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Comment by lucian1900 | Hacker News Reader

lucian1900

I've been looking for alternatives to Java for Android development. Since Python and Clojure aren't options (right now anyway), I looked at Scala among others.

I found the syntax pretty terrible, worse than Java in several ways. In particular, too complex. I also found the object system overly complicated (and I find Haskell's ok).

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It's early days yet, but you /can/ do Clojure on android. Check out https://market.android.com/details?id=com.sattvik.clojure_re..., and google Daniel Solano Gomez; the guy behind the vast majority of that effort.

I know, and it's an awesome effort. But it's still not practical (yet).

Oh I agree; I didn't know if you knew of it, or if you simply meant it wasn't "there" enough yet for your use. I just wanted to make you aware of it in case you weren't. Cheers!

The Bump guys did a "Scala on Android" talk at the last Scala Days. They didn't explicitly say it, but reading between the lines it sounded like, "Scala on Android…don't".

http://www.slideshare.net/michael.galpin/scala-on-android-ex...

This would be obvious to anyone who's ever had to program Java for Android.

It's slow enough -- why would you want to make it even slower?

Have a look at Xtend (http://xtend-lang.org). It's exactly what the yammer guy is looking for: convenience of Scala (closures, type inference, and more) without the complexity.

And it compiles to Java source code, which makes it an ideal language for Android development.

If you are the real Sven then kudos for signing your name to this comment but I think it looks a bit opportunistic of you to pile on in this context with a recommendation for your language. No language is perfect and xtend itself hasn't even been used in anger yet.

Yes, I was recommending it as an answer to the Android question. I should have left out the bit about the "Yammer guy". I like Scala btw.

It looks interesting, actually. I may give it a try, along with haXe's Java backend (if/when it gets released).

Yet another language obsolete after Java 8. That's exactly what people need.

You never know.

It's like the Kentucky Derby. There's the big 4, scala, clojure, JRuby and groovy, all nice languages. Then there's the little 5: kotlin, ceylon, gosu, fantom, Xtend. Gosu and fantom are worth trying, I just haven't got around to it..

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