Erlang/OTP on android | Hacker News Reader

Erlang/OTP on android

burbas.se

45 pointssetori887 comments

I <3 Erlang and this seems like a cool idea and all, but I'm struggling to think of the exact use anyone is likely to put it to.

If you want to do Android UI, I'm sure JInterface will compile against Dalvik but it's also fairly dated and in need of some love. I didn't find programming Java against it to be particularly pleasant in its current form.

OTOH, being able to program full Android applications in Erlang would be extremely cool, but probably not possible unless someone does a load more R&D.

Am I missing something?

CouchDB is written in Erlang and Android is one of their targets so that you can write native mobile applications that sync their databases once you are back online.

OK. Except, 'CouchOne Mobile for Android' seems to come as a complete package with Android SDK bindings. As you'd expect, no Erlang required/mentioned.

I'd be interested to know if an Erlang VM is actually included in the CouchOne for Android package, and, if so, is it possible (or useful) to spin up another node on the phone and connect them natively?

I've seen a couple of references to the fact that Erlang does, in fact, run on Android, including one here on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1518686 and the download page :) http://www.burbas.se/artiklar/erlang-for-the-android-plattfo... and https://github.com/downloads/esl/otp/Erlang.apk

I have not tried, but I can not see why it should not work to spin up two separate VMs and connect them. The distribution between phones is however tested and works.

CouchDB have a git repository with Erlang/OTP for android: https://github.com/apage43/otp (Switch branch to Android).

Erlang's fault tolerance could come in handy for unstable network connections.

I can't think of a specific app at the moment, but there has to be some cool opportunities for writing a distributed application that runs on tons of mobile devices all working together.

Perhaps something to access and update your data remotely, such as office documents, bookmarks, photos, etc. You could probably even do high latency chat.

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