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Is it possible to write a Vala application and get it to run on an Android device?

GnomeCubed
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4 Answers4

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With the new NDK, you can write UI applications in C/C++ as well. As long as you have a C ABI, you can call anything from Vala you want, provided you have a .vapi file for it. The main obstacle is the lack of glib and gobject, but those can probably be compiled. After all, there's a Linux and a libc present.

Update: Bero Rosenkränzer did a nice presentation on the Android Builder Summit that shows the currently available ways to program Android without Java.

9716278
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DrMickeyLauer
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Yes vala is already compiled for android. But cant use with GTK.

http://valajournal.blogspot.com.es/2013/03/vala-on-android.html

txasatonga
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    Now you can use Vala and Cairo. – txasatonga May 07 '13 at 19:20
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    pedroHLC has done a game using vala and sdl crosscompiled to Android. And this gentel programer give us one toolchain for be reused by other programmers for compile them codes. See here... [https://github.com/avalanche-games/avalanche] – txasatonga Feb 05 '14 at 01:07
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    Wow!!! Vala is recently used for compile an app on Android. See "Katamotz hitzak" in google app store. This app is programmed using genie/vala. – txasatonga Mar 21 '14 at 00:33
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Not for android as long as there is no gtk backend, but for Maemo and most likly it's successor MeeGo as it uses gtk and there is a vala packet in the developer repositpory. (as a matter of fact i already successfully compiled my own vala programm on my N900 phone with a dveloper chroot)

boscowitch
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    Vala isn't dependant on GTK, its dependant on glib and gobject. Gobject is suppose to be cross platform and android is linux. So for the most part it should world. You can also compile SDL for android, which vala has bindings for. – Joseph Montanez Jun 03 '11 at 19:43
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Technically, yes, except that there currently is no Vala to Android translator.

Yann Ramin
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    Well, there is a C/C++ dev kit for Android. Would that mean you wouldn't need a translator? Wouldn't the main difficulty come from trying to run it on ARM or does Vala take care of that somehow? – GnomeCubed Jun 14 '10 at 22:12
  • Vala is designed to call GNOME/Gtk APIs, including GObject, which simply don't exist on Android. You could in theory retarget the Vala compiler to use a different model and produce Java instead of C, but that would be a huge undertaking. Android UIs must interface in Java. The Native Toolkit can't produce a whole application (at best it can only render to OpenGL ES). – Yann Ramin Jun 14 '10 at 22:22
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    With NDK, you can program in C/C++ for Android. No Java. A port of vala which doesn't depend on GObject so much OR porting GObject to Android should do it. –  Feb 27 '11 at 17:57