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We are working on an S60 version and this platform has a nice Python API..
However, there is nothing official about Python on Android, but since Jython exists, is there a way to let the snake and the robot work together??
One way is to use Kivy:
Open source Python library for rapid development of applications
that make use of innovative user interfaces, such as multi-touch apps.
Kivy runs on Linux, Windows, OS X, Android and iOS. You can run the same [python] code on all supported platforms.
Kivy Showcase app
There is also the new Android Scripting Environment (ASE/SL4A) project. It looks awesome, and it has some integration with native Android components.
Note: no longer under "active development", but some forks may be.
Yes! : Android Scripting Environment
An example via Matt Cutts via SL4A -- "here’s a barcode scanner written in six lines of Python code:
import android
droid = android.Android()
code = droid.scanBarcode()
isbn = int(code['result']['SCAN_RESULT'])
url = "http://books.google.com?q=%d" % isbn
droid.startActivity('android.intent.action.VIEW', url)
Pygame Subset for Android
Pygame is a 2D game engine for Python (on desktop) that is popular with new programmers. The Pygame Subset for Android describes itself as...
...a port of a subset of Pygame functionality to the Android platform. The goal of the project is to allow the creation of Android-specific games, and to ease the porting of games from PC-like platforms to Android.
The examples include a complete game packaged as an APK, which is pretty interesting.
As a Python lover and Android programmer, I'm sad to say this is not a good way to go. There are two problems:
One problem is that there is a lot more than just a programming language to the Android development tools. A lot of the Android graphics involve XML files to configure the display, similar to HTML. The built-in java objects are integrated with this XML layout, and it's a lot easier than writing your code to go from logic to bitmap.
The other problem is that the G1 (and probably other Android devices for the near future) are not that fast. 200 MHz processors and RAM is very limited. Even in Java, you have to do a decent amount of rewriting-to-avoid-more-object-creation if you want to make your app perfectly smooth. Python is going to be too slow for a while still on mobile devices.
Scripting Layer for Android
SL4A does what you want. You can easily install it directly onto your device from their site, and do not need root.
It supports a range of languages. Python is the most mature. By default, it uses Python 2.6, but there is a 3.2 port you can use instead. I have used that port for all kinds of things on a Galaxy S2 and it worked fine.
API
SL4A provides a port of their android library for each supported language. The library provides an interface to the underlying Android API through a single Android object.
from android import Android
droid = Android()
droid.ttsSpeak('hello world') # example using the text to speech facade
Each language has pretty much the same API. You can even use the JavaScript API inside webviews.
let droid = new Android();
droid.ttsSpeak("hello from js");
User Interfaces
For user interfaces, you have three options:
You can easily use the generic, native dialogues and menus through the
API. This is good for confirmation dialogues and other basic user inputs.
You can also open a webview from inside a Python script, then use HTML5
for the user interface. When you use webviews from Python, you can pass
messages back and forth, between the webview and the Python process that
spawned it. The UI will not be native, but it is still a good option to
have.
There is some support for native Android user interfaces, but I am not
sure how well it works; I just haven't ever used it.
You can mix options, so you can have a webview for the main interface, and still use native dialogues.
QPython
There is a third party project named QPython. It builds on SL4A, and throws in some other useful stuff.
QPython gives you a nicer UI to manage your installation, and includes a little, touchscreen code editor, a Python shell, and a PIP shell for package management. They also have a Python 3 port. Both versions are available from the Play Store, free of charge. QPython also bundles libraries from a bunch of Python on Android projects, including Kivy, so it is not just SL4A.
Note that QPython still develop their fork of SL4A (though, not much to be honest). The main SL4A project itself is pretty much dead.
Useful Links
SL4A Project (now on GitHub): https://github.com/damonkohler/sl4a
SL4A Python 3 Port: https://code.google.com/p/python-for-android/wiki/Python3
QPython Project: http://qpython.com
Learn SL4A (Tutorialspoint): https://www.tutorialspoint.com/sl4a/index.htm
Cross-Compilation & Ignifuga
My blog has instructions and a patch for cross compiling Python 2.7.2 for Android.
I've also open sourced Ignifuga, my 2D Game Engine. It's Python/SDL based, and it cross compiles for Android. Even if you don't use it for games, you might get useful ideas from the code or builder utility (named Schafer, after Tim... you know who).
