Python as Android build requirement

Question

Heres the official link for Android source code build/development.

As you can see one of the prerequisites is setting up Python.

From what I have heard/read, only Java is primarily used for Android app development..so why the need for Python ?.

Can you point out what I am obviously missing ?

* This is a newbie question *

Check this out: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3949980/what-programming-languages-can-one-use-to-develop-android-applications — Shashank, Sep 14 '13 at 16:31
Since Google supports Python so much, it's really no surprise that they like using it for Android. :) — Shashank, Sep 14 '13 at 16:35
Just so we're clear, you do understand that the link you've given is for development of the Android **operating system** itself, not apps for Android phones? — mikołak, Sep 14 '13 at 16:47
http://www.kivy.org Awesome Python library used for developing Android apps :) — Shashank, Sep 14 '13 at 16:55
To follow your logic, if you have Java then why would you use Python *anywhere*? To answer that question, take a look at some Java code then look at some Python code which does the same thing. http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Category:Programming_Languages is one place to start comparing programming languages. — cdarke, Sep 14 '13 at 17:02

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 14 '13 at 17:52

Even though the target device is running Java based virtual machine, the SDK build scripts may leverage Python.

Thus, Python is required to build Android software or SDK, but Python itself is not run on the device.

Likewise, you need git even though you surely won't run version control system on your phone.

1 Answers1