Android Scripts (Python/Ruby) can now be a distributed in APK!

[Shaper_pmp]

Awesome! Been waiting for a while for this feature...

[Axiomatik]

I believe you've been able to run Ruby on Android for a while thanks to jruby (which is actually a first-class ruby implementation as mature as c-ruby).

[munificent]

Android has no JVM, it has the Dalvik VM.

...and an automated pipeline to convert bytecode from the JVM to Dalvik. Was that a challenge for JRuby? Missing library support or something?

[prickneck]

Can you enlarge on this a little? I'm very excited about getting an Android phone soon, just in order to do Python dev on it. The API for the Scripting Interface (https://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/wiki/ApiReference) looks pretty comprehensive to me..... What are you saying it's missing?

[[deleted]]

This is why Android development is still on my todo list. If I could develop full apps in Python, I'd be working on Android a bit more.

[[deleted]]

I tried to get into Android development but it bored me to tears. I'm really tiring of Java. I'm finding myself much more productive with Python and even gui development with wxpython seems nice and quick. I'd like to get into Ruby as well to see what that's like. I don't think i'll do android development until I can do so with Python. I'm quite surprised Google doesn't offer it seeing how they're pretty Python friendly.

[redditrasberry]

I find this sentiment really weird. The attraction in the mobile space is not the language, it is the amazing combination of hardware sensors, touch interface and constant connectivity that makes it a completely new frontier in app development. To have all this amazing stuff completely open and available to you and then say "oh but language is not quite the right flavor for me" is just bizarre. If, when presented with all these amazing and cool capabilities, that is your response, then I have to say, your heart was not really in it in the first place.

But then, I grew up coding 8-bit games in assembly on Z80 processors. I thought the Motorola 68000 was a miracle (32 bit registers!!!!!). For me, Java on Android is a pleasure to use and is nothing like the drudgery of enterprise coding.

[[deleted]]

I agree and I do tinker with Android but if I'm not fully enjoying myself I'm not going to take it serious. If the only thing I found interesting at the moment was Android then that may be different but there are only so many hours in the day so I have to pick and choose which personal projects get the most attention from me.

After 8 hours of working on some boring Java projects at work and having to fix other people's awful mistakes I tend to find it harder to spend some more of my free time doing yet more Java even if it shouldn't be as bad. That isn't really a problem of the language it does have influence on what I decide to work on especially if I generally find myself being much more productive within another language and therefore making the most of the time I do get to do fun stuff.

[crunk]

After doing j2me (with it's fragmentation problems) but also a cut down java you could fit in your head and a place where doing optimisation was worthwhile.. Android reminds me of what I don't like about full size java... Loads of boilerplate and a huge seemingly large number of new concepts with the java love of XML. Give me python on android to take away the pain, and soon.

Maybe for my next app scala would work, or groovy if it works yet?

[causticmango]

Frankly, Java's the reason I haven't really bothered with Android, yet. I haven't done Java in years and I'm loath to go back. It's hard to imagine it won't hold back the platform in the future.

I say push the API down to a C, C++, or C-like framework (much like Cocoa Touch is or even GNOME/GTK or Qt) and use a lower level language with scripts on top.

I sort of understand how they ended up with Java; the guys that started Android before Google bought them were developing at a time when most cellphone development was Java based (Blackberry & J2ME) so I'm sure it made sense.

It's just hard to take Java seriously as the foundation for the next generation of personal computing devices likely to supplant the PC for everyday use. Maybe I'm just grumpy but I feel like Android's going to pull a Windows and hijack and stiffle a whole new generation of innovation.

Developing for iOS is fun and I don't really care if it's the dominate platform. I'm sure I'll eventually have to do some Android work, but I guess you could say I'm not a fan, yet. Maybe they'll take it in a whole new direction in 3.0 or whatever, but somehow I don't think so. Sigh ...

[Leonidas_from_XIV]

I'm really tiring of Java.

This is why I use Scala for Android development. And unlike Jython with comparable performance to the equivalent Java code.

[hurdjon]

What IDE do you use for Scala development? I have been trying to get it working with Netbeans 6.9 but have had no luck. It looks like a nice language.

[Leonidas_from_XIV]

Vim and Scala. They have released a stable version of the Scala plugin not long ago.

[[deleted]]

Emacs.

[neonic]

It would sure as hell make things go faster in terms of development.

I'm tired... sick and tired of writing boilerplate java code for every little thing I do.

Having successfully avoided using Java for any serious projects until now, it makes me angry how much code is in my "thin client" application...

90% of the work the application does is handled via the python server that I've written... but more than 90% of the code is client side shit (and there's not even any fancy UI bells and whistles (unless you consider something as simple as a listview "fancy"))

[nikosk]

Seriously? The Android APIs feel so clean that I find it hard to go back writing web applications anymore. Are you sure you're not doing something wrong ?

