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Python for Android Apps

I've learnt python recently and I want to make an app for android. But everywhere on the net, it seems Java and Eclipse are the only ones that can be used.
So, my question is:
1) Can I use python to make an android app?
2) What kind of platform should I use to make an app with python?
Thanks guys!

If you're just looking to run Python scripts, try QPython.
If you're looking to make your Python code run like a native app, or just something more robust than the above, try SL4A.
If you're looking to effectively use Python as a library, and compile an .apk with the Python library included, try Kivy: github.com/kivy/python-for-android.
That said, you'd likely get a lot of benefit from learning Java, and not just for programming natively in Android (which would give you access to a much wider feature set and make your app run more efficiently).

Check out the Scripting Layer For Android, aka SL4A.
Here is a blog for getting started. The blog promises more entries in the series but there don't seem to be any. Still, it is a great starting point. There's quite a few parts to pull together so be patient and check the bottom of that blog entry for dozens of useful links.
If you want to contain everything to the Android device, including the IDE (pretty slick), check this out.
Here's a book from APress that could help with more advanced concepts: Pro Android Python with SL4A

Free java data visualization library? [closed]

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I'm looking for a free Java library to visualize some data. I want to do something similar as the following two images. Is there any possibility? I first thought of prefuse, but this isn't developed since 2007. So any oher libraries?

Have you considered looking at GraphViz?
Graphviz (short for Graph Visualization Software) is a package of open-source tools initiated by AT&T Labs Research for drawing graphs specified in DOT language scripts. It also provides libraries for software applications to use the tools. Graphviz is free software licensed under the Eclipse Public License.
You can do some fairly cool stuff with it:

For the timeline part, you should really consider Google Visualization API which contains annoted timelines, ...

Try Protovis, which seems to be the successor of Prefuse and may be a good alternative option. It is written in JavaScript, but a Java Graphical Toolkit is available.
D3.js is the successor of Protovis today. (Recommended by Protovis.)

GraphStream is a possibility.

Check ou:
http://processing.org/
http://www.axiis.org/ (not java)
http://gephi.org/
Further links can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_visualization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_visualization

An other alternative is to use JUNG framework. If you are looking for browser/Javascript based libraries as well, checkout three.js

Another library you could consider is JGraph. It works mainly with graphs but you can easily implement a timeline as a one. The project can be found on GitHub https://github.com/jgraph/jgraphx and was recently updated.

You'd have to no doubt do a lot of customization, but Google's Chart Tools offers a lot of flexibility and options (http://code.google.com/apis/chart/). I have not done anything as involved as the images that you pasted above, but it was fairly easy to set up various charts using the Google Visualization API.
It might be worth it to post your images on the Google Visualization API group (http://groups.google.com/group/google-visualization-api?pli=1) to see if anyone has done more involved charts like those you've proposed above using the Visualization API...

I am surprised this hasn't been listed. I used jFreeChart a while back: http://www.jfree.org/jfreechart/

If you are explicitly looking for a swing library, ignore this answer!
But in the world of web, Raphaël and D3.js are my favorites. Back-end could be implemented in java.

If you dont mind to use javascript solution timeglider is what you need for the second screenshot.

JavaFX vs Flash, which is good to make online game

I am going to create a online game, so what is better, JavaFX or Flash?

For now use Flash as Oracle released the beta version for JavaFX for the Linux and OpenSolaris platforms.
Systems requirements here:

An "online game" is a bit vague, so it's difficult to give an accurate answer... do you mean a game that's played on your browser and/or a multiplayer game ?
it's a difficult question : some say HTML5 means the death of Flash - it is probably way too soon to tell. Java FX could be fine, though you'd need to check Oracle policy. I find it easier to find tutorials, resources, advices for flash, much more difficult to find it for Java FX.
Java + JMonkey give impressive result, including online games. I'd look into that.

well the current JavaFX 1.3 is not being continued anymore. Oracle is working on the JavaFX 2, which is quite different from the current version (no JavaFX script language anymore!) and will be released late in 2010.
So I do not recommend you on starting with the dying JavaFX 1.3...
See the currently released roadmap of JavaFX.com/roadmap
Here the analysis of the JavaOne 2010 about the NEW JavaFX: http://java.dzone.com/articles/javaone-2010-alternative-jvm
So better go with Flash or even some other technologies...

