[HillaryBriss]

Yeah. There's something to be said for having a highly developed intelligence for building great IDEs and libraries at the _organization level_ rather than just at the individual programmer level. Despite its reputation for hiring the very best programmers in the world, Google's ability to create a really great developer toolchain for Android didn't measure up to what Microsoft has been doing for decades.

It seems like Google has tried to pursue a cheap shortcut to IDE greatness, at first by building a plugin for Eclipse, and then, by putting some money into a relationship with IntelliJ and Gradle (who truly are excellent at what they do).

But still, Google has not brought the excellence of organization and deep commitment fully in-house.

[pjmlp]

If I would be on the Android team, I would feel ashamed that Microsoft in less time that they have introduced C++ support in Android Studio, already has a better developer experience than Google will ever managed to do.

On the other hand, I guess if they had a choice, the NDK would probably not even exist.

[airless_cotton]

Yeah, it just shows that Google clearly sees app developers as sharecroppers. "Don't like our terrible software quality and negligence? GTFO, there are hundred other desperate people writing the same app."