
Like Android, but not Java/XML. Any alternatives? - curtis17
Android L with the Material design language looks very attractive. But I really dislike the Java&#x2F;XML combo for development.<p>So, anyone tried the alt-Java&#x27;s for coding Android apps: Kotlin, Xtend, Scala etc.<p>Or even Xamarin or QT&#x2F;QML.<p>P.S With ART, I hoped Google were moving away from Java and would bless one of the alt-Java syntaxes and eventually cut-out Java and evolve ART independently. But apparently not.
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higherpurpose
This here explains why they can't move to other languages overnight:

[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N3XyVkAP8nmWjASz8L_Ojjnj...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N3XyVkAP8nmWjASz8L_OjjnjVKxgeVBjIsTr5qIUcA4/preview?sle=true)

They basically need to rewrite Android from scratch, and then find a way to
make all old Java apps compatible with the new Android, too, but I'm guessing
that should be easier with ART available.

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frowaway001
That doesn't make any sense in the OP's context.

In which language Android core classes are implemented doesn't matter as long
as both languages compile down to Adnroid's bytecode.

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curtis17
Yes. My understanding is that currently the Android ART toolchain is:

Java source -> Java byte code -> Dalvik byte code in apk -> install time
compile to Oat file for execution in ART

Initially, just looking for something more expressive/succinct than Java that
compiles down to Java byte code and is sympathetic to the Android frameworks.
Not sure if there are any tools that compile down directly to dalvik and skip
Java byte code entirely.

~~~
frowaway001
Use Scala.

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_random_
C# and/or F# + Xamarin: [http://fwaris.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/xamarin-f-
experience-...](http://fwaris.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/xamarin-f-experience-
report/)

(I have not yet tried, but am going to)

PS: why hate XML? It has its place. JSON is not meant to be extensible and
it's a data, not mark-up language.

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frowaway001
People use Scala and it works pretty well.

Here is a mailing list full of those people:
[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/scala-on-
android](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/scala-on-android)

