6 ms·

Develop iOS Apps in Java with RoboVM

46 points by programmerby 13y ago

slacka 13y ago
There are currently two open source AOT compilers RoboVM and avian that can be used for cross-platform iOS/Android development. Both seem to be in pre-alpha state. Seems like a better option would be to use apportable and go the other way from iOS to android. Anyone here have any experience with these? http://oss.readytalk.com/avian/ http://oss.readytalk.com/avian/ http://www.apportable.com/ http://www.apportable.com/
- ksec 13y ago
  I rememberer long time ago when i was still in the land of Java I researched the topic there were GCJ as well. Dont know what happened to it And Something called ExcelsiorJET as well.
  - pjmlp 13y ago
    GCJ is dead, as most developers went away to OpenJDK or just lost interest. Besides ExcelsiorJET, Aonix and IBM Webpshere Real Time VM do also offer AOT compilation.
moondowner 13y ago
Let's not forget that RoboVM is still alpha, and on Sept 09th version 0.0.4 was released: http://blog.robovm.org/2013/09/robovm-004-released.html http://blog.robovm.org/2013/09/robovm-004-released.html Here's an interesting blog post on RoboVM: "JavaFX On IOS Using RoboVM And Maven" http://www.zenjava.com/2013/08/01/javafx-on-ios-using-robovm-and-maven/ http://www.zenjava.com/2013/08/01/javafx-on-ios-using-robovm...
- badlogic 13y ago
  Niklas, the author or RoboVM, just send his first submission to the App Store, we'll see how that pans out. In the meantime, lots of folks from the libgdx community (JVM game dev framework) already ported many non-trivial games to RoboVM, without any big issues, e.g. [1][2] Current limitations: no debugging, Boehm GC (though anything except stack references are collected precisely) and the ObjC -> Java bindings are a bit in flux. I personally would like to see the ObjC bindings ala Xamarin get done. JavaFX is a trainwreck in my opinion. I think that would also be a really good business opportunity for Niklas/Trillian, i can see tons of enterprises wanting to code their iOS apps via a JVM language. RoboVM already has Maven/STB plugins available, so development is very smooth. And compile times beat Xamarin easily. What gets me really excited is that RoboVM supports Scala out of the box. Writing iOS/Android/desktop games and apps in Scala would be amazing. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Ro41uamD0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Ro41uamD0 [2] https://twitter.com/RainerBasso/status/378621566206369792 https://twitter.com/RainerBasso/status/378621566206369792
ape4 13y ago
It compiles the Java but what about the big VM needed? Found my answer: Note! When you compile a program using RoboVM it will translate not only the main class into native code but also the transitive dependencies of that main class. So the first time you compile a program for a particular CPU and OS RoboVM also compiles many of the standard runtime classes such as java.lang.Object, java.lang.String, etc. A simple class like HelloWorld references about 1500 classes directly or indirectly. RoboVM keeps a cache of compiled classes and only recompiles a class when it or any of its direct dependencies have changed. Wow
- booop 13y ago
  This is exciting. But wouldn't this result in very large final binary sizes?
  - pjmlp 13y ago
    Yes and no. This can happen even in languages like C when you do static linking. The solution is to have the linker remove all code that is not being called. The consequence of it, it that you are restricted in doing reflection, for example. Some Java native compilers allow you to provide a list of methods to leave alone, to avoid them being removed from the final executable.
  - wiradikusuma 13y ago
    Should be able to use ProGuard, a code obfusticator+trimmer for Java. http://proguard.sourceforge.net/ http://proguard.sourceforge.net/ Although, from my experience doing Android with Scala, the process is slow.
    - cheapsteak 13y ago
      "Read a few links on HN" slow, or "time to make some coffee" slow?
      - tluyben2 13y ago
        You only need it a few times when getting ready for distribution.
bsaul 13y ago
Anyone knows if roboVM is using the same approach as MonoTouch uses ? I've always been curious to know how those two operated. Do they link iOS frameworks C libraries and just provide wrappers in a C# or Java lib (which are then compiled to bytecode then native) ?
cromwellian 13y ago
There's also a source-to-source translator that google uses, j2objc https://code.google.com/p/j2objc/ https://code.google.com/p/j2objc/
- AntiRush 13y ago
  Another project targeting Java on iOS is XMLVM[1]. It has several frontends, including JVM bytecode, and several backends, including Objective-C (and vanilla C, these days). 1. http://xmlvm.org/overview/ http://xmlvm.org/overview/
mramir 13y ago
Inversely, there is a tool for writing iOS apps in Objective-C and then porting it to native Android : http://www.apportable.com/ http://www.apportable.com/ There are also dozens of tools for developing native apps in many platforms with HTML5/JavaScript, most notably Titanium : http://www.appcelerator.com/platform/titanium-platform/ http://www.appcelerator.com/platform/titanium-platform/.

