JTransc + Android/iOS status support

[soywiz via Digitalmars-d]

On Monday, 28 November 2016 at 17:53:30 UTC, Joakim wrote:
> On Monday, 28 November 2016 at 14:28:54 UTC, soywiz wrote:
>> I am working on a software that allows to transform JVM 
>> bytecode into something else. In last version I have done a D 
>> target: https://github.com/jtransc/jtransc
>> D target already passes my test suite and works just fine 
>> (next version will come with some optimizations regarding to 
>> code generation that will improve generation).
>> At this point I'm successfully generating windows/linux and 
>> mac native executables from Java/Kotlin code.
>
> Interesting, might provide a better bridge for Java 
> compatibility on Android.
>
>> It would be awesome to be able to support Android and iOS. I 
>> have seen that there was Android/iOS alpha support in the 
>> past. What is the current status of this?
>
> Android support is in beta, latest cross-compiler and native 
> builds here:
>
> https://github.com/joakim-noah/android/releases
>
> I've been seeing random crashes for apk builds recently, trying 
> to track down why.  I've ported the Teapot OpenGL ES 2.0/C++ 
> sample app from the NDK, but it's got some bugs, debugging that 
> next.  Once both issues are fixed, I'll announce the beta in a 
> new thread.
>
> As for iOS, Dan has been busy with other stuff, may get back to 
> it sometime this winter.  All mobile builds are linked from the 
> main download page, under ldc:
>
> http://dlang.org/download

Thanks you both for the info!

I have seen those links already. I was a bit concerned about the 
support, since it is outside the main development. It is planned 
to be merged in the main projects? Or those were just 
experiments? It would be great to have full support from the 
community that seems to be pretty active lately at github so it 
doesn't end being outdated.

When considering a new target for jtransc i was searching for a 
language like c++ that allowed to generate native executables, 
with gc already included, with safety in mind, and full oop 
included while allowing to go low level when required. And that 
was exactly D. So I can mix both of the two worlds and mix code 
as required (performant parts in D, and higher level/productivity 
in kotlin).

In the case D targets every major popular platforms (including 
mobile) it would be great, since i can generate javascript for 
the web already and d for desktop+mobile covering all my current 
needs. Instead of having to implement a gc for c++. Also D has 
faster compilation times than it which is great.

I will try both projects asap. If it works I will try to port 
libgdx to jtransc+d+android/ios.

Even when in Android I can run Java directly. I think there is 
still a point for it. Android doesn't support java8 directly and 
it can be running either dalvik or art. Also it is easily 
decompilable. So a native with unknown optimizations depending on 
the versio  AOT could make performance much more predictable 
among versions, obfuscate it, allow to use stuff like simd, or 
support higher java versions.

And for iOS it just supports an AOT approach except for 
javascript. So it is great too.

Thank you for the great work on those forks!