6 ms·

If anything it sounds like it would be faster because there is less byte code which needs to be compiled. Most likely the problem is the Facebook app has a lot

If anything it sounds like it would be faster because there is less byte code which needs to be compiled. Most likely the problem is the Facebook app has a lot of bytecode. That's probably why the wrote redex in the first place, so they would have less bytecode in their final APK.

tananaev 11y ago
Any other app takes seconds to install. Facebook takes minutes. I can understand some difference, but not that much.
- Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 11y ago
  Their ios app has over 18000 classes (https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/3h52yk/someone_discovered_that_the_facebook_ios/ https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/3h52yk/someone...), so I can easily believe the android app is similarly bloated as well. (To be fair, most of the 18K classes seem to be auto generated, but that still doesn't lessen the compiler's burden.)
- spacemanmatt 11y ago
  I heard there are something like 400 mobile developers working on the FB apps. I don't know there's any way to keep a team that size from producing bloat with every revision.
  - iainmerrick 11y ago
    That seems like a useful engineering problem for Facebook to try to solve, rather than this bullshit rocket science optimization stuff that adds yet more complexity for only incremental gains.
    - pcwalton 11y ago
      Compiler optimizations are not "bullshit rocket science optimization". You depend on them every day. None of the optimizations in this tool are "rocket science" compared to the optimizations that GCC, for example, does.
      - iainmerrick 11y ago
        Right, so on Android if you need code to be fast, write it in C++. If you have a ridiculously bloated and buggy Java app, writing an optimizing compiler doesn't sound like the most effective solution.
        spacemanmatt 11y ago
        My take: If you can't write it fast enough in Java, it is probably not a good mobile app candidate in the first place. The Dalvik optimizer and the JIT yield a regularly reasonable experience for me.
- karlding 11y ago
  There was a post on HN [0] a few years back about the Dalvik patch that Facebook used for their Android app, due to the large number of methods [1] the app had. This was causing issues on the older Gingerbread devices, so their solution was to modify the internals of the Dalvik VM while it was running their code to increase the buffer size. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5321634 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5321634 [1] https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/under-the-hood-dalvik-patch-for-facebook-for-android/10151345597798920/ https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/under-th...
  - V-2 11y ago
    Which is borderline insane

tananaev 11y ago

Any other app takes seconds to install. Facebook takes minutes. I can understand some difference, but not that much.

Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 11y ago
Their ios app has over 18000 classes (https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/3h52yk/someone_discovered_that_the_facebook_ios/ https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/3h52yk/someone...), so I can easily believe the android app is similarly bloated as well. (To be fair, most of the 18K classes seem to be auto generated, but that still doesn't lessen the compiler's burden.)
spacemanmatt 11y ago
I heard there are something like 400 mobile developers working on the FB apps. I don't know there's any way to keep a team that size from producing bloat with every revision.
- iainmerrick 11y ago
  That seems like a useful engineering problem for Facebook to try to solve, rather than this bullshit rocket science optimization stuff that adds yet more complexity for only incremental gains.
  - pcwalton 11y ago
    Compiler optimizations are not "bullshit rocket science optimization". You depend on them every day. None of the optimizations in this tool are "rocket science" compared to the optimizations that GCC, for example, does.
    - iainmerrick 11y ago
      Right, so on Android if you need code to be fast, write it in C++. If you have a ridiculously bloated and buggy Java app, writing an optimizing compiler doesn't sound like the most effective solution.
      - spacemanmatt 11y ago
        My take: If you can't write it fast enough in Java, it is probably not a good mobile app candidate in the first place. The Dalvik optimizer and the JIT yield a regularly reasonable experience for me.
karlding 11y ago
There was a post on HN [0] a few years back about the Dalvik patch that Facebook used for their Android app, due to the large number of methods [1] the app had. This was causing issues on the older Gingerbread devices, so their solution was to modify the internals of the Dalvik VM while it was running their code to increase the buffer size. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5321634 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5321634 [1] https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/under-the-hood-dalvik-patch-for-facebook-for-android/10151345597798920/ https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/under-th...
- V-2 11y ago
  Which is borderline insane