Google already tried compiling Java source code directly to Dalvik bytecode (the "Jack" compiler) but they recently abandoned that approach in favour of improvi

Google already tried compiling Java source code directly to Dalvik bytecode (the "Jack" compiler) but they recently abandoned that approach in favour of improving the regular Java-bytecode-based toolchain. Perhaps because of the new focus on Kotlin? The Android toolchain used to be horrendously slow but has gotten a lot better since they switched from Eclipse and Ant to IntelliJ and Gradle – assuming you have enough RAM to dedicate a few GB to the persistent Gradle process. It now has incremental compilation (of Kotlin and Java), incremental dexing (i.e. converting the compiled Java bytecode to Dalvik bytecode) and incremental reloading ("Instant Run"). And the emulator can run the x86 version of Android nowadays, so it's no longer slowed down by emulating ARM. It's pretty nice.