Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is exposing new APIs in conjunction with its Android 2.3 Native Development Kit, promising