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I am trying to break into a bit of development and have been advised Ruby is quite an easy / powerful language to get started on.
My main hope for learning a programming language was to break into mobile development. I have heard Ruby can be used for Android development with the right 'kit' but is this a practical language to use for this or will it end up being a more long winded approach than just learning Java from the get go?
I recently read about Ruboto. You should check it out too!
Maybe you should be looking at http://rhomobile.com/?
Almost all the documentation on android development is focused on Java, and eclipse. While I'm not a big fan of Eclipse as an IDE (bloat); it is what the lot use, so it is what I use.
Where you'll find hardship with ruby is when you have to do something that is atypical.. something that is purely android. It will save you time in the beginning, however as with all high level languages, it will end up costing you more when you need to get "dirty"... The net result will be the same.
I program ruby/rails during my day job and android for my "unpaid". Both are good languages, but there are strings attached with any language.
Keep in mind also that the Android platform is Java supported.. In this you know if there are new features in OS 5..6..n then you can be sure there is a way to access them in Java. Ruby might be quick to integrate them, but then it depends on the developers (us) of Ruby. Also keep in mind that on some older devices 1.x..2.x there may be things that run slow when passed through ruby. (I don't know how it's interpreter works)..
Last note. If you learn Ruby for android, and you apply for a job programming Android, I'm betting they will expect Eclipse/Java not xxx/Ruby
Not very sure of Ruby , but you can surely use JRuby http://code.google.com/p/jruby-for-android/
If your goal is to learn mobile development on Android, I would highly suggest sticking with Java. The Android SDK is Java based, and the majority of documentation and examples (including the official docs) you find will be in Java.
While Ruby is a powerful language, it is primarily used for web development. You may have a difficult time finding documentation, and support when you're not using standard Android language.
It appears that Google mainly supports using Java with Eclipse. While you probably could do it with Ruby, I think your best bet is to just use Java and Eclipse.
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I have been using the flash pro for 6 years now, and I find it very easy to create any kind of application and game (except 3D ones). The flash pro says that is can compile cross platform natively in Android (and iOs too), so am in a dilemma (or trilemma), should I use:
1. The flash pro IDE which I know very good
2. Should I learn Eclipse which I hear is ideal for Android apps or
3. Should I make the app with HTML5, jquery mobile, etc and compile it with PhoneGap?
The app I was to develop is quite simple, it has a list of POIs, categories, (from online database) and it shows them on map (flash pro may have to use stageview for that), so the graphic processing required should be minimal. It may also cache some POIs when downloaded on phone.
Please answer the question in relation to:
- Speed/responsiveness of the app
- How much "native"/professional the app will be
- Feature-wise, would all the features be there
- Debugging
Thank you,
Panos
You are always going to be able to get the best results with the most native approach (eclipse) as long as you can handle the IDE and language. You have a good deal of experience with flash and if you don't have much or any with Java you may have trouble getting into using Java.
Here's a simple breakdown though:
Flash:
Great for apps that serve as a web frontend.
Supports most common android features.
Doing anything heavy in processing or too custom tends to get bad performance.
You are abstracted from what the app is really doing and therefore have less control.
Java:
You are using the native language and therefore can use android to it's fullest extent.
You will find plenty of help for any problem you run into and it's much easier to debug more complicated apps.
Better performance in most app usages, especially for more complex apps.
Not cross-platform though you don't seem to care about that.
PhoneGap:
I have no experience for this but I would assume it's similar to the Flash approach.
Probably really good for Web Frontends.
The choice is really just dependent on what you feel would best suit your current knowledge and goals for the app.
I would strongly recommend just learning Java and using Eclipse as it will always be as good and responsive as you can design it.
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I'm new to iOS/Android development so I would like to know what is the usual practice of developing an app for different platforms - is the whole code rewritten or the possibilities are used to choose some language, C or C++ for example, and keep most of the work in this language and then cover it with system specific stuff in corresponding language? I know about Android NDK and having C/C++ code in your iOS app, but the question is - is this usually used in practice - maybe later some other platforms might be added? The classical example would be the Angry Birds, of course, which I have even on my "smart" TV. Would be good to hear guys experienced in this area since I might be in the middle of making a decision. Thanks!
