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development

It's not just iPhones

July 29, 2010 7:42:04.847

Tim Bray would like more choices for development on the Android platform:

And finally, as a citizen primarily of the Web, I can’t help but notice that in recent years, its interesting bits (Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter, 37 Signals, Ravelry) are largely not being built in Java. I know first-hand that there is a substantial community of really first-rate programmers, people I admire, who for one reason or another just don’t want to deal with Java; and I’d like some of them to become Android developers.

It's interesting that Apple's policies (limiting development to the C family plus Javascript) have gotten so much attention - but the situation on Android isn't that different at the moment. Sure, it's not due to any Google policy, but the end impact works out the same way. Becoming a first class citizen on these devices just isn't that easy without help from the platform vendor.

Bray thinks things will start opening up by 2011; we'll see. I think it's going to be hard for outside developers to keep up with the platform as it changes and evolves...

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posted by James Robertson

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