Functional Languages that compile to Android's Dalvik VM?
- by Berin Loritsch
I have a software problem that fits the functional approach to programming, but the target market will be on the Android OS. I ask because there are functional languages that compile to Java's VM, but Dalvik bytecode != Java bytecode.
Alternatively, do you know if the dx utility can intelligently convert the .class files generated from functional languages like Scala?
Edit:
In order to add a bit more helpfulness to the community, and also to help me choose better, can I refine the question a bit?
Have you used any alternate languages with Dalvik? Which ones?
What are some "gotchas" (problems) that I might run into?
Is performance acceptable? By that, I mean the application still feels responsive to the user.
I've never done mobile phone development, but I grew up on constrained devices and I'm under no illusion that there is a cost to using non-standard languages with the platform. I just need to know if the cost is such that I should shoe-horn my approach into default language (i.e. apply functional principles in the OOP language).
