System Setup Considerations

Once you obtain the Google Web Services Kit and a developer license, it's easy to think that you're ready to write your first program. Theoretically, you can do just that. The problem with proceeding at this point though is that you don't know about the viability of your system configuration. For example, if you have a very fast processor and a lot of memory, it's easy to assume the page you've designed will work fine on all systems. However, once you load the resulting application on someone else's machine, it might not work very quickly (if at all).

Defining a usable development setup can save you considerable time and effort later. When you create a great development environment, you ensure that you'll see the application as the user does, which reduces the potential for deadly errors. Because the Google Web Services Kit is so accommodating, you'll need to spend a little extra time considering all of the possible usage scenarios. The following sections provide tips you can use to reduce the setup complexity.