[dhconnelly]

Well, nearly everything you said about J2ObjC is incorrect.

1. You can use ARC with J2ObjC. Your other comment about it not being supported is incorrect.

2. If you're not using ARC, then no, annotations are not required to get reference counting. The annotations are for "weak references" and are optionally available to avoid cyclic reference problems. They are not used in most cases.

3. You're not stuck without the Apple UI tools; in fact, you are encouraged to use Interface Builder for your UI.

Source: I worked on J2ObjC for Google this summer.

[invalidname]

1. ARC isn't a GC. Objective-C on the desktop has a true GC which isn't supported for iOS development. ARC just hides the repetitive pool release calls but still has the cyclic reference problems. 2. Sure. Its still not a GC, its reference counting which is exactly what I said. Its still reference counting even if you don't have to actually write pool release. 3. Again this is EXACTLY what I said! You need to use Apple's UI tools which means you need to code in Xcode!!! Not in Eclipse or any other Java IDE! If you need to deal with xcode and debug Objective-C in xcode might as well write everything in xcode.

If you want to share code with Android then you are better off with C. Yes the dalvik native interfaces suck but that is a tried and true way that actually works.

If you want to write in Java then Codename One is pretty much the only usable option.