android Studio benefits from extensive documentation, support from the official Android development community, and a wide range of online resources, making it easier for Android developers to access help and assistance. While npm also has documentation and community support, it is primarily focused on JavaScript and web development, so the level of support and availability of resources may vary compared to Android Studio.
In Summary, Android Studio is specialized for native Android development, utilizes Gradle as its build system, and offers advanced IDE features. In contrast, npm is a package manager for JavaScript, does not provide an integrated development environment, and focuses on package management and dependency control for JavaScript projects.
The problem I have is whether to choose Android Studio or Visual Studio? I have to develop a simple app for a school project that can work on both iPhone and Android.
The most important factors for me are Android and iOS compatibility. Although note that i would like to become a Software Engineer when i finish my course. (I'd like to work for Apple, just saying!)
After that id like easy integration for Google Ads and such if i do develop another app that people actually use to support development. (I'd also like to stick with one easy programming language that's compatible with a wide variety of platforms since i'm a beginner and have only ever used Pascal)
First of all - Android Studio and Visual Studio are IDE's. Tools to create code. What you are asking is programming framework. I assume that when you are talking about Android Studio you mean Native Android Development and by Visual Studio you mean Xamarin.
If you want to create crossplatform app then Native Android Development is NOT a way to go. Xamarin might work for you, BUT - you'd rather recommend you to go with Flutter. It's much more performant than Xamarin, programming model is friendlier for developer and technology seems just more refined. It's also officially supported by google, so no worries about support.
From a StackShare Community member: “I’m a freelance web developer (I mostly use Node.js) and for future projects I’m debating between npm or Yarn as my default package manager. I’m a minimalist so I hate installing software if I don’t need to- in this case that would be Yarn. For those who made the switch from npm to Yarn, what benefits have you noticed? For those who stuck with npm, are you happy you with it?"
We use Yarn because it allows us to more simply manage our node_modules. It also simplifies commands and increases speed when installing modules. Our teams module download time was cut in half after switching from NPM to Yarn. We now require all employees to use Yarn (to prevent errors with package-lock.json and yarn.lock).
I use npm since new version is pretty fast as well (Yarn may be still faster a bit but the difference isn't huge). No need for other dependency and mainly Yarn sometimes do not work. Sometimes when I want to install project dependencies I got error using Yarn but with npm everything is installed correctly.
p.s.
I am not sure about the performance of the latest version of npm, whether it is different from my understanding of it below. Because I use npm very rarely when I had the following knowledge.
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I use Yarn because, first, yarn is the first tool to lock the version. Second, although npm also supports the lock version, when you use npm to lock the version, and then use package-lock.json on other systems, package-lock.json Will be modified. You understand what I mean, when you deploy projects based on Git...
I use npm because I also mainly use React and TypeScript. Since several typings (from DefinitelyTyped) depend on the React typings, Yarn tends to mess up which leads to duplicate libraries present (different versions of the same type definition), which hinders the Typescript compiler. Npm always resolves to a single version per transitive dependency. At least that's my experience with both.
As far as I know Yarn is a super module of NPM. But it still needs npm to run.
Yarn was developed by Facebook's guys to fix some npm issues and performance.
If you use the last version of npm most of this problem does not exist anymore.
You can choose the option which makes you more confortable. I like using yarn because I'm used to it.
In the end the packages will be the same. Just try both and choose the one you feel more confortable. :)
Yarn made it painless for the team to sync on versions of packages that we use on the project <3
I use Yarn because it outputs nice progress messages with cute emoji and installs packages quickly if the package is cached. Also, Yarn creates yarn.lock
file which makes the developer use the consistent environment.
I use npm because its the official package manager for Node. It's reliability, security and speed has increased over time so the battle is over!
I use npm because it has a lot of community support and the performance difference with alternative tool is not so significant for me.
You should use whichever had the best DX (developer experience) for your team. If you are doing a massive front-end project, consider yarn if not only because it makes it a snap to go from zero to ready. What some people say about npm
being more stable or easier for smaller projects is highly true as well. (not to mention, you sometimes have to install yarn) But, note that official NodeJS Docker images ship with both npm and yarn. If you want to use yarn, put package-lock=false
and optionally save-exact=true
in your project's .npmrc
file. Compare whether you prefer the ergonomics of yarn global add
over npm install -g
or see fewer meaningless warnings for the specific set of dependencies you leverage.
I use Yarn because it process my dependencies way faster, predictable deps resolution order, upgrade-interactive is very handy + some Yarn specific features (workspaces, Plug’n’Play alternative installation strategy) ...
We tend to stick to npm, yarn is only a fancy alternative, not 10x better. Using a self -hosted private repository (via sinopia/npm-mirror) make package locking (mostly) pointless.
I am a minimalist too. I once had issues with installing Nuxt.js using NPM so I had to install Yarn but I also found that the Dev experience was much better
I use npm because its packaged with node installation and handles npm tokens in CI/CD tools for private packages/libraries.
As we have to build the application for many different TV platforms we want to split the application logic from the device/platform specific code. Previously we had different repositories and it was very hard to keep the development process when changes were done in multiple repositories, as we had to synchronize code reviews as well as merging and then updating the dependencies of projects. This issues would be even more critical when building the project from scratch what we did at Joyn. Therefor to keep all code in one place, at the same time keeping in separated in different modules we decided to give a try to monorepo. First we tried out lerna which was fine at the beginning, but later along the way we had issues with adding new dependencies which came out of the blue and were not easy to fix. Next round of evolution was yarn workspaces, we are still using it and are pretty happy with dev experience it provides. And one more advantage we got when switched to yarn workspaces that we also switched from npm to yarn what improved the state of the lock file a lot, because with npm package-lock file was updated every time you run npm install
, frequent updates of package-lock file were causing very often merge conflicts. So right now we not just having faster dependencies installation time but also no conflicts coming from lock file.
This was no real choice - we switched the moment Yarn was available, and never looked back. Yarn is the only reasonable frontend package manager that's actually being developed. They even aim to heal the node_modules madness with v2! Npm is just copying its ideas on top of introducing massive bugs with every change.
Pros of Android Studio
- Android studio is a great tool, getting better and bet176
- Google's official android ide103
- Intelligent code editor with lots of auto-completion37
- Its powerful and robust25
- Easy creating android app5
- Amazing Layout Designer3
- Great Code Tips3
- Great tool & very helpful3
- Easy to use2
- Built in Emulator2
- Keyboard Shortcuts are Amazing Out of the box2
Pros of npm
- Best package management system for javascript647
- Open-source382
- Great community327
- More packages than rubygems, pypi, or packagist148
- Nice people matter112
- As fast as yarn but really free of facebook6
- Audit feature6
- Good following4
- Super fast1
- Stability1
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Cons of Android Studio
- Slow emulator4
- Huge memory usage4
- Using Intellij IDEA, while Intellij IDEA have too2
- Complex for begginers2
- No checking incompatibilities2
- Lags behind IntelliJ IDEA1
- Slow release process1
Cons of npm
- Problems with lockfiles5
- Bad at package versioning and being deterministic5
- Node-gyp takes forever3
- Super slow1