Android Now Supports Limited C/C++ Development

Tuesday June 30, 2009

18 months ago when the Android OS was launched for mobile phones and similar devices, I mentioned that though it was Linux based and developers only had access to the Java APIs, I bet that someone would work out a way to write C/C++ code for it.

Well I was partially correct except that I thought it might be hackers like those who jailbreak the iPhone. Instead it was Google who have just released an NDK (Native Development Kit) that allows limited use (not to write full applications) using C/C++. This includes tools and build files, along with headers and libraries to generate native code libraries from C and C++ sources and the ability to embed the corresponding native libraries into application packages files (.apks) for deployment on Android devices.

Google say that it isn't suitable for all applications but if you run signal processing, intensive physics simulations, and some kinds of data processing software (on a Phone!) then it may help!