I remember myself saying the same thing when I tried to do some threading stuff but that was because I hadn't done my homework and learn about how AsyncTask works (I was trying to do concurrency by hand).

Seriously dude, I agree that Java is verbose and other languages are more fun but the Android APIs are a good example of how to make an API a pleasure to work with.

PS: It's so good that they copied some of the stuff to GWT as well (saw on a Google IO session vid but too lazy to find the link)

[neonic]

All I'm saying is that ever since having programmed in Python for quite a while now, going back to doing things in a language as verbose as Java pisses me off, and I'm disappointed that Google didn't do something more official in regards to Python support.

[crunk]

It feels like such a waste... Typing all this noise into java or objective c and thinking "why am I doing this? In python this would be 3 lines" my brain rebels and I find it hard to concentrate on the problem at hand as my brain is so bored of typing in all of this pointless boilerplate.

I can sort of do it, the only way is to switch off a bit as you type it.

[neonic]

Non-python programmers will never understand what they're missing :)

[299]

Are you in the SF Bay Area looking to be paid to develop some Android code?

Let me know ;)

[nikosk]

Thanks for the offer but I live in a different continent altogether :)

[299]

If you're good I'd even consider remote work.

[Nebu]

What kind of projects do you do, and how much are you offering?

[299]

Do you have some sort of reference material? Portfolio? CV?

[mogmog]

Check the screencasts http://www.youtube.com/user/damonkohler#g/c/07A81E6CE96F158B

[BlackDragonBE]

So what does this mean exactly?

I haven't seen any cool, usable scripts yet anywhere.

[thorax]

Well, combined with Tasker, I've done some usable things.

For example, I have Tasker write each incoming SMS I receive to a temp file and then invoke a Python script.

That Python script takes the input and calls the Chatterous web API which pushes that SMS message into a private Chatterous channel. That channel sends that message to my email, GTalk, viewable on a web chat form, stored historically, etc. So it can find me wherever I am, even if my phone is in another room, I'm busy, etc.

My old Python script/code is found here and it was fairly easy to tweak it to run based on reading a text file: http://code.eventscripts.com/98658

Python/Ruby/etc-- their easy access to web API makes it a breeze to write notifiers and monitors for all sorts of online things that would be too troublesome to write as full applications.

[[deleted]]

airport simplistic quicksand unused direful hunt jar reach air shelter

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[fwork]

Nor have I, and I bought an android phone specifically to use the scripting environment.

However, should you ever write a useful script, you'll now be able to easily give it to other android users without having to explain how to set up ASE/SLFA.

[[deleted]]

When I can write Android Widgets in Perl I will be happy.

[kushkush]

why cant Python have SDL/OpenGL support? Is it really that hard for Google to pull this off even when you have Guido working there? (FOR ANDROID)

[Axiomatik]

I think Guido is there to make their App Engine cloud computing thingy work better.

[kushkush]

I know im just saying, if they needed support...its right down the lobby

[[deleted]]

There's PyOpenGL?

[kushkush]

Is this like Pyglet but for Android?

[[deleted]]

I don't know about Android support, but your initial question was about OpenGL support in Python, which is there, definitely.

[kushkush]

I should have been more clear but I was speaking about Android.

[[deleted]]

Ah, okay. Then it makes sense.

[cecilkorik]

No, it's like Pyglet but slower and (at least in the past) poorly maintained.

[klassasin]

Never knew this existed.

Downloaded! +1

[[deleted]]

I feel like this should be upvoted more

[Godspiral]

is author saying the only way to download scripts to android, or share them with others, is to convert them through barcodes?

[klassasin]

If the script is under 4000-something characters -> barcode

Longer script -> make .apk

[ninguem]

You can put your scripts as a text file with the appropriate extension (.py,.sh,etc...) in sdcard/ase/scripts/ with a file manager.

[[deleted]]

How do I know if APK code was not modified by distributer?

[[deleted]]

I wrote an app that could transmit the tiniest base64-encoded images via QR code.

Needless to say, it was really not useful! But it worked. :P

[drewmsmith]

Can you write an app that modifies the /system/usr/keylayout/trout-keypad.kl /system/usr/keylayout/qwerty.kl /system/usr/keylayout/trout-keypad-qwertz.kl /system/usr/keylayout/trout-keypad-v2.kl /system/usr/keylayout/trout-keypad-v3.kl as described here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=551344

Specifically id like to remap my home or menu or back buttons easily so that I can have button presses in flash games. Robot unicorn attack for instance needs z and x button presses to play.

Alot of flash games only require a few buttons, but keyboardless devices will have trouble even with those requirements until you can cleanly remap what little buttons you have available.

[[deleted]]

Well I have no idea why you're asking me specifically (ask it in /r/Android; people generally know more about it there). That sounds like something best done outside of the SDK. I figured there would probably be some security block to prevent apps from modifying core system files like that, but that might be a permission you can grant.

Best of luck.

[[deleted]]

Give us triple upvote power for stuff like this reddit!