killer App for D? (was: State of D on iOS/Android)

[Alex Rønne Petersen]

On 29-01-2012 02:58, J Arrizza wrote:
>          > As far as I know, gdc can already produce ARM code since it
>         uses the
>          > gcc backend. All we need now is a nice native D interface to the
>          > Android libraries, and I'll be a very very happy man.
>
>
> Isn't this the killer "app" for D (like ROR for Ruby, etc.) ?  There was
> a thread a while ago where someone said the popularity of a language
> depends on an app that drives the use of that language.

Yes, D on Android would be great.

In fact, D already runs on Android if you do some tweaks to the GDC 
build. I've managed to get D apps running on both a Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 
an Efika MX.

>
> So why not D-based Android applications? Consider:
>
>     - D-based Android apps running on millions of phones, tablets, iPad
>     killers, etc.
>     - Android developers choose Java for quick and dirty, or choose D
>     when speed is of the essence. "Quick and dirty" becomes less of an
>     issue as more of the common JDK functionality is added to Phobos or

I think that's pushing it. I see no reason to include something that 
domain and target specific in the standard library.

>     is at least available for D. As some critical point is reached, why
>     choose Java at all?
>     - As more devices use Android, it's GUI library will become more
>     popular.  With a bit of work, PC apps will start using D-based
>     Android GUIs for cross-platform development. Forget QT, GTK, etc.
>     etc., use Android for the app that runs on the PC, on the tablet and
>     on your phone.

The concept of a cross-platform UI is broken. Put your logic in a 
library and develop native UIs for each platform you wish to support. It 
is the only way to give users the experience they expect and want.

>
>
> John

-- 
- Alex