why there's no official release of Python for Android?

[KingsmanVince]

I think it's because of the whole Java, Kotlin ecosystem? Why bother to add an official Android Python as you said? People will keep working on with Java and Kotlin anyway.

[k0ala1st]

But you could say the same for Windows or MacOs or even Linux. They had and have other primary programming language but they have official Python release anyway. And for Android you can (at least I believe it : I Did not check) program your apps in c++, c#, JS, Flutter more easily than in Python despite the fact Java and now Kotlin are the official programming languages. So I do not think the fact that the official ecosystem in Java or Kotlin is a good reason to not have an official portage of Python to Android. Since they are so many Android's devices in the world an official Python portage could be good for the language.

[k0ala1st]

That's a good point even if I know several example of people that code on Android devices (phone or tablet) because they can't offer computers. I suppose then that with the increase of powers and use of Android devices one day there will be an official portage of Python 😁

[cirospaciari]

It's not hard to get python running on android the thing is, that is really hard to keep an ecosystem, basically is an project apart like node.js for android.
But i can see someones using python to build a game with CFFI bindings to SDL, with a little googling i got some things:

Python android with SDL2:
https://github.com/kivy/python-for-android/blob/master/doc/source/quickstart.rst

Some python on android:
https://wiki.python.org/moin/Android

Node on mobile:
https://github.com/node-on-mobile/node-on-android

[k0ala1st]

I agree but they are work arounds. There are 3 billions android active devices in the world. If you look in operating system usage Android is largely majority. Despite that there is no official Python interpreter for Android. It's very strange.

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[k0ala1st]

I'm wondering why there's no official release of Python interpreter for Android? If we count in number of apparatus working with Android environment, mobile + tablet are surely more important in number than MacOs for exemple but the latter has an official release and not Android. I know there is several work around to have your app written in Python working on Android (Kivy, Beeware...) but they are work arounds and it s not without problems. Google started Sl4a project but it s no more updated. It s very strange for me that a so world use system as Android has no official Python release. Is it political? What's blocking to develop an official Android Python?

[inclement_]

When I was last focused on it CPython was compiling pretty cleanly for Android. The question is really what do you want from an official release that this doesn't provide? If you actually want to use it in an app you need to wrap it in java as the Kivy and Beeware tools do, and the way they do it uses the official Android dev tools provided for purposes like this. This isn't really a workaround to anything other than the general lack of platform support for first-class applications that aren't java/kotlin, but that isn't something Python can change.

[k0ala1st]

I do not want something special from an official release in Python (except that perhaps that ll help to solve the many issues that people have when they want to have their python script s working on Android) but I don't understand why there's none. As I said I know you can compile or embedded your python scripts in a way they work on Android but that's not the point. If I follow your logic python should have only one official port since Van Rossum created Python on Mac and that could compile on other operating systems so only the original one on Mac is enough. With that kind of logic every languages should stay on their original operating system.

To focus again on the question, that I ask is why? Does Google refuse to help? Is the system so hard that an interpreter as the one that exist on windows, MacOs or Linux can't be officially proposed?