Graal on Android?

Engine · #1 02-13-2010, 05:19 PM

Will this ever happen or do you plan on sticking to the iPhone? With more and more phones using the android operating system and with them getting cheaper and cheaper I think it would be a good move. Would it be much work to port Graal iPhone to it?

Demisis_P2P · #2 02-13-2010, 05:30 PM

I think Stefan said in the Classic Graal for iPhone thread that it wouldn't be too much work, and suggested that he'd already given it some thought.

So maybe it's only a matter of time?

Immolate · #3 02-13-2010, 05:41 PM

Yeah, I remember Unixmad saying that they had successfully ported Graal to Android.

Engine · #4 02-13-2010, 07:08 PM

Could someone link the post about it because I can't seem to find it.

coreys · #5 02-13-2010, 07:08 PM

They both run on a Java Platform so I could understand it would be very easy for him, although I imagine there are challenges considering the wide array of differences between android phones. Different hardware, different input capabilities, different processing power, different firmware versions, etc.

But I would absolutely love to see this and it would be a very smart move, could double their mobile popularity and, over time, much more than that.

Android is poised to take over and I can't wait until it does.

Immolate · #6 02-13-2010, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coreys

They both run on a Java Platform

That's interesting. When I spoke to Stefan about developing applications for the iPhone, he never mentioned anything about Java.

Skyld · #7 02-13-2010, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coreys

They both run on a Java Platform so I could understand it would be very easy for him

The Graal client is actually not using Java, it is instead using the NDK when built for Android. I don't know how complete it is though or whether it will even be released yet. I suggest the hardware variations in Android devices might pose a problem though, since they are sometimes quite a lot bigger than between the iPhones.

coreys · #8 02-13-2010, 07:58 PM

Hm, well both iPhone and Android are meant to run apps on the Java platform. I know that Android at least made their own JVM interpreter that's leaps and bounds faster on a mobile platform.

I've heard of using C++ to make apps for iPhone, but last I checked you didn't have as many SDK resources available to you, and I haven't heard of -any- way to do it on Android (although I have seen a project to run Python, Perl, and other scripting languages on top of the Java runtime).

And, yeah, Android devices have more than just different flash memory and processing power. But at the very least every Android device has either a qwerty keyboard or a touchscreen (or both), and I know the SDK would let you check which are available. So on some Android devices the control could end up being like on PC.

Skyld · #9 02-13-2010, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coreys

Hm, well both iPhone and Android are meant to run apps on the Java platform. I know that Android at least made their own JVM interpreter that's leaps and bounds faster on a mobile platform.

The Android platform uses Dalvik. Essentially it is a custom compiler that takes Java code and translates it into Dalvik so that it can run on Android. The Android NDK makes it possible to develop apps in a native language like C++ though, which is what the Android Graal client uses. The iPhone, on the other hand, doesn't use Java at all; applications are written usually using Objective-C and Cocoa bindings, but you can use C++ and just bind to the bits of Cocoa that you need (like the virtual keyboard).

Quote:

Originally Posted by coreys

and I haven't heard of -any- way to do it on Android (although I have seen a project to run Python, Perl, and other scripting languages on top of the Java runtime).

http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/1.6_r1/index.html

coreys · #10 02-13-2010, 09:40 PM

Wikipedia has lied to me, then

12171217 · #11 02-13-2010, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coreys

I've heard of using C++ to make apps for iPhone, but last I checked you didn't have as many SDK resources available to you, and I haven't heard of -any- way to do it on Android (although I have seen a project to run Python, Perl, and other scripting languages on top of the Java runtime).

I'm fairly certain the only language you can use in a practical manner for iPhone app development is objective-c, and a lot of people I've talked to prefer it to C++ by far, saying it's what C++ should've been.

coreys · #12 02-13-2010, 11:40 PM

I'm partial to C++ and Python, but that's getting off topic.

Anyways, anything definitive about Android?

Demisis_P2P · #13 02-14-2010, 02:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skyld

The Graal client is actually not using Java, it is instead using the NDK when built for Android. I don't know how complete it is though or whether it will even be released yet. I suggest the hardware variations in Android devices might pose a problem though, since they are sometimes quite a lot bigger than between the iPhones.

That's an issue for the end user though. If they buy low end phones then they shouldn't expect to be able to run all the same content as the higher end phones.

As it stands the most popular Android phones are more powerful than the iPhone 3GS and the low end phones are about comparable to the normal iPhone 3G and 2G. So it shouldn't be a problem until some of the super-low-end, sub-$99 Android phones that are currently being developed are released.

12171217 · #14 02-14-2010, 03:09 AM

It's pretty difficult to compare the hardware, it's not exactly apples to apples..

coreys · #15 02-14-2010, 03:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demisis_P2P

That's an issue for the end user though. If they buy low end phones then they shouldn't expect to be able to run all the same content as the higher end phones.

As it stands the most popular Android phones are more powerful than the iPhone 3GS and the low end phones are about comparable to the normal iPhone 3G and 2G. So it shouldn't be a problem until some of the super-low-end, sub-$99 Android phones that are currently being developed are released.

The way Android Apps are meant to be designed is to decide on a range of hardware that you'll support (so from the lower end iPhone 2G/3G comparable phones to the Google Nexus

) and design your app so that it will at least run on the lowest end of those.

Years ago I knew of people who could hardly run Graal on their crappy old machines. It's just a fact of life that your app will not hit all audiences due to hardware constraints, but with Android it is fairly easy to hit a large amount of them. Especially if the current low end Android phones are comparable to the iPhone 2G/3G or even the iPod Touch, all of which run Graal iPhone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 12171217

It's pretty difficult to compare the hardware, it's not exactly apples to apples..

i c wut u did thar