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Google, it's time – We want Scala for Android

blog.madhukaraphatak.com

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Re: Google, it's time – We want Scala for Android

#21

Post by TeeWEE »

broodbucket wrote: post #13
pinkyand wrote: post #2

I agree that Google should add more languages to android. And while Scala is a great language, it's very complex - so it won't benefit many of the less skilled users. A better language would be something with the simplicity and power of python, but with good performance.Groovy could be one such language.

Just because Scala has features that are tricky to get your head around if you're not familiar with functional programming, it doesn't mean it's complex to write software in. You can write Scala that's basically Java with less syntax if you want. I think that's what's so great about Scala, Python and other languages that mix OO and functional elements; you don't have to throw away Java and pick up Haskell, you can st…

It still doesnt change the fact that Scala, as a programming language, tries to incorporate too many concepts while still trying to be typesafe. This makes the language complex, and not an ideal candidate.

Re: Google, it's time – We want Scala for Android

#25

Post by pjmlp »

colig wrote: post #20

Um, people have already been able to use Scala to make Android applications. Just about anything that doesn't require dynamically generated JVM bytecode can manage, difficult and error-prone as it is. If we're talking about official support, then I'd rather Java 8 instead. And beefing up ART even more.

On the same session, I linked here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8192611

The answer to Java 8+ support was "No comment".

Re: Google, it's time – We want Scala for Android

#26

Post by phatak-dev »

pjmlp wrote: post #24

It is not going to happen. Google IO 2014, Android development fireside: https://www.google.com/events/io/schedule/session/85311b0e-7... The answer to this request is "Java is the official Android development language".

Direct link to the question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3meJyiYWFw#t=1566

Re: Google, it's time – We want Scala for Android

#29

Post by mncolinlee »

Why not Kotlin? It's more like a modernized Java. It's closer to what Android developers are used to and it already supports Android. It interoperates well with existing Java code in your Android app.

Also, it has excellent IDE support, since JetBrains is behind it.

http://kotlinlang.org/

Re: Google, it's time – We want Scala for Android

#30

Post by mjn »

emidln wrote: post #14
TeMPOraL wrote: post #11

Can we have a good Lisp for Android already?

Clojure sorta runs on it. It has various issues, but is usable. It's nice having a repl into your phone.

There's also a commercial ($200) Common Lisp implementation that targets Android (and iOS): https://wukix.com/mocl

Somewhat different setup though. Instead of a Java-replacement language on top of a JVM, I believe it's compiling to native code. The intention seems to be to target "logic-heavy" apps where a smaller portion of the code is UI. You still write the UI in each platform's "normal" way (Java on Android, Obj-C on iOS), but call out to Lisp for the real work. I'm not 100% sure on this part, but I believe that's done on Android via the NDK route, not Dalvik/ART. No idea what happens on iOS.

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