6 ms·

Gingerbread NDK Awesomeness

57 points by abraham 16y ago

kenjackson 16y ago
Awesomeness is a 1987 event loop?
- pavlov 16y ago
  When you need to port a large C/C++ codebase that is already compatible with "1987 event loops", yes, it's pretty awesome to be able to do this natively instead of having to wrap it in Java boilerplate and performing marshalling between the two environments.
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    Your bar for what is awesome is really low. This is really convenient. But its convenient in the same way that getting a 3/8 socket is convenient. Needed for some jobs, but I wouldn't call it awesome. The Motorola Xoom, borderline awesome. Teleportation, awesome. Adding support for a programming construct that has been around for 25 years, at least, hard for me to call it awesome. Would you call it awesome if they added 6502 acceleration? I'm sure that would be convenient for your assembly language Commodore 64 games. If this is awesome, what isn't?
    - nightski 16y ago
      Shiny & new != better. This is pure awesomeness for people looking to write applications on Android that require very high performance and want to minimize the costs in doing so. On top of this, providing a more comprehensive native API may allow other languages (Haskell maybe??) to tie into the Android SDK - now that would be very nice! Don't be so short-sighted.
      - kenjackson 16y ago
        I didn't say shiny & new == better. Doing something that has existed on virtually every platform in the world is a "finally" moment, but not "awesome". Was this awesome when it was in Windows Mobile 1.0? Is it awesome that it's in Meego or Bada? "Check out the new Bada OS. You can use an event loop! AWESOME!" Just seems like a degree of hyperbole and marketing that goes completely unchecked.
        bad_user 16y ago
        It's missing from Windows Mobile 7.
        kenjackson 16y ago
        And if they add, it won't be awesome. It may be convenient or useful, but it won't be awesome. Just like adding support to use the compass won't be awesome. When they added support for VB, that wasn't awesome.
- Andys 16y ago
  Awesomeness is being able to use C instead of Java if your heart desires it.
tarkin2 16y ago
"[Y]ou can now build an entire Android application without writing a single line of Java." You'll need to use JNI to do more than the NDK provides in regard to Android's API. I wonder if this will lure C/C++ devs to Android, especially those versed in OpenGL?
CitizenKane 16y ago
This is pretty cool. It would be really interesting to see a full port of Qt (http://qt.nokia.com/products/ http://qt.nokia.com/products/) to Android. Write a single C++ application have it run on Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, Android, etc.
- windsurfer 16y ago
  Haha! If only it were that easy. You'd probably end up rewriting the UI for mobiles anyways.
highfreq 16y ago
Do they have a clean way to handle handle native code on Atom, and MIPS as well as ARM? I particularly think Atom has potential in the Android tablet market, but too many native ARM only apps would make it less cool.
- meastham 16y ago
  They have a way to bundle code for multiple architectures into a single .apk. They don't yet have support for x86 but it appears to be forthcoming. Source: http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/overview.html http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/overview.html
  - aphexairlines 16y ago
    Would be nice if you could ship LLVM bitcode and have it compiled down to arm/x86/mips/etc on the device.
aristidb 16y ago
I hope this means non-Java-based languages (Scala and Clojure would count as Java-based) with C FFI will be easier to use, too.
- bad_user 16y ago
  You can already do simple applications on top of Python / Perl. See http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/ http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/
jackolas 16y ago
Does this mean the NDK will get easier to use? Its pretty obtuse, and I've worked with porting software on multiple platforms (not on one to another exactly).
tomjen3 16y ago
Ironically that page fucks the margins when I try to zoom in to read it on my Android.
ellisd 16y ago
Does Android NDK Revision 5 work with the 2.2 API or is only compatible with 2.3?

57 points by abraham 16y ago

kenjackson 16y ago

Awesomeness is a 1987 event loop?

pavlov 16y ago
When you need to port a large C/C++ codebase that is already compatible with "1987 event loops", yes, it's pretty awesome to be able to do this natively instead of having to wrap it in Java boilerplate and performing marshalling between the two environments.
- kenjackson 16y ago
  Your bar for what is awesome is really low. This is really convenient. But its convenient in the same way that getting a 3/8 socket is convenient. Needed for some jobs, but I wouldn't call it awesome. The Motorola Xoom, borderline awesome. Teleportation, awesome. Adding support for a programming construct that has been around for 25 years, at least, hard for me to call it awesome. Would you call it awesome if they added 6502 acceleration? I'm sure that would be convenient for your assembly language Commodore 64 games. If this is awesome, what isn't?
  - nightski 16y ago
    Shiny & new != better. This is pure awesomeness for people looking to write applications on Android that require very high performance and want to minimize the costs in doing so. On top of this, providing a more comprehensive native API may allow other languages (Haskell maybe??) to tie into the Android SDK - now that would be very nice! Don't be so short-sighted.
    - kenjackson 16y ago
      I didn't say shiny & new == better. Doing something that has existed on virtually every platform in the world is a "finally" moment, but not "awesome". Was this awesome when it was in Windows Mobile 1.0? Is it awesome that it's in Meego or Bada? "Check out the new Bada OS. You can use an event loop! AWESOME!" Just seems like a degree of hyperbole and marketing that goes completely unchecked.
      - bad_user 16y ago
        It's missing from Windows Mobile 7.
        kenjackson 16y ago
        And if they add, it won't be awesome. It may be convenient or useful, but it won't be awesome. Just like adding support to use the compass won't be awesome. When they added support for VB, that wasn't awesome.
Andys 16y ago
Awesomeness is being able to use C instead of Java if your heart desires it.

tarkin2 16y ago

"[Y]ou can now build an entire Android application without writing a single line of Java." You'll need to use JNI to do more than the NDK provides in regard to Android's API. I wonder if this will lure C/C++ devs to Android, especially those versed in OpenGL?

CitizenKane 16y ago

This is pretty cool. It would be really interesting to see a full port of Qt (http://qt.nokia.com/products/ http://qt.nokia.com/products/) to Android. Write a single C++ application have it run on Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, Android, etc.

windsurfer 16y ago
Haha! If only it were that easy. You'd probably end up rewriting the UI for mobiles anyways.

highfreq 16y ago

Do they have a clean way to handle handle native code on Atom, and MIPS as well as ARM? I particularly think Atom has potential in the Android tablet market, but too many native ARM only apps would make it less cool.

meastham 16y ago
They have a way to bundle code for multiple architectures into a single .apk. They don't yet have support for x86 but it appears to be forthcoming. Source: http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/overview.html http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/overview.html
- aphexairlines 16y ago
  Would be nice if you could ship LLVM bitcode and have it compiled down to arm/x86/mips/etc on the device.

aristidb 16y ago

I hope this means non-Java-based languages (Scala and Clojure would count as Java-based) with C FFI will be easier to use, too.

bad_user 16y ago
You can already do simple applications on top of Python / Perl. See http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/ http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/

jackolas 16y ago

Does this mean the NDK will get easier to use? Its pretty obtuse, and I've worked with porting software on multiple platforms (not on one to another exactly).

tomjen3 16y ago

Ironically that page fucks the margins when I try to zoom in to read it on my Android.

ellisd 16y ago

Does Android NDK Revision 5 work with the 2.2 API or is only compatible with 2.3?