Termux
You can use the Termux app, which provides a POSIX environment for Android, to install Python.
Note that apt install python will install Python3 on Termux. For Python2, you need to use apt install python2.
Some demos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqqsl72mASE
The GitHub project: https://github.com/termux
Kivy
I wanted to add to what #JohnMudd has written about Kivy. It has been years since the situation he described, and Kivy has evolved substantially.
The biggest selling point of Kivy, in my opinion, is its cross-platform compatibility. You can code and test everything using any desktop environment (Windows/*nix etc.), then package your app for a range of different platforms, including Android, iOS, MacOS and Windows (though apps often lack the native look and feel).
With Kivy's own KV language, you can code and build the GUI interface easily (it's just like Java XML, but rather than TextView etc., KV has its own ui.widgets for a similar translation), which is in my opinion quite easy to adopt.
Currently Buildozer and python-for-android are the most recommended tools to build and package your apps. I have tried them both and can firmly say that they make building Android apps with Python a breeze. Their guides are well documented too.
iOS is another big selling point of Kivy. You can use the same code base with few changes required via kivy-ios Homebrew tools, although Xcode is required for the build, before running on their devices (AFAIK the iOS Simulator in Xcode currently doesn't work for the x86-architecture build). There are also some dependency issues which must be manually compiled and fiddled around with in Xcode to have a successful build, but they wouldn't be too difficult to resolve and people in Kivy Google Group are really helpful too.
With all that being said, users with good Python knowledge should have no problem picking up the basics quickly.
If you are using Kivy for more serious projects, you may find existing modules unsatisfactory. There are some workable solutions though. With the (work in progress) pyjnius for Android, and pyobjus, users can now access Java/Objective-C classes to control some of the native APIs.
Using SL4A (which has already been mentioned by itself in other answers) you can run a full-blown web2py instance (other python web frameworks are likely candidates as well). SL4A doesn't allow you to do native UI components (buttons, scroll bars, and the like), but it does support WebViews. A WebView is basically nothing more than a striped down web browser pointed at a fixed address. I believe the native Gmail app uses a WebView instead of going the regular widget route.
This route would have some interesting features:
In the case of most python web frameworks, you could actually develop and test without using an android device or android emulator.
Whatever Python code you end up writing for the phone could also be put on a public webserver with very little (if any) modification.
You could take advantage of all of the crazy web stuff out there: query, HTML5, CSS3, etc.
Not at the moment and you would be lucky to get Jython to work soon. If you're planning to start your development now you would be better off with just sticking to Java for now on.
QPython
I use the QPython app. It's free and includes a code editor, an interactive interpreter and a package manager, allowing you to create and execute Python programs directly on your device.
Here are some tools listed in official python website
There is an app called QPython3 in playstore which can be used for both editing and running python script.
Playstore link
Another app called Termux in which you can install python using command
pkg install python
Playstore Link
If you want develop apps , there is Python Android Scripting Layer (SL4A) .
The Scripting Layer for Android, SL4A, is an open source application that allows programs written in a range of interpreted languages to run on Android. It also provides a high level API that allows these programs to interact with the Android device, making it easy to do stuff like accessing sensor data, sending an SMS, rendering user interfaces and so on.
You can also check PySide for Android, which is actually Python bindings for the Qt 4.
There's a platform called PyMob where apps can be written purely in Python and the compiler tool-flow (PyMob) converts them in native source codes for various platforms.
Also check python-for-android
python-for-android is an open source build tool to let you package Python code into standalone android APKs. These can be passed around, installed, or uploaded to marketplaces such as the Play Store just like any other Android app. This tool was originally developed for the Kivy cross-platform graphical framework, but now supports multiple bootstraps and can be easily extended to package other types of Python apps for Android.
Try Chaquopy
A Python SDK for Android
Anddd... BeeWare
BeeWare allows you to write your app in Python and release it on multiple platforms. No need to rewrite the app in multiple programming languages. It means no issues with build tools, environments, compatibility, etc.
From the Python for android site:
Python for android is a project to create your own Python distribution including the modules you want, and create an apk including python, libs, and your application.
Chaquopy
Chaquopy is a plugin for Android Studio's Gradle-based build system. It focuses on close integration with the standard Android development tools.
