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by shadowmint 4519 days ago
They also say:

     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++.
Which continues to annoy me even now.

I recall the fireside android team chat one time (two years ago?) that went something like:

     Question: So what about the NDK? You can't beat native for performance...
     Android team member: *laughs* ... well, you can't beat java for portability
     Comment from audience: Unless you want to use your code on another platform...
     <awkward silence, discussion moves on to next question>
That's certainly how I feel about it.
2 comments
mtdewcmu 4519 days ago
Good point. For better or worse, iOS is native code, and you could potentially write C or C++ that targets both.
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pjmlp 4519 days ago
Yeah, right.

However,

- Google has managed to fragment the Java world

- Pushes Renderscript instead of OpenCL

- Forces everyone to go via JNI to access Android APIs in C and C++ land

They are no better than the other players.

I am actually curious to find out what are their plans in regard to ART. Only replace Dalvik, or go further in terms of what will be the set of supported languages.

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