46 points by programmerby 13y ago

There are currently two open source AOT compilers RoboVM and avian that can be used for cross-platform iOS/Android development. Both seem to be in pre-alpha state. Seems like a better option would be to use apportable and go the other way from iOS to android. Anyone here have any experience with these? http://oss.readytalk.com/avian/ http://oss.readytalk.com/avian/ http://www.apportable.com/ http://www.apportable.com/

ksec 13y ago
I rememberer long time ago when i was still in the land of Java I researched the topic there were GCJ as well. Dont know what happened to it And Something called ExcelsiorJET as well.
- pjmlp 13y ago
  GCJ is dead, as most developers went away to OpenJDK or just lost interest. Besides ExcelsiorJET, Aonix and IBM Webpshere Real Time VM do also offer AOT compilation.

moondowner 13y ago

Let's not forget that RoboVM is still alpha, and on Sept 09th version 0.0.4 was released: http://blog.robovm.org/2013/09/robovm-004-released.html http://blog.robovm.org/2013/09/robovm-004-released.html Here's an interesting blog post on RoboVM: "JavaFX On IOS Using RoboVM And Maven" http://www.zenjava.com/2013/08/01/javafx-on-ios-using-robovm-and-maven/ http://www.zenjava.com/2013/08/01/javafx-on-ios-using-robovm...

badlogic 13y ago
Niklas, the author or RoboVM, just send his first submission to the App Store, we'll see how that pans out. In the meantime, lots of folks from the libgdx community (JVM game dev framework) already ported many non-trivial games to RoboVM, without any big issues, e.g. [1][2] Current limitations: no debugging, Boehm GC (though anything except stack references are collected precisely) and the ObjC -> Java bindings are a bit in flux. I personally would like to see the ObjC bindings ala Xamarin get done. JavaFX is a trainwreck in my opinion. I think that would also be a really good business opportunity for Niklas/Trillian, i can see tons of enterprises wanting to code their iOS apps via a JVM language. RoboVM already has Maven/STB plugins available, so development is very smooth. And compile times beat Xamarin easily. What gets me really excited is that RoboVM supports Scala out of the box. Writing iOS/Android/desktop games and apps in Scala would be amazing. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Ro41uamD0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Ro41uamD0 [2] https://twitter.com/RainerBasso/status/378621566206369792 https://twitter.com/RainerBasso/status/378621566206369792

ape4 13y ago

It compiles the Java but what about the big VM needed? Found my answer: Note! When you compile a program using RoboVM it will translate not only the main class into native code but also the transitive dependencies of that main class. So the first time you compile a program for a particular CPU and OS RoboVM also compiles many of the standard runtime classes such as java.lang.Object, java.lang.String, etc. A simple class like HelloWorld references about 1500 classes directly or indirectly. RoboVM keeps a cache of compiled classes and only recompiles a class when it or any of its direct dependencies have changed. Wow

booop 13y ago
This is exciting. But wouldn't this result in very large final binary sizes?
- pjmlp 13y ago
  Yes and no. This can happen even in languages like C when you do static linking. The solution is to have the linker remove all code that is not being called. The consequence of it, it that you are restricted in doing reflection, for example. Some Java native compilers allow you to provide a list of methods to leave alone, to avoid them being removed from the final executable.
- wiradikusuma 13y ago
  Should be able to use ProGuard, a code obfusticator+trimmer for Java. http://proguard.sourceforge.net/ http://proguard.sourceforge.net/ Although, from my experience doing Android with Scala, the process is slow.
  - cheapsteak 13y ago
    "Read a few links on HN" slow, or "time to make some coffee" slow?
    - tluyben2 13y ago
      You only need it a few times when getting ready for distribution.

bsaul 13y ago

Anyone knows if roboVM is using the same approach as MonoTouch uses ? I've always been curious to know how those two operated. Do they link iOS frameworks C libraries and just provide wrappers in a C# or Java lib (which are then compiled to bytecode then native) ?

cromwellian 13y ago

There's also a source-to-source translator that google uses, j2objc https://code.google.com/p/j2objc/ https://code.google.com/p/j2objc/

AntiRush 13y ago
Another project targeting Java on iOS is XMLVM[1]. It has several frontends, including JVM bytecode, and several backends, including Objective-C (and vanilla C, these days). 1. http://xmlvm.org/overview/ http://xmlvm.org/overview/

mramir 13y ago

Inversely, there is a tool for writing iOS apps in Objective-C and then porting it to native Android : http://www.apportable.com/ http://www.apportable.com/ There are also dozens of tools for developing native apps in many platforms with HTML5/JavaScript, most notably Titanium : http://www.appcelerator.com/platform/titanium-platform/ http://www.appcelerator.com/platform/titanium-platform/.