androidpythonjython

Programming Android apps in jython


The other day I came across a Python implementation called Jython.
With Jython you can write Java applications with Python and compile them to pure Java.

I was wondering: Android programming is done with Java.
So, is it possible to make Android apps with Jython?


Solution

  • Jython doesn't compile to "pure java", it compiles to java bytecode - ie, to *.class files. To develop for Android, one further compiles java bytecode to Dalvik bytecode. This means that, yes, Jython can let you use Python for developing Android, subject to you getting it to play nice with the Android SDK (I haven't personally tried this, so I don't know how hard it actually is) - you do need to make sure you don't depend on any Java APIs that Android doesn't provide, and might need to have some of the Android API .class files around when you run jython. Aside from these niggles, your core idea should work - Jython does, indeed, let write code in Python that interacts with anything else that runs on the JVM.