On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 9:25 PM, Mike Orr <[email protected]> wrote: > This is a bit off topic but it does get a little into Python. I don't > know much about the smartphone world. I got my first trusty-rusty > cellphone in 2000 when I started travelling, then around 2006 it died > and I got a hand-me-down that's essentially identical, one of those > that barely does texting. I was just waiting until smartphones became > open enough (non-proprietary, ideally Linux) and established enough > (so it wouldn't get unsupprted or obsolete in a year or two), and I > had a specific need for it (portable email and web would be nice but > is not necessary for me, but now I've seen that OneBusAway would be > useful to see when a bus is coming if it's late). And having something > I could program in Python on would be a bonus. > > So, Android looks like it's a step closer to what I've been waiting > for, although I'm not quite sure if it's relevant enough for me to > actually get one. But I'm curious, and now I have to do something > because my AT&T phone doesn't work inside half my apartment, so I > either have to get on my roommate's T-Mobile family plan or get an > Android, and it would be silly to do one now and the other a few > months later, so I'm looking more closely at it. But I don't know > basic things like where do you get one, how do you choose between the > different kinds/brands, how do you find one that's not locked to a > single carrier, etc?
You can get an Android phone from any of the major carriers. The four majors each have a variety of both top- and mid-tier devices running it, and you can either buy the phones from them, through middlemen like RadioShack or WalMart, or online from Amazon etc. Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile all allow you to buy them off-contract, and if you're buying a top-tier phone and have the cash to buy off contract you should. As for the different kinds and brands, you can check out the writeup I did on the topic on my buzz[0]. Personally I don't think what I wrote there is much less accurate today than it was back then, but YMMV. The new G2 also looks to be pretty amazing, so if you're already leaning towards T-Mobile that might be enough to tip the scales in its favor. > And does it do Python? the FAQ says you write apps in Java and it > compiles them to a custom embedded language. Does that mean Jython > works on it? And can I get a Python interpreter directly on the phone > or is that too big for its memory? The best answer I can give you is... maybe. There are a few things going on here. First, Jython doesn't work. Jython emits Java bytecode; Android uses Dalvik bytecode, which I'm told is different enough to make retargeting prohibitive. Second, there's SL4A[1], which is a fairly limited way to write simple scripts in Python. No lies, it's not a great way to write apps- in fact, it frustrated me enough that I wrote a way around it. That way is your third option- about two years ago I decided that I'd had enough of Java and wanted to put a stake in it, so I built a system called Javalin that used the JNI and the CPython API to mechanically map a Java API into a Python API without actually abandoning the working Java codebase. Since Android's NDK provides JNI access, I was able to take an existing port of Python3 and successfully use the Android API from Python. The good news ends there, however: there are both memory/storage constraints to worry about (a full Python interpreter is no joke on a mobile device, although things have ramped up a lot since my G1 came out) and some questions about ownership, etc. So, the bottom line is that you can use Python, but probably aren't going to get to distribute Python applications unless Google decides that's a good idea. [0] http://www.google.com/buzz/debatem1/9gyrLd7K4su/So-everybody-and-their-brother-keeps-asking-me-for [1] http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/ Geremy Condra