You should go check out the Xamarin studio. It allows you to write code in C# and reuse up to 80% of your code between the platforms. They have some videos and tutorials for how to best write code that can be reused.
You might try Qt framework as it's native to Symbian, officially ported to Android, and unofficially ported to iOS and Blackberry. It's a C++ IDE at http://qt.nokia.com
Better yet, if you're into that kinda thing, try PhoneGap here: http://phonegap.com/ This will allow you to write your "app" code in HTML.... yes, HTML, and port it to just about anything. Things that are normally OS-dependent are basically wrapped in PhoneGap's API including hardware: http://phonegap.com/about/feature/
THe classical example would be angry birds? I've either hit a time warp to 20 years in the future, or you're thinking way too small.
But yes, it is quite common to write the majority of logic in C or C++ and just write system specific stuff and/or UI in the native language.
There are several cross-platform solutions on the market. Some of them use Java and C#, they usually are integrated with the common SDKs (such as Visual Studio, Eclipse). Some of them allow to easily develop and distribute web-apps using HTML5, Css3 and jQuery combination.
You can just surf for them on the net. I suppose it's not allowed to mention them here. If I'm wrong I will post the name of some of the most known solutions that I tried.
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Is there a Haskell interpreter (with standard libraries) that can be installed on Android?
So that someone with an Android device can do some Haskell exercises on an Android device: write and run some example code in Haskell.
Hugs is written in C and quite portable. It should be possible to port it to Android.
Taking a note from imz, all you need is
ConnectBot or similar
A remote machine with
Vim, Emacs, or similar
runghc / ghci / hugs / yourfavoritehaskellinterpreterorcompiler
It's not as solid as a dedicated app or scripting layer would be, but honestly, for your use cases, it would provide almost exactly the same functionality as those options (if not more). And it would be just as "mobile" as a website (depends only on the uptime of the host and the connectivity of the client).
You can use tryhaskell.org from your mobile browser. It will accept any valid expression, but keep in mind that defining your own data types won't be possible.
For some negative information, all the work I've seen for GHC on Android (such as http://ipwnstudios.com/) is based on cross-compilation, rather than building GHC for android or ARM.
I just found IDEone in the Android Market, which sends your code to an online service. It works, but programming on Android isn't much fun. Btw: In case you don't want to register see BugMeNot
Surprisingly, I couldn't uncover any existing Haskell interpreter for Android.
But here are some instructions for writing your own interpreter for the Scripting Layer on Android. That's assuming you're willing to try mapping the haskell functions on top of the Java android ones (which is not a perfect solution, I know). You'll also want to refer to their scripting layer written for Scala, because that's the one that comes closest to Haskell (which is not very close I admit).
Otherwise, there shouldn't be any reason why any of those Haskell implementations couldn't be directly compiled for Android using the NDK. As long as they're written in C, they should work on Android. For C++, that's a little bit more tricky since Android doesn't have all the C++ headers.
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we made a quit big iOS application with 2000+ objective c classes. I am wondering there is a best practice guide to port it to Android ? Currently I am looking at Visual Paradigm (UML) which reverse engineers objective c files to UML. Like Enterprise Architect it also allows me to generate code(headers + declaration) for another popular language like java or c++. Are there any other approaches yet ? Also, as our app is heavily using the UINavigation and UIView controllers, I am wondering there is similar model and implementation on Android.
Thanks so far, guenter
In all honesty, I think that what you are planing is just going to make for crappy code that will be insanely hard to maintain. I realize it sounds like a lot of work, but its gonna be easier in the long run, I would just "port" the concept of the app to android and write it from the ground up.
The Apportable SDK
It cross-compiles Objective-C applications to Android, without extensive changes to the original codebase. Instead of translating the code to Java, Apportable cross-compiles your code to run directly on the Android device’s processor, bypassing the Java runtime, resulting in speed and performance that rivals the iOS version.
The platform has been tested on Apportable’s library of over 150 devices and in the wild, where Apportable-powered apps have received 5-star reviews on thousands of devices.
check out the sdk here
AFAIK there is no automatic tool to convert Objective-C to Java. There is java2objc that does the reverse.
