[BitMastro]

You're comparing apples and oranges, Apple had the privilege of choosing its own hardware and programming language.

For android they went for java because of popularity, and everyone can use it on their own hardware.

So you have a java based language running on ARM, x86 and MIPS, what would you choose? A proven approach like JIT VM or AOT?

[stcredzero]

> You're comparing apples and oranges, Apple had the privilege of choosing its own hardware and programming language.

Google and Apple both used already existing languages and adapted existing kernels. If you're saying that Apple didn't use an existing language or that Google didn't have the option of being more restrictive with hardware, then you are wrong on both counts. Google made choices which turned out to be worse for users over a certain timeframe. They were more attractive to vendors and manufacturers, however.

> For android they went for java because of popularity, and everyone can use it on their own hardware.

Google was optimizing for programer popularity, not user experience.

> So you have a java based language running on ARM, x86 and MIPS, what would you choose? A proven approach like JIT VM or AOT?

If you're going to go with what's more proven with constrained resources, then you'd go AOT. If you're trying to optimize for UX and lag, but high level enough for rapid development, then AOT with reference counting GC.

[BitMastro]

I didn't say that, I said that both went for what was the optimal choice at the time.

Why Apple didn't go for Swift from the start? Because Objective-C was used in NeXT and then OSX and so on.. when the time was right ans Swift was mature it has been introduced.

The same with JIT VM, that, again, are then norm for Java bytecode.

Also Google could not be restrictive on the hardware, since they are not manufacturers and the OS is open source. They restrict to ARM CPUs only? Fine, Intel forks it and ports to x86 anyway.

Smart guys work in both companies and they evaluate pro and cons of every approach anyway.

[david87600]

Re: "For android they went for java because of popularity, and everyone can use it on their own hardware."

True, but only the hardware independence part is true. Android was targeted for any vendor, while Apple targeted only their A-series processor.