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Golang would be sweet on Android. It'll still need to run on top of the Java runtime but that's not too bad given that ART will be the default rather than Dalvi

Golang would be sweet on Android. It'll still need to run on top of the Java runtime but that's not too bad given that ART will be the default rather than Dalvik. That's not to say Java is as bad as ObjC however ;) But something less verbose and more modern like Golang will be a great option to have.

shadowmint 12y ago
Go is a great language. ...but to be fair, writing UI and graphical applications has never been it's strong point, and still is not. Although you can write NDK applications which steal the raw graphics context to do whatever they like (mandala, xamarin, unity, etc.), tapping into the android UI layer is significantly slower and more complex. Given that the NDK website still says: In general, you should only use the NDK if it is essential to your app—never because you simply prefer to program in C/C++. I'm pretty skeptical Google is going to push anything based off of it as a first class citizen, ever. (That said, the upcoming I/O has what, 4 or 5 slots devoted to NDK related things; clearly despite the android team, at least someone is paying attention to the fact that people use it. A lot. So you never know~)
- blinkingled 12y ago
  Right, but I was thinking of Golang as an optional language that you could use to build parts of your app - the ones that require concurrency, performance etc. and can leverage Golang's strengths. So instead of writing C/C++ you would write Go code. You would still use Java for the UI part - that's not bad at all - you have memory safety, maturity, Garbage Collection and some time later even some of the cooler JDK8 features. No point in throwing all that away. For that usecase may be Google can extend ART to convert Go code into something that plugs into the ART and outputs something that can be mixed with the AOT compiled Java code.
  - pjmlp 12y ago
    I doubt it will ever happen, at least in the near future. The ticket for Go support on Android is open since 2012 and no one from the Android team seems to care. The Go team has reopen the discussion of, maybe, trying to add support for it in the 1.4 release.

shadowmint 12y ago

Go is a great language. ...but to be fair, writing UI and graphical applications has never been it's strong point, and still is not. Although you can write NDK applications which steal the raw graphics context to do whatever they like (mandala, xamarin, unity, etc.), tapping into the android UI layer is significantly slower and more complex. Given that the NDK website still says: In general, you should only use the NDK if it is essential to your app—never because you simply prefer to program in C/C++. I'm pretty skeptical Google is going to push anything based off of it as a first class citizen, ever. (That said, the upcoming I/O has what, 4 or 5 slots devoted to NDK related things; clearly despite the android team, at least someone is paying attention to the fact that people use it. A lot. So you never know~)

blinkingled 12y ago
Right, but I was thinking of Golang as an optional language that you could use to build parts of your app - the ones that require concurrency, performance etc. and can leverage Golang's strengths. So instead of writing C/C++ you would write Go code. You would still use Java for the UI part - that's not bad at all - you have memory safety, maturity, Garbage Collection and some time later even some of the cooler JDK8 features. No point in throwing all that away. For that usecase may be Google can extend ART to convert Go code into something that plugs into the ART and outputs something that can be mixed with the AOT compiled Java code.
- pjmlp 12y ago
  I doubt it will ever happen, at least in the near future. The ticket for Go support on Android is open since 2012 and no one from the Android team seems to care. The Go team has reopen the discussion of, maybe, trying to add support for it in the 1.4 release.