Uphill

[Joakim via Digitalmars-d]

On Sunday, 31 May 2015 at 07:54:29 UTC, Paulo Pinto wrote:
> However, C++ seems to be really into the route of library only 
> language if we look at how it is available on mobile OS, only 
> as complement to the main languages, not as the language under 
> the spotlight.
>
> Even on WinRT, C++/CX doesn't seem to get many followers 
> outside the game developers world. To the point that Windows 10 
> will also expose DirectX as WinRT components (on 8.x it is only 
> directly available to C++).

You seem to dismiss game development as some niche, when it is 
one of the main killer apps driving the mobile boom.  Around 80% 
of the top paid apps on iOS and Android are games:

https://www.appannie.com/apps/google-play/top/united-states/

Most mobile games are written in C/C++/OpenGL, to the point where 
google even makes their Play Games Services APIs available as C++ 
headers, which they don't do for most of the rest of their 
Java-only APIs:

https://developers.google.com/games/services/cpp/gettingStartedAndroid

As for WinRT, almost nobody uses Windows Phone and Windows 8 was 
a huge bust, especially Modern apps, so that's neither here nor 
there.

You're right that google keeps pushing Java into the spotlight, 
but it is native development that is actually doing well, pushing 
Java back into library mode for google's Java-only APIs.  Perhaps 
that's why they compile Java Ahead-Of-Time since the recent 
Lollipop release. :)