It provides complete APIs to call Java from Python or Python from Java, allowing the developer to use whichever language is best for each component of their app.
It can automatically download PyPI packages and build them into an app, including selected native packages such as NumPy.
It enables full access to all Android APIs from Python, including the native user interface toolkit (example pure-Python activity).
This used to be a commercial product, but it's now free and open-source.
(I am the creator of this product.)
Yet another attempt: https://code.google.com/p/android-python27/
This one embed directly the Python interpretter in your app apk.
You can run your Python code using sl4a. sl4a supports Python, Perl, JRuby, Lua, BeanShell, JavaScript, Tcl, and shell script.
You can learn sl4a Python Examples.
You can use QPython:
It has a Python Console, Editor, as well as Package Management / Installers
http://qpython.com/
It's an open source project with both Python 2 and Python 3 implementations. You can download the source and the Android .apk files directly from github.
QPython 2: https://github.com/qpython-android/qpython/releases
QPython 3: https://github.com/qpython-android/qpython3/releases
Another option if you are looking for 3.4.2 or newer (3.9.6 as of this writing) is this archive on GitHub.
Python3-Android 3.4.2 or Python3-Android 3.9.6
I believe the original archive supports Python 3.4.2, the latest GRRedwings branch support 3.9.6 and the 22b version of the NDK. Older branches support other versions, but are not as easy to compile with docker.
The older version you simply clone the archive, run make and you get the .so or the .a
The newer versions follow the ReadMe, but it uses docker for consistent builds.
I currently use this to run raw Python on android devices. With a couple modifications to the build files you can also make x86 and armeabi 64 bit
Take a look at BeeWare. It has grown significantly. It is awarded with PSF (Python Software Foundation) Education Grant.
Beeware's aim is to be able to create native apps with Python for all supported operating systems, including Android.
Official Website: Beeware
Github Repo: https://github.com/beeware
Didn't see this posted here, but you can do it with Pyside and Qt now that Qt works on Android thanks to Necessitas.
It seems like quite a kludge at the moment but could be a viable route eventually...
http://qt-project.org/wiki/PySide_for_Android_guide
One more option seems to be pyqtdeploy which citing the docs is:
a tool that, in conjunction with other tools provided with Qt, enables
the deployment of PyQt4 and PyQt5 applications written with Python
v2.7 or Python v3.3 or later. It supports deployment to desktop
platforms (Linux, Windows and OS X) and to mobile platforms (iOS and
Android).
According to Deploying PyQt5 application to Android via pyqtdeploy and Qt5 it is actively developed, although it is difficult to find examples of working Android apps or tutorial on how to cross-compile all the required libraries to Android. It is an interesting project to keep in mind though!
Check out enaml-native which takes the react-native concept and applies it to python.
It lets users build apps with native Android widgets and provides APIs to use android and java libraries from python.
It also integrates with android-studio and shares a few of react's nice dev features like code reloading and remote debugging.
We are starting some new app development but because of special business requirements, need to support back to Mac OS X 10.3 as well as PPC/Intel CPUs.
The latest Xcode 4 isn't an option, from what I can tell it only goes back to 10.5 and doesn't support PPC at all. Is Xcode 3 an option? Would it be easier to just use Java?
P.S. From anyone experienced in either, can you please comment on some of the pros and cons you've bumped into?
EDIT
As requested, here's a brief overview of the app:
The app needs to talk to a server which will expose JSON web services. The app itself needs to be built in a way that will allow plugins (not 3rd party, but in-house with the ability to customize which features the customer owns). Each plugin will gather specific information about the host OS - such as running apps, users, CPU usage, etc.
If you can find a way to make Objective-C work with your requirements, it is worth it in my opinion.
I myself am a former Java developer who has moved into the creation of native Mac OS and iOS apps. I tried using Java for some of my early Mac OS projects and always found the support to be lacking. It can be done, but it was always more difficult than it should've been and never worked as well as a native app.
Here is a link to another SO post that describes some workarounds for getting older SDK versions working in Xcode 4. I can't vouch for how well they work with current versions of Xcode, but it's worth trying.
In view of your requirements, especially the need to do some system evaluation, I would strongly recommend to use Objective-C and the Apple development environment. You will have a lot of difficulties using Java to retrieve the neccessary information about the host OS, that you want to use in your application.