Port iPhone application to Android [closed]

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What is the most efficient way to port an iPhone app to Android? I know Apple doesn't like 3rd-party, non-Objective C platforms generating code for their platform ... but is there something out there that can take an iPhone app and convert it to Android friendly code?
If not, how have folks out there been creating Android versions of their existing iPhone apps?
Thanks

There's nothing of the sort to port your app. You can use 3rd party tools to create apps that work in both. That's what Titanium and PhoneGap were aiming at. With the new changes to the SDK Agreement, those look like they're not really "legal" or at least violate the agreement.
As for your other question, yes, people do create 2 separate apps. One for Android and one for iPhone. That's the way I currently do it and seems as if Facebook and others do the same.

Yeah, people don't usually love the answer that we have for this one at Appiction. It seems like it should be easy since they are so similar, but they are completely different operating systems with different ways of being used. Sometimes a company will be able to cut a deal with you since the art has already be developed and the basic wireframes have been conceived. At Appiction we created a video to answer this exact question for our clients: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-fdRw1WNYI

Apportable provides a platform to build and deploy existing Objective C apps to Android.

There are few alternatives to port an app from one platform to other. like Rhodes Mobile, Titanium and PhoneGap. In fact they did a good job and tried very well to remove fragmentation in smart phone app development.
But according to Apple's SDK Agreement version 4.0, section 3.3.1
app must be developed in C/C++/JAVA script.
At this stage convincing way is to write it separately.

PhoneGap is not a true cross platform app development tool.
If you want to create an app for both iPhone and Android using PhoneGap, then you have to create two different apps that will make use of PhoneGap framework. But one single app for iPhone and Android can't be created using PhoneGap.

There really isn't a short cut to porting. The best thing you can do is use a company that specializes in porting, like migration.mobi. The cross-platform frameworks have performance problems and really limit what you're able to do.
Games are a different story altogether, so be ready for different answers if you've been a complex real-time game on iPhone and you want it to work on another platform.

Noodlecake Studios appear to have solved the issue of porting from iOS to Android, recently porting Trainyard among others:
Its no secret that the process of porting iOS games to the Android
platform has been met with rough waters... These issues are
familiar to us at Noodlecake Studios and prompted the creation of
Noodlecake Games, a porting and publishing entity designed to
alleviate many of these problems. Through our efforts over the past
year, we have developed technology that allows us run iOS code
natively on android devices. What that means for developers is there
is no need to rewrite iOS code for the Android platform, it all runs
automatically. To be expected, many developers at first didn’t believe
what we were doing was even possible.

At android there are 2 categories: the lower one, with g1 and the better with Nexus 1 if you want to develop games.
Those cross platform libraries I think they can do cross platform "Hello word" applications.
To generate a correct Blackberry networking application or an optimized Android graphic application (to both categories), I highly doubt it!
the frameworks has the big cons, when you want to look outside of the sandbox. Those 3-4 custom stuff, plugin often cost more, than the whole application written fast until that point.
So, "Hello word" +very basic, only soft stuff with cross platform.
High performance, nice graphic, easier to bugfix, support, professional work: develop for each platform and categories.

There actually is a tool that does exactly what you're asking called O2J. You can leverage your existing Objective-C codebase and convert it to Java with the O2J conversion tool.
It's a paid app available on the Mac App Store... O2J Objective-C to Java Converter
Most of the time it's preferable to have a native UI and native code for performance, working with the platform UI paradigms and to take advantage of platform specific APIs/services.

What language / platform would you use for a shareware / freeware desktop application?

I have a DVD cataloging application that I wrote a few years ago with MFC. Records are saved in a sqlite database, so basically it's a CRUD app. UI-wise, it has a tree view on the left, a list view (grid) on the top right, and an HTML view (embedded IE) on the bottom right. Nothing fancy.
I wanted to update the app with more features, but I've been using Java EE for the past couple of years and I realized that I wasn't productive at all with MFC. So I'm thinking maybe I should use something else to boost my productivity. Cross-platform would be a big bonus, but it's not absolutely required.
Here are the options based on my research:
Java / Swing: I can utilize my Java knowledge; great third party libraries (such as Spring for IoC and Hibernate for ORM); cross-platform. Downside is, JRE required for users; Swing seems to be in the "maintanence" mode and it's not getting much attention from Sun.
C++ / Qt: native application;
cross-platform. But I'm new to Qt so
I have to learn it first.
C# / WPF: WPF seems to be the future
of Windows GUI development and I'm
impressed by some WPF sample apps. I
have some experience with C# but I
need learn WPF. Downside is, Windows
only; .NET 3.5 runtime required.
So what would you use if you were in my situation? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

If you want to learn some new skills while developing this application, then C# / WPF, and LINQ in C# 3.0 is really great if you didn't have it in Java.
If you just want to get on speed, then you already answer your own question, Java / Swing. It is what you are good at.

