Crazy idea: Ada for Android? (A4A?)

Crazy idea: Ada for Android? (A4A?)

[mockturtle]

Dear.all,
I just read an article (on a paper magazine, so no link available)
about Android.  As I understand, Android applications are executed by
Dalvik, a specially-tailored Java VM and that there is a converter
from Java VM to Dalvik.  Since jgnat translates Ada to JVM... The idea
of being able to write Android applications in Ada is too
attractive... Do you believe that it is too ambitious a goal to try to
bring Ada to the Android world?  (I have also a nice acronym with
minimal clashes: A4A :-) :-) :-)

Re: Crazy idea: Ada for Android? (A4A?)

[Simon Wright]

mockturtle <framefritti@gmail.com> writes:

> I just read an article (on a paper magazine, so no link available)
> about Android.  As I understand, Android applications are executed by
> Dalvik, a specially-tailored Java VM and that there is a converter
> from Java VM to Dalvik.  Since jgnat translates Ada to JVM... The idea
> of being able to write Android applications in Ada is too
> attractive... Do you believe that it is too ambitious a goal to try to
> bring Ada to the Android world?  (I have also a nice acronym with
> minimal clashes: A4A :-) :-) :-)

Sounds like fun!

Re: Crazy idea: Ada for Android? (A4A?)

[Martin Krischik]

Am 07.11.2010, 11:48 Uhr, schrieb mockturtle <framefritti@gmail.com>:

> Dear.all,
> I just read an article (on a paper magazine, so no link available)
> about Android.  As I understand, Android applications are executed by
> Dalvik, a specially-tailored Java VM and that there is a converter
> from Java VM to Dalvik.

Yes. That »converter«  (called aapt) is the default way to develop.

> Since jgnat translates Ada to JVM... The idea
> of being able to write Android applications in Ada is too
> attractive... Do you believe that it is too ambitious a goal to try to
> bring Ada to the Android world?  (I have also a nice acronym with
> minimal clashes: A4A :-) :-) :-)

I tried Scala for Android and it did work. However: Scala needs a 6MB  
runtime library. aapt needs minute or so (on a 8 core MacPro) to convert  
that library and the result is 6 times big as an average Android  
application. So Scala is only an option for devices where you can  
pre-install the runtime library. That is: phones where you have root  
access.

So translated to Ada that means either “pragma No_Runtime;” (painful) or  
again pre-install the runtime-library (no good for customer devices).

Alternatively there is the NDK  for native non-VM development. But that  
would only be do-able for Ada-Core itself.

Regards

Martin

-- 
Martin Krischik
mailto://krischik@users.sourceforge.net
https://sourceforge.net/users/krischik

Re: Crazy idea: Ada for Android? (A4A?)

[Simon Clubley]

On 2010-11-07, Martin Krischik <krischik@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
> Am 07.11.2010, 11:48 Uhr, schrieb mockturtle <framefritti@gmail.com>:
>
>> Dear.all,
>> I just read an article (on a paper magazine, so no link available)
>> about Android.  As I understand, Android applications are executed by
>> Dalvik, a specially-tailored Java VM and that there is a converter
>> from Java VM to Dalvik.
>

I'm on the verge of buying my first Android phone and I have considered
this as well. However, I was thinking about the NDK level instead of the
Java based SDK level.

>
> Alternatively there is the NDK  for native non-VM development. But that  
> would only be do-able for Ada-Core itself.
>

Why ?

OAR (the creators of RTEMS) have modified gcc so that Ada will run
on RTEMS. The AVR-Ada people have modified gcc so that Ada will run on
bare metal AVRs.

It's probably way too much work for me in light of other hobbyist projects
I have pending, but I don't see why someone more familiar with the code
base could not do it (at least in principle.)

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world