You could try to run Xcode with older SDK versions, but I have virtually no experience on OSX to give you solid advice on how to do this.
EDIT: My Xcode 4 gives me an option to select a "Deployment Target", where I can go back to supporting 10.1, but I have no idea, if this is the right thing...
Well,
Apple isn't a Java friendly company. You don't have all the bindings you may need on their JVM.
So I strongelly recommend (given that your project will be Mac OS X only) Objective C instead of Java
I program in Java but on Mac OS X, Objective-C is better than Java because it is faster and developed by Apple itself. Moreover, if you develop a program in Objective-C, you can sell it on the Mac App Store while if you develop it with Java you can't.
So go with Objective-C.
I am a Java J2SE developer, and i want to learn J2ME to start creating mobile applications.I see i can use the default Oracle Java ME SDK. Do you know other Mobile SDks that are Java based, as i want to write Java code ?
IMHO Android is the way to go if you want to do java for the mobile, even better than j2me.
see Android SDK
Here's a list of Java ME SDK suppliers / vendors that I was able to find using Google:
Motorola
LG
Nokia
Samsung
Sony Ericsson
RIM
and probably more
Netbeans Java ME plug-in is kinda the same than Java ME SDK, but obviously with all the options Netbeans include. That's the one I use.
And if you're decided to go on with Java ME, I suggest you to have a look to LWUIT, in order to make nicer interfaces within the own Java Me technology.
Eclipse works just fine for this purpose. Have a look at Mobile Tools for Java (formerly known as EclipseME).
From the eclipse me link:
EclipseME is an Eclipse plugin to help develop J2ME MIDlets. EclipseME does the "grunt work" of connecting Wireless Toolkits to the Eclipse development environment, allowing you to focus on developing your application, rather than worrying about the special needs of J2ME development.
If you want Java for mobile and not necessarily J2ME, you can also try Android and Blackberry development.
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I was wondering if is it possible to develop iPhone applications using Java plus XMLV, which claims to cross-compile Java-based Android applications to native iPhone applications.
Is XMLV a viable way to develop iPhone applications using Java?
Here are a few Java code examples used to build and application in an iPhone:
http://www.xmlvm.org/iphone/#
I think we will have to wait a couple of years more to see more progress. However, there are now more frameworks and tools available:
Here a list of 5 options:
Codename One
RoboVM <-- Closed
Avian no maintainer
XMLVM
J2ObjC
Multi-OS Engine not maintained
If you've completed your other projects, why not take the time to learn Objective-C? There is a ton of material out on the web to help you get started. Honestly, it won't be that hard and learning to do some memory management will be a great learning exercise. Have you programmed in C before?
Most cross compilers won't do a great job in converting your code, and debugging your project may become much more difficult if you develop them this way.
I think your teacher sent you down the wrong path.
This is a classic example of trying to put a square peg into a round hole. The best way to develop for the iPhone is with the iPhone SDK and objective C. The best way to develop for Andriod is Java and the Android SDK. The best way to develop for WinMobile is C#/VB and the .Net Framework.
As you can see each has their own "best" SDK. Since you are only learning Java I would second the suggestion to play around with Java and Android.
There is anew tool called Codename one: One SDK based on JAVA to code in WP8, Android, iOS with all extensive features
Features:
Full Android environment with super fast android simulator
An iPhone/iPad simulator with easy to take iPhone apps to large screen iPad in minutes.
Full support for standard java debugging, profiling for apps on any platform.
Easy themeing / styling – Only a click away
More at Develop Android, iOS iPhone, WP8 apps using Java
take a look at codenameone.com project, it's a cross platform mobile framework where the ui part is a fork of LWUIT.
This project leverage xmlvm to translates the java bytes code to Objective C
You can also take a look at RoboVM.
It translates Java byte-code into native ARM or x86 code which can run directly on the processor without any VM or interpreter needed. Most of the Obj-C UI elements are already bridged into Java and follows the usual Java design patterns.
Edit
Robo VM recently announced that it would be shutting down the service - Source
You need to know at least basics of Objective-C to develop for iPhone. However, it is possible to use C++ classes.
As far as I know Adobe is working on building Flex/Flash applications for iPhone. Read more here: http://theflashblog.com/?p=1513
You can't.