I'm actually a big C# fan, but since you said that cross-platform would be a huge bonus, I think that Qt might actually be better for that. C# can be cross-platform via Mono, but I've had better results with Qt in that respect. They also have real good documentation in QtAssistant to get you started.

Consider PyQt + Python as well if your productivity is a big issue. Trust me when I say the learning curve for Qt is well worth it, and not as hard as it may seem at first.
Sqlite support is in both the Python standard libraries and the QSql module in Qt if you prefer to use that.
PyQt + Python is a cross-platform option as well, since Python is available for many platforms and Qt's cross-platform to begin with.
The controls you mentioned you used in your application are all available in Qt.

The only other tool apart from raw C++ is Delphi. Period.
With other tools you will have problems in the deployment.
With Delphi you will produce native exes, self-contained. Also, the database connectivity is great.
You never will be dissapointed by lack of controls or 3d party tools, a lot with source code and with free/commercial toolset.
And the compiling times are the fastest in this galaxy ;)
So, if you are serious in provide no-hasle app for your customers, and that customers are not tech-oriented like developers so could be confused because which one of the 4 .NET runtimes install, want minimal support, easy downloads, click-click-install-go, apps that work instanly like Skype,TopStyle (made with Delphi) and others,then Delphi/C++ is are your only option. Seriously. The ONLY options.
If you want a cross-plataform solution, then FreePascal/Lazarus could work if your GUI is minimalist.

In most cases, as long as the scope of the project is reasonably small, and the computational needs are modest, I tend to favor using TCL/Tk. I have not yet learned a gui api in which I'm more productive than tk (not to say that there isn't one, just that I've tried several and found them slower). TCL is not the most wonderful language to program in, to be sure, although there are a number of add-ons that help a lot, specifically [incr tcl] and tcllib.
The reason I choose this instead of other systems, I prefer coding in python, for instance, is because deployment with tcl/tk is close to unbeatable. With Starkit, you end up with a single file double clickable application that requires no installer, and is trivially portable.

Well if you really want a class platform type of application, I would convert it into a web application and host it. That way if one user uploads dvd information or a dvd cover picture another user could take advantage of that information already input into the system.
If your going to develop for the desktop try to make feel like its an application made for that platform by utilizing the OS UI tools. And for windows, pick your 3rd option C# /WPF.

If you have some non UI code in your MFC app that you would like to reuse then consider QT. Otherwise pick whatever you prefer to learn.

Instead of C#/WPF you could give Silverlight a look. You app seems simple enough that it would not take a lot to get up and running. Similar to the demos that are shown off at conferences.
Once you get the basics down it will be fairly easy to add some cool features like animations, movie clips, album art, coverflow like interface etc.
You will be able to target Windows/Mac users and possibly Linux with Moonlight. But I haven't looked at Linux in the past 8 years so I really can't say much about it.

With Eclipse RCP, you get Java, cross-platform development (see Delta Pack), native look (via SWT) and a great framework collection for desktop development (declarative UI, plugin management etc.). You should definitely give that a try.

I went the C++/wxWidgets (but you could do Qt) route a few months back when presented with almost the exact same scenario (upgrade an app with a SQLite db). wxWidgets was fairly easy to pick up, had everything I needed, and was way easier than MFC. The best part was I found a good C++ wrapper for SQLite on CodeProject (e.g., CPPSQLite) and had the whole thing up an running in no time... The project sold me on wxWidgetss, in case you couldn't tell.

I would actually look very closely at something like adobe air. It is cross platform and can be html/javascript based so chances are you won't have a heck of a lot to learn except maybe a javascript library or two. It has the ability to talk to a local datastore or over the interweb to a webservice or RESTFUL service. Development is free with aptana. Check out some of the stuff written in it:
http://www.adobe.com/products/air/showcase/