4 ms·

I wonder why Google chose Java in the first place, instead of a Python runtime...

• joezydeco 16y ago
  Does python runtime have a native interface like JNI? Android was quickly leveraging a lot of C and C++ code to get the system up and running. Using Java's JNI may have helped bootstrap that process faster.
  • joubert 16y ago
    Yes, you can interface with C/C++. http://www.swig.org/ http://www.swig.org/ Not only that, you can also extend Python with C/C++ - http://docs.python.org/release/2.5.2/ext/intro.html http://docs.python.org/release/2.5.2/ext/intro.html
• elblanco 16y ago
  Wasn't Android developed by another company that was then later acquired by Google? http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2005/tc20050817_0949_tc024.htm http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2005/tc200... At the time, most mobile phone dev was done in Java (and probably still is today). It seems natural to want to leverage those developers for the new OS rather than have them learn a whole new skillset.
  • joubert 16y ago
    duh. you're right; I forgot about that. impressive then that in such a short period of time, Infinite Loop got so many people to develop in an "obscure" language/SDK.
  • TeHCrAzY 16y ago
    Not to mention that the number of developers whom can create in Java vastly outnumbers those in Python.