Note however that Monotouch allows you to develop in C# instead of Objective-C. http://monotouch.net/
If you plan on integrating app functionality with a website, I'd highly recommend the GWT + PhoneGap model:
http://blog.daniel-kurka.de/2012/02/mgwt-and-phonegap-talk-at-webmontag-in.html
http://turbomanage.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/gwt-phonegap-native-mobile-apps-quickly/
Here's my two cents from my own experience: We use the same Java POJOs for our Hibernate database, our REST API, our website, and our iPhone app. The workflow is simple and beautiful:
Database ---1---> REST API ---2---> iPhone App / Website
1: Hibernate
2: GSON Serialization and GWT JSON
Deserialization
There is another benefit to this approach as well - any Java code that can be compiled with GWT and any JavaScript library become available for use in your iPhone app.
I'm answering this question 2 years down the line and I must stress that I did have pretty much the same problem as you did. However I'm so happy that Android has evolved into what it is today.
Having said that, I do regret that I did not learn C/C++ while I could have and I don't want to blame my teachers for it cos where was my brain when the time was right?
I'm sunk in Java today and I'm glad that I did not make the mistake of learning too many languages and being less productive... However I did learn HTML5 which really made things a lot easier, maybe someday, I might get motivated to learn C/C++ . Or if I get an Apple mac at a real throw-away price, I might learn Objective-C :)
I think Google Open Sources Java To Objective-C Translator will make it possiblöe to develop in Java for iOS https://code.google.com/p/j2objc/
try to use TotalCross. It is a Java Framework to help devs create iOS and Android apps with only one source code. Different from the others platforms, it doesn't require any knowledge in iOS (Objective-C or Swift) nor Android (SDK or NDK)
there is a maven integration
https://gitlab.com/totalcross/TotalCross/wikis/building-with-maven
http://www.xmlvm.org/android/
Specifically talks about Java based Android apps being ported to the iPhone using non-Apple hardware.
You might also want to check out MonoTouch (C# rather than Java...but the two are very similar).
Perhaps you should consider Android applications instead of iPhone applications if you really want to develop in Java for smartphones. Android natively uses Java for it's applications; so perhaps this might be a better option?
As for iPhone, I would recommend you to look into Obj-C or C/C++ depending on the type of applications you want to make. Should be fun to dabble into a new language! :)
You can try iSpectrum ( get it at http://www.flexycore.com )
You'll be able to develop and debug your Java apps in Eclipse. You'll still need a Mac and XCode to launch it on the simulator, or install it on the real device, though.
But you won't have to actually use XCode editor. Plus you can use it for free if you're planning to work on an open source project.
To add to this there's: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/adf-mobile/overview/index.html
A Java & HTML5 Based Framework for Developing
Oracle ADF Mobile enables developers to build and extend enterprise
applications for iOS and Android from a single code base. Based on a
hybrid mobile architecture, ADF Mobile supports access to native
device services, enables offline applications and protects enterprise
investments from future technology shifts.
Even if the question states Java, most of the answers have digressed. So I thought I would do the same :)
We have been using Adobe AIR for the last 5 years and it is truly cross-platform and provides native-like performance with the same code base (at least 99% of our code is the same). Adobe AIR got some bad press at the beginning during the 'beta' period (slow, no GPU, Flash 'dead' etc.) But now, it's amazing what you can do with it. Not to mention the wealth of open source libs out there.
With the same code base you can push your app onto:
iOS
Android (x86 and ARM)
Flash (still VERY useful)
ChromeBook
PC (as native with installer)
Mac (as native with installer)
Why bother with Java or Objective-C ?
The only common platform not covered is Window Phone. But that's coming soon too.
Build a hybrid app. Anyways Java is not enough for a software engineer , you need to learn JS,HTML5,CSS as well for becoming a full stack mobile/app developer.
Build the complete backend using Java & frontend using Cordova/Phonegap.
I'm assuming you dont need the last drop of juice from the hardware even hybind app should suffice your needs.
Build a responsive webapp using Bootstrap 4 + React JS. Use https://github.com/ipselon/structor to quickly build up the frontend. Now the web app becomes an app in the browser.
You could also take the same app and build it using cordova to publish a app on ios/android platform.