Java-Free Android

Android finds itself in interesting times. Google has begun creating it’s own ‘premium’ versions of the operating system (OS), Cyanogen have ceased development, and many feel that Android will change name or shape in the near future.

As the future of the OS remains uncertain, so does the language that developers use to develop for the platform. Traditionally developers have written apps for Android in Java, a language with a long established history and ecosystem, but that has always felt forced upon Android, lacking the most up to date features, and unwieldy for developers who come from different language backgrounds.

In this article I will round up some of the likely contenders and see how easy, realistic and plausible it will be for them to replace the Java behemoth. The added bonus for some of these languages, is that you can often use to also target other mobile platforms.

A long term solution for developers has been to use different techniques to turn JavaScript and HTML into pseudo applications. I wont include any of these hybrid options in this round up such as React Native, Cordova or NativeScript. I don’t want to begin flame wars on native vs hybrid app development, but in this article I am only interested in covering languages that could become ‘native’ code.

Google took an interesting decision when deciding that Java would be the programming language to create apps for Android. Whilst it’s portable and popular, it also restricts developers as there is no official support for using ‘native’ and more efficient languages such as C or C++.

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by Chris Ward via SitePoint