6 ms·
.NET would have had a real chance at being the android application platform if it was philosophically in the state that it is today (open sourced toolchain/comp
by owaislone 10y ago
.NET would have had a real chance at being the android application platform if it was philosophically in the state that it is today (open sourced toolchain/compilers, open-source friendly MS, Mono/Xamarin in good shape).
Moving android away from Java is going to be a big undertaking and I doubt Google will undertake such a huge project only to move away from Oracle and closer to MS.
If they ever try to replace Java, it'll be Dart or another language they acquire in future. Dart has good chances.
They already have an early stage framework to make Android (and iOS) apps with Dart[0]. It's also the main GUI toolkit for their Fuchsia OS [1].
0 https://flutter.io/ https://flutter.io/
1 https://github.com/fuchsia-mirror/ https://github.com/fuchsia-mirror/
- smnscu 10y agoSilly idea that will never happen, but imagine Google and Microsoft* working together on Android and it becoming actually open (i.e. not a tool to protect google search on mobile) and easily targetable by Java, C#, Go, etc. apps. From a technical point of view it might sound difficult until you realize modern smartphones are veritable beasts compared to computers 10 years ago, and we've had general purpose OSes for decades now. This is mostly just me shipping Google and Microsoft after their successful recent collaborations like TypeScript. * - based on the premise that MS might be open to this after failing at mobile over and over again
- int_19h 10y agoIt's not really so silly from Microsoft's perspective. Given the sorry state of affairs with WP, and company's overall focus on Azure, it would make perfect sense to embrace a popular mobile platform, if this could be translated to more sales of Azure services. What Google is to get out of it is a more interesting question.
- icebraining 10y agoI'm sure it was difficult, but you can already ship C# code using Xamarin, no need to wait for Microsoft.
- doingmyting 10y agoJust noting that Xamarin is part of Microsoft.
- cm2187 10y agoXamarin is a bit of a hack. What we really need is a cross platform solid (i.e. not javascript) language supported natively. What would be ideal would be that Apple, Google and Microsoft sit together and agree on a common language and GUI API that would work on Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS and Linux natively.
- uncletaco 10y agoA pipe dream for me would be if that common language were a lisp.
- cm2187 10y agoI think it should be BrainFuck rather
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- vintagedave 10y agoC++? https://www.embarcadero.com/products/cbuilder https://www.embarcadero.com/products/cbuilder Or for something more like C#, Delphi? https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi Both these platforms, which include a cross-platform UI library including native controls, are Windows, iOS, Android, macOS, and Linux in the next release.
- cm2187 10y agoThe thing with C++ is that it's a hard language. I understand the power for low level stuff, and it is available already. But for 99% of apps, a higher level language like java or c# is really what we need. Even C# is starting to show its age. Perhaps it's the occasion to reboot it. Start from scratch based on modern concepts with a truly cross-platform language. With support from Microsoft + Google + Apple, and cross platform across Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS and Android, adoption would go to 100% (or 11!) on month 1.
- flukus 10y agoImagine google buying MS. They seem more complimentary than competitive these days.
- mentat2737 10y agoAlso, a few years ago Xamarin actually ported Android (then 2.2. IIRC) to Mono/C#, as a test for Java->C# converters, and the result was faster than Android/Java.