Scripting Layer for Android

code.google.com

44 points·jorgecastillo··5 comments

SL4A has been around for a number of years. It was previously called Android Scripting Environment until the name change a few years ago.

It's indeed neat, but releases and progress has been slow-going. The last releases were in early 2011. I don't know of anyone else who uses it, besides myself, but it's cool.

This is huge. The doors are now open for individuals to write their own little custom automata. Even if you can just write your own app and install the APK automatically, I get the feeling that having to adopt the Java paradigm and scaffolding is a big barrier for many who want to automate small tasks for themselves.

Last release was Feb 2011. I remember when this project started, it made the news. Does anyone use it? It would be nice to develop apps in python especially if it could build a mobile friendly GUI.

I think stuff like Phonegap has really eaten its lunch and stolen its thunder.

Tried using but gave up. It doesn't support all the native API features. So starting to develop an app using Python would eventually end up just re-writing it using Java. So just used Java to begin with.

http://ruboto.org/

>Ruboto allows you to run Ruby scripts on Android devices. Using Ruby code, you have access to the complete Android API. Currently, we have 2 offerings: ruboto and ruboto-irb. Ruboto is based on JRuby.

The sl4a Ruby interpreter is based on Ruboto. So accesing the Android API with Ruby is posible. JRuby is Java after all, check their site.

P.S. I wish I had the skill to help out in this project.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com