[swift-users] Build Android GUI apps with Swift 3.0 via a framework/library

Thu Oct 13 20:34:01 CDT 2016

Yeah,
I do not disagree with you.
  People who have succeeded have gone down the code generation route.
a) This require them to build a special Swift compiler that generates
Android Java Code from Swift code. They generate a 95% complete Java
Android app and finish it in Android Studio. By doing it that way you avoid
all the runtime issues and the binding issues. The problem is that you have
to mirror the Android SDK on Swift and code Swift like Java. You would have
to update the compiler for every new Java Class you would need to generate
which is not flexible but doable.
b)  Other people have tried to port the entire Swift toolchain to Android
but that far too much work and Swift is changing too fast to make that
feasible. Observe the dead projects on GitHub.
c)  My first thought was to create a shim that routing messages from the
Swift app to a Java app which translated them to API calls but this has
bootstrapping issues and code maintenance issues.
d)  My second thought  is to use JNI, as it already been proven that you
can call C code from Swift which in turn can call Android Java code. This
approach require lots of bindings and a bootstrap of the Android runtime
and god knows how many third party libs. The java app also wants to be in
charge and load the JNI bindings as a so file via its LoadLibrary() call.
It might be easier to call Swift from Java rather than the other way round
if the Swift code could be built as a library. Writing JNI glue code does
not excite me.

 Since I can already build Swift on Linux and ARM, I do have the ability to
generate an Android runnable app from Swift code. The only issue is that I
am using the Android NDK way of writing Android which provides access to
only the C++ API of Android which is far smaller API surface that the huge
Java API surface and its big runtime. This evolves  Swift calling an LVM
 module library that contains C code that call the Android NDK API which
bootstrap the NativeActivity class in Android (and the android runtime) and
from there you can access the Camera and multimedia API just not the GUI
widgets.
  This is not too soon to think about as Swift language changes are
supposed to be minimal until Swift 4.0. Of course Google could do the work
for me but I not holding my breath. You can also build Android GUI apps
without every referencing the Google Service API but I do notice that the
Google Service API is being extended because it does not require an Android
OS update to get new features into Android..

On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 5:20 PM, Hooman Mehr <hooman at mac.com> wrote:

> I think it is too soon to tackle this issue.
>
> I think there is room for making adapters for a lightweight GUI toolkit
> for embedded applications. For example, a Swift adapter for EFL
> <https://www.enlightenment.org/about-efl> (of Enlightenment) or something
> like that. But when we talk about Android, we are usually talking about a
> real Android app that can be a good citizen in Google ecosystem. I don’t
> think this is feasible right now.
>
> Current Android GUI services is too intertwined with its proprietary
> runtime and VM and Google is continuing to tie them harder and harder to
> its Google services API. Unless Google starts treating non-Dalvik-based
> languages as first class citizens in Android development world, there is no
> point in trying to make Swift usable as a GUI development language for
> Android. It is not going to work.
>
> Just my opinion.
>
> On Oct 13, 2016, at 2:56 PM, Tony Constantinides via swift-users <
> swift-users at swift.org> wrote:
>
> Ok,
> Can I take the fact that there no feedback yet on
> a) The community is not interested in writing Android apps in Swift
> or
> b) Wrong forum despite the fact the inventor the Swift programming
> language pointed me here,
> or
> c) This has been tried and failed before.
> I sincerely interested in the Swift community thoughts and ideas. I
> sincerely want to build this project based on the desires of the Swift
> developers community. Let me know what you think about the proposal
> and yes, I can present in much more detail.
> I took the idea from this page
> https://github.com/apple/swift/blob/master/docs/Android.md
> Thank you
> Sincerely yours,
> Tony Constantinides
>
> On Wed, Oct 12, 2016 at 5:12 PM, Tony Constantinides <
> constantinnovationsinc at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> In Swift 3.0 you can build Android apps in Linux but only console apps as
>> there is no framework to build GUI apps using JNI.
>> What I propose is to build an initial limited framework coded in C that
>> calls enough of the Java Android API via JNI to bootstrap the android app
>> and to create widgets and layouts.A default Androidmanifest.xml file and
>> some files needed to be generated to make a valid android app.
>>   The Android API java surface is vast, so this framework needs to be
>> build over many releases to be useful. Developing a graphical Android app
>> requires interaction with "Activities" and the package manager and some
>> widgets like Button and some layouts like "RelativeLayout" and
>> "LinearLayout".
>>  The result will be the ability to develop GUI Android apps on Linux
>> using Swift 3.0
>> Further support for additional APIs will be provided once the basics are
>> solid..
>> Who am I: Senior Android mobile developer with more than six years
>> experience on Android.
>> Am I able to build Swift 3.0 on Linux: Yes
>> Any help, suggestions, or ideas are most welcome
>> Warms regards,
>> Tony Constantinides
>>
>
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