Google is releasing the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich this evening. In a post on the Android Building section of the company’s Groups forum, John-Baptiste Queru says that the entire Android 4.0 source code will be pushed out through its Git At Google repository and that it will be ready for a full download soon.
This release to the entire developer world was faster than we anticipated. Honeycomb never really made it in its full glory to all Android developers. Queru notes that there is documentation for Honeycomb in the ICS release but it does not have a branch in the history tree. Are you ready to get your hands sticky with some ice cream?
The source code should be available at this URL. The push from Google is relatively large and it needs to be fully pushed before it is ready for download. As of 5:46 p.m. EST on Nov. 14, it was not yet complete. In the comments, Queru notes that the first push is the largest one. Here is the process according to Queru:
- Push to master, update the master manifest.
- Push to the development branch, create the matching manifest.
- Push to the release branch, tag it, create the machine manifest.
While it is pushing, developers should not download it as they will receive an incomplete version of the entire source code. Developers are going to download the source tree but first need to install Repo, a tool that makes it easier to work with Git for Android.
Though Honeycomb is not listed in the branch of the Android history tree, it can be found in the ICS release as notes to the evolution of the Android code. It should be mostly irrelevant at this point though as version 4.0 basically takes everything that Honeycomb did and integrates it into Android with backwards compatibility for apps from different Android flavors and screen sizes.
Ice Cream Sandwich took a little longer for Google to develop than other flavors of Android, mostly because it is a very large update to the platform. It is likely that Google was more prepared to push the ICS source code sooner than later because most of it has been percolating throughout 2011 and waiting for the official release time, which may have been delayed by a variety of factors, including partnerships with OEMs. The source code is actually version 4.0.1, according to Queru, which will be what the Samsung Galaxy Nexus will ship with.
Are you downloading ICS tonight? Let us know your first thoughts of it in the comments.
