

Scala and Android Development - kmccarth
http://bostinnovation.com/2011/05/04/scala-and-android-development/

======
stephenjudkins
There are a few obstacles to easily using Scala on Android. Namely, the Scala
standard library is too large to be easily "dexed" by the Android toolchain.
Using Proguard or a similar treeshaker removes unused classes, but it's a bit
of a hassle to set up manually.

However, I've found that using the SBT Android plugin
(<https://github.com/jberkel/android-plugin>) makes the entire process
relatively painless. I recommend starting with that approach.

~~~
pufuwozu
I wrote a small tutorial on manually setting up Android with Scala:

<http://brianmckenna.org/blog/minimalist_android_scala_env>

Enabling ProGuard is done by adding the following to build.xml:

    
    
        <target name="-debug-obfuscation-check">
            <property name="proguard.enabled" value="true" />
            <path id="out.dex.jar.input.ref" />
        </target>
    

Also add "proguard.config=proguard.cfg" to default.properties and "-dontwarn"
to proguard.cfg.

------
joeburke
"generally easier to understand"

"Ultimately, more Scala used means more modern Android development. "

The author has a clear chip on his/her shoulder and is making statements that
are pretty controversial, even within the Scala community itself.

Thinking that using a certain language automatically leads to "more modern
development" (whatever that means) is pretty ludicrous in itself.

If language advocates spent less time advocating and more time actually
producing the cool stuff they claim that their language enables, they might
actually get heard.

~~~
kmccarth
well said, Joe - author of article

------
GrooveStomp
> Ultimately, more Scala used means more modern Android development. One would
> assume that Google would have a vested interested in at least aiding the
> Boston Android’s project, but they have yet to send a representative to a
> meet-up thus far.

I find this to be a pretty naive statement. I've never once thought of Scala
on Android as being anywhere near official, and I don't see why Google would
jump on the chance to officially support it. Now, having a Googler show up of
their own volition - that's a different matter altogether. Maybe there just
aren't any interested Googlers in the area?

------
tszming
In fact, Mirah implementation also available:
[https://github.com/sattvik/decafbot/tree/master/jvm-
lang/mir...](https://github.com/sattvik/decafbot/tree/master/jvm-
lang/mirah/src/decafbot/mirah)

------
EricButler
I'm excited to try Scala for Android development but haven't had the time to
figure out a new build system, etc. I hope it'll eventually be integrated into
Intellij IDEA.

~~~
jbrechtel
In case you're interested....I've written a few articles detailing getting up
and running with Scala+Android+IntelliJ. <http://bit.ly/msXMZN>
<http://bit.ly/lIDHRs> and <http://bit.ly/kgiAqZ>

