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Ex-Sun Employees Are Taking Java To iOS

Posted by timothy on from the drinking-the-beans dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Ex-Sun employees did what Sun/Oracle failed to do since the iPhone launched. They brought Java to iOS and other mobile devices. They are getting major coverage from Forbes, DDJ, hacker news and others. They are taking a unique approach of combining a Swing-like API with a open source and SaaS based solution."

4 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Not entirely useful by medcalf · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just to be clear, this does not allow users to run Java apps on their phones. It makes it easier for Java developers to port Java apps, though.

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    -- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
    1. Re:Not entirely useful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      It will work for android. Rather than trying to run Swing on the native platform, It compiles down to whatever the native platform is. Basically in C1 you are building a meta app using their libraries. Then when it compiles, for iOS it will generate Obj-C, for Android it will generate a UI using standard Android widgets (I know Android is java, but not sure what their UI framework is called).

      I'm a Java/iOS developer and have been playing around with it a bit. IMO, it has a long way to go before being useful, but it's exciting to see that what they are doing is possible. Currently their API is pretty sparse and their design tools are very primitive, so I think to match what a lot of apps are doing today, you would still end up writing a lot of native code. They have their own version of JNI that let's you do that.

      I think if they keep working on it though, create a cool UI builder, add more wrappers around more core platform services (location services would be a good one to add next I think) I think they will get there.

      It's neat stuff! I'm still going to do my iOS apps in Obj-C though for the time being.

    2. Re:Not entirely useful by Bogtha · · Score: 4, Informative

      Android applications aren't Java applications. They are written in the Java language, but they are then compiled to run on the Dalvik VM. Even if they were Java applications, you couldn't simply drop them onto any old Java VM and have them work; they need all the runtime libraries present on Android to work.

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      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  2. Re:No, thanks. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Java has always sucked on mobile devices.

    Based on that quote, I am quite sure you've never tried a Galaxy S3 and an iPhone running side by side, because the user interface on the S3 (running Java/Dalvik) is silkier and smoother than any iPhone.