Trying to compile vimtouch, 'AppPlugin' error

[david sands]

For a project I have in mind, I need to use the Internet permission that was removed from vimtouch a year ago. I tried to locate a vimtouch v6.x apk (on the chance that I wouldn't need what was fixed between versions), but was always redirected to the play store and v7. I use terminal-ide, but need to display Chinese. I also use termux, but some of my target devices have no upgrade path beyond KitKat. 糟糕！

So I tried to compile the source, and got an gradle error:

Could not create plugin of type 'AppPlugin'

I tried a bunch of recommended solutions (that led to new and 'interesting' errors), but don't have enough experience in the Android tool chain to really determine what's up.

Is anybody currently compiling from source? Did you have to change anything? Do I need to use a different versions of Java, NDK, SDK? I would really appreciate some help, since the possibilities flying-blind are a combinatorial nightmare. :-(

Thanks.