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Why does Android bother with Java?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
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X86 android devices exist, wether they are officially supported or not, I don't know. C/C++ is prone to memory corruption vulnerabilities, using a higher level language like Java nearly entirely cuts out that class of vulnerabilities. You mention the complexity of Java, but Java is just a lot easier to write than c/c++. So I ask you, why would android switch to the complexity of c/c++ for applications where Java is sufficient?
They must be, plenty of x86 Chromebooks get Playstore verified each year.
True, and while x86 phones exist, they're pretty rare. But I think x86 tablets are a bit more common.
Thank you for the insight, however, I think that my question is somewhat different because I'm interested in the implementation choice rather than the language choice. To answer your question, I don't think Android should switch to C/C++. Instead, I don't understand why Android goes to such great lengths to avoid compiling whatever language is in use in advance. Naively from the outside looking in it appears this would greatly simplify the platform.
For example, I think it would be an improvement to use Java but compile the whole thing to a native image in the cloud and distribute the compiled binaries. We already have Java AOT capabilities in Android, therefore this appears to be technically feasible. Only one ISA is targeted officially. It's not a great academic leap to think apps could be built off the phone instead to avoid the complex optimization problems.
I am ignoring Chromebooks a bit. I did not know that you could run Android apps on that platform and didn't think to consider it because I didn't see x86 listed on Wikipedia as an officially supported architecture.
Who would it simplify things for?
Not for the developer. For developers, compiling in advance would just slow them down and remove a lot of the cool things you can do with Java today like hot-swapping and reflection.
Not for the user. The current system is totally transparent to the user.
You're proposing making things simpler for the Android OS, but worse for the developer. That's the exact opposite of what they want. A lot of Android is quite complex in ways that make things easier for developers, on purpose.