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by pjmlp 4068 days ago
> So, the conclusion: no we don't need a swift for Android, and clojure is not swift anyway.

At very minimum we need Java 8, but I am willing to bet Google IO will not bring any news on that front.

Currently I have been using Java/C++ for my mobile hobby programming as I also like to play around with WP (C++/CX).

Regarding Clojure, maybe a static Lisp with Clojure syntax but with type inference could be a way to tackle the problem.

It wouldn't be pure Clojure, but maybe good enough.
1 comments
th0ma5 4068 days ago
Maybe Pixie-Lang with the NDK. You would have to wrap all the Java GUI calls through their C interface. This sort of messes with my head a little.
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on_and_off 4067 days ago
Very highly unlikely. With the NDK, you lose 99.9% of the framework. Any replacement language for Android needs to interface with Android's java framework or it will be completely useless.
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daniel_solano 4068 days ago
Last time I checked, pure NDK apps are best for games that use OpenGL as their primary interface. If you want native controls, you can't really do that entirely from the NDK side.
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pjmlp 4067 days ago
It is still the case.

So far I have endured the NDK because I cared more about playing around with graphics between Android and WP on my hobby coding.

Something like Qt allows for native like controls, but one is loosing the functionality the platforms offer for free, as well as, increasing the APK size considerably. And JNI wrappers are still required for interacting with the OS for intents and such.

From the JVM languages Clojure would be a good candidate for staying in Android user space and also allow targeting iOS (RoboVM) and WP (Clojure-CLR), specially with the help of the upcoming reader conditionals.

But with this performance, Xtend, Kotlin and Scala appear to be better candidates if one is just focusing on Android.

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