Here are some official tips for porting Objective-C to Java: http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Software/WebObjects/Guides/PortingObjectiveCtoJava.pdf
I'm not an iOS expert, but AFAIK iOS does not have layout managers - it uses XIB/NIB to do layout (or dynamically in code, which is not recommended). On Android there are layout classes which are primarily used to support different resolutions. Also, layout is declared via XML files.
So it seems there is a lot of hand-coding in front of you. Since a project is quite large, I'd get a help of an expert that knows both Android and iPhone.
For going from C or C++ to Android you are probably best of using the NDK. The problem is that I don't think this is possible (at least, not directly?) for Objective C.
I think it might be best to try and go to C, and then use the NDK to make it into an app for Android. Going from your code, trough UML to JAVA sounds like a much harder option.
just to let you know how the story did end up, I kept using Sparx Enterprise Architect and have my design, architecture and documentation well under control, for all platforms finally except for JavaScript. Its a bit tedious when integrating new features but in an enterprise environment it saved me a lot of time. We are working on iOS, Desktop(Web2.0/HTML5), Android, Blackberry, Symbian and some router systems. To get rid of platform specific things, I introduced always an additional layer. Seems to work for our products so far.
Thanks to all again, g.
MyAppConverter service helps to convert native iOS mobile apps instantly to native Android app, it's not focused mainly on the look and feel, and UI interaction of your app. That means it don't replicate your application as it is. Instead, MyAppConverter make all changes to make a project suitable for the development of an Android application.
MyAppConverter currently support only iOS to Android conversion and objective-c to swift.
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Coming from J2ME programming are there any similarities that would make it easy to adapt to Android API. Or is Android API completely different from the J2ME way of programming mobile apps.
Actually the Android API is much more powerful than the J2ME.
It is much easier to create an application for the Android.
Using the J2ME you are limited to simple forms due to the absent of swing-like libraries (though now there exists a library called LWUIT, avoiding the need to recreate from scratch a swing-like library).
In Android you will be able to create complex form very quickly, and software package for the android SDK is easy to install (while in J2ME you have to install the wireless development toolkit from sun, or install one of Nokia's, Samsung's or SonyEricsson's... it gets a bit confusing sometimes).
The things I had to change when switching from j2me to android were:
1/ The font and graphics class is easier to use on j2me. The API is more thorough on Android, but also more complicated.
2/ If you are used to the database storage of j2me (RecordStore), well you can forget it in Android. You will have to use a SQL-like databased, so be prepared to rethink your data model.
I've also found the path from Java ME to Android to be pretty simple. Here are a few things I've noticed:
There is ONE ui draw thread in Android. You have to be aware of the difference between calling postInvalidate and invalidate on Views to force them to update.
The actual bit-wise graphic manipulation is very similar. I was able to port large amounts of custom J2ME draw code by writing a few shims for drawRect and drawImage.
Android's UI library is much more extensive, much less useless, and much more complicated than Java ME's
Threadwise, you have to be much more careful about thread saftey with Android. In Java ME you can get away with not making methods synchronous or variables volatile most of the time. Not so in Android.
I will say, on the whole, that Android's UI library fails a critical test. I call this the "roll my own" test.
Your UI library fails this test if it takes me longer to complete a detailed task task (say, changing the background on one individual menu item) than it would take me two write my own Menu from scratch. Android fails the "roll your own" test by a factor of 3 or 4. In fact, if you look, the majority of the questions on this website are "How do I make the Android UI toolkit do my bidding?" questions.
Android is an amazing platform and it has been worth every frustrating moment I've sunk into it. It is, however, a young platform, and needs some serious work in times to come.
A good start would be to watch the Android architecture videos and look at some of the documentation.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=586D322B5E2764CF
http://code.google.com/android/what-is-android.html
Google is very good about documenting. From what I've heard Android very very similar to J2ME in its goals. It may be slightly different in programming style and structure but if you have J2ME experience you should be more then ready to move on to Android.
Good Luck!!!
Well, you may not actually need to adapt.
There is a good chance that a J2ME stack will become available for Android before long since Android is not supposed to become as restrictive of third-party runtimes as the iPhone.
I know one guy who has been working on just that:
http://justanapplication.wordpress.com/
Now, of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't have a look at the Android APIs and application lifecycle.