{"id":2137,"date":"2013-11-08T17:37:54","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T05:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/?p=2137"},"modified":"2013-11-08T17:40:57","modified_gmt":"2013-11-08T05:40:57","slug":"a-true-work-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deltics.co.nz\/blog\/posts\/2137\/","title":{"rendered":"A True Work of ART"},"content":{"rendered":"[Estimated Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes]<\/span><\/span>

For the past two years Google<\/strong> have been working on something for Android<\/strong> that could herald a sea change on the platform. ART<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Essentially, ART<\/strong> is a new runtime which incorporates AOT<\/strong> (A<\/strong>head O<\/strong>f T<\/strong>ime) compilation, essentially taking JIT<\/strong> to the next level by compiling an application in full<\/em> at the time of installation<\/em> on a device<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

.NET of course already has this technology or at least something very similar.<\/p>\n

The implications of this are obvious and significant.<\/p>\n

Any developer using a platform native, Java<\/strong> based development environment today – including tools such as Oxygene for Java<\/strong> – is assured of reaching the broadest range of Android<\/strong> devices and able to take full advantage of the Android SDK<\/strong>‘s, including proprietary extensions such as the Samsung Galaxy S-Pen SDK<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

With ART<\/strong> those same platform native<\/em> applications will now also benefit from the performance boost that comes from full compilation to native code<\/em>. And it seems this will simply com “free of charge”, without any need to modify code or change or even upgrade tools.<\/p>\n

At a stroke, a wholly native code approach to development loses any advantages to outweigh the limitations, constraint and additional difficulties that it brings. <\/p>\n

With ART<\/strong>, Android SDK<\/strong> developers can continue to take full advantage of the platform while their users enjoy the benefit of native code.<\/p>\n

Everyone’s a winner! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Furthermore, they will get this benefit on all<\/strong> the hardware that Google<\/strong> supports with their ART<\/strong> technology. Even better, developers won’t have to choose what particular native code their compiler should produce since it is generated at the time of installation<\/em> and is therefore targeted to the users device at that time.<\/p>\n

The hardware that will be supported by this technology is not yet known but it could in theory mean the full range<\/strong> of Android<\/strong> devices whether ARM<\/strong> based or Intel<\/strong> or some other entirely new and exotic architecture that might emerge.<\/p>\n

Even if there is some hardware that ART<\/strong> does not<\/em> support, Android SDK apps will of course continue to run on those devices, only without the additional benefit of ART<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But it’s not all fluffy kittens and daisies. There is a cost.<\/p>\n

Pre-compiled applications increase in size compared to their byte-code sources; an inflation said to be in the region of 10%-20%<\/strong>. So a 40KB widget will now blow out to a massive 44KB or worse as much as 50KB.<\/p>\n

A 1MB application will explode<\/strong> to 1.2MB. Gadzooks!<\/p>\n

Ok, so maybe it is<\/em> all fluffy kittens and daisies after all.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

ART<\/strong> is still an experimental technology, but it’s an experiment you may be able to participate in.<\/p>\n

If you are an Oxygene for Java<\/strong> developer targeting Android<\/strong> (or using Java itself of course) and have access to a Google Nexus<\/strong> device with Kit-Kat<\/strong>, you can enable ART<\/strong> (on the device<\/em> – nothing to do with the code or the tools) and see for yourself what difference it can make to turn your already platform native applications into native code<\/em> applications as well.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately I don’t have such a device myself, but who knows…. perhaps some day soon…<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Here are some more links on the subject, to alleviate the strain on Google’s servers:<\/p>\n