
Self-compiling Android application - d99kris
https://github.com/Tribler/self-compile-Android
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javajosh
Forgive me for asking, but how does this differ in capability from, say, a
WebView application that offers a) a text field, b) a button that eval()s the
text, and c) stores that text such that it can be invoked again on app load?

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tomcam
It writes new code in the Java runtime and can therefore improve its own
capabilities. It's more like a Webview app that could add features to the
Webview binary itself. Webview apps cannot have self-modifying code.

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javajosh
_> Webview apps cannot have self-modifying code._

JavaScript is eminently (almost too much so) able to modify its own running
code.

It's true that it's limited to whatever APIs the WebView exposes. Then again,
this thing (yours?) is limited to whatever API the OS exposes. The ultimate, I
suppose, would be to have a self-modifying OS - and then your thing is limited
by whatever the hardware exposes.

All applications only take input from hardware sensors and then have (screen,
storage, network) side-effects. That's all a program ever is. That's Facebook
and Google and WoW and Angry Birds and Wolfram Alpha, and so on. You can try
to bust out of each layer (OS, JVM, Browser) but that in no sense requires
"self-modifying code". Self-modificaton with a compiled language on a mobile
device is a neat trick, but it's self-modification is no more or less profound
than that provided by a browser, modulo performance.

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swiley
Android would be a much more interesting is if the source for everything was
included and could be compiled on the phone.

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sebastianavina
Skynet is alive!

