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Android: The Land That Python Forgot

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Re: Android: The Land That Python Forgot

#71
post #4

Ohai! I wrote the talk, and just want to let you know that you can watch it over at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p77BR6e1uoo --Chris

Thanks for taking the time out and putting in all the notes. Very helpful and I'm sure, time taking for you. Much appreciated!

Re: Android: The Land That Python Forgot

#72
post #62

performance performance performance. And it is not just about direct user experience either. Even if a given app may be written in Python it will probably drain the battery faster, since for each bit of work that would have taken X cpu cycles with Java, you would spend 20X with Python, not to mention memory handling, etc... A language is just a tool, use the right one for the Job. a Pythonista

Not really -- most mobile code is simply glue for UI event handlers and the like. And Python's really good at writing glue code.

Just like when you're coding in Java, code that needs performance is native, and written in C.

Python would idle just as well as pure java if it needed to :)

Re: Android: The Land That Python Forgot

#73
post #36
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I've never understood why someone would prefer a untyped language. It's just a bad developing experience, code needs more debugging, it is harder to maintain and overall productivity is lower. Untyped languages are fine only for small scripting languages.

I doubt you really mean untyped languages. Untyped languages includes many assembly languages, BCPL and some Forths. It does not include typical scripting languages like Perl, Ruby or Python - all of which are strongly typed.

What about javascript?

Re: Android: The Land That Python Forgot

#74
post #12

It isn't that Python forgot Android, or Python developers don't care about mobile. It's that Google decided to base Android on the JVM and make Java the primary language for developing on the platform. There's nothing Python could have done about that.

And they forbade GvR from working on porting Python to Android.

It was mentioned in the Pycon 2012 keynote I think, a source: http://jjinux.blogspot.com/2012/03/pycon-keynote-guido-van-r...

Re: Android: The Land That Python Forgot

#75
post #36
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I've never understood why someone would prefer a untyped language. It's just a bad developing experience, code needs more debugging, it is harder to maintain and overall productivity is lower. Untyped languages are fine only for small scripting languages.

I doubt you really mean untyped languages. Untyped languages includes many assembly languages, BCPL and some Forths. It does not include typical scripting languages like Perl, Ruby or Python - all of which are strongly typed.

Yeah, sorry, I should've used the term dynamic typing.

Re: Android: The Land That Python Forgot

#76
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I've never understood why someone would prefer a untyped language. It's just a bad developing experience, code needs more debugging, it is harder to maintain and overall productivity is lower. Untyped languages are fine only for small scripting languages.

Are we really going to discuss this again? > code needs more debugging, it is harder to maintain and overall productivity is lower References?

I found one study[1] which concludes that unit tests are not enough to reveal all errors which would be revelead when using a statically typed language.

1. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5C1aVVb3qRONVhiNDBiNUw0am8/...

Re: Android: The Land That Python Forgot

#77
Thought-provoking presentation, well done.

When I think about most Android apps I use (and especially my toddler daughter's games), I can't imagine 95% of them need the faster execution speed of optimized Java or NDK code. IOW, they could have been written in Python and enjoy:

1. Faster development 2. Portability across devices

Re: Android: The Land That Python Forgot

#78
post #75
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt you really mean untyped languages. Untyped languages includes many assembly languages, BCPL and some Forths. It does not include typical scripting languages like Perl, Ruby or Python - all of which are strongly typed.

Yeah, sorry, I should've used the term dynamic typing.

http://eli.thegreenplace.net/2006/11/25/a-taxonomy-of-typing...

Re: Android: The Land That Python Forgot

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love C#, but when moving between it and python, I find I focus too much on the types and hierarchies.

I used to be like this before I realized I used class inheritance way too much and shifted to using composition in the majority of cases.

Where's the best place to brush up on composition vs inheritance?

Re: Android: The Land That Python Forgot

#80
post #4

Ohai! I wrote the talk, and just want to let you know that you can watch it over at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p77BR6e1uoo --Chris

Great presentation, thanks for sharing it.

Why isn't Kivy or one of the other existing solutions good enough for your needs?

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