How do I see the core Android classes?

Question

I am trying to look inside a couple of Android core classes to see about overriding some methods. I have looked into getting the Android source code, but the process described on the Android dev site is all about installing and setting up some kind of development environment. This is not necessary to me. I just want to open a class or two in a text editor and look at its contents. Does anyone know if this is possible without going through the multitude of steps described on the Android dev forums?

Answer 1

The easiest way is to use Google Code Search. You just have to try a search like Activity.java android and you can see the source code of that class. It even has an outline inspector:

Answer 2

You can download the entire source with git our just look it up as a reference on the git site. Here is a link to the sdk code:
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base

Answer 3

Another option is to use http://grepcode.com/ and perform a search such as "android ViewGroup". I've really enjoyed the style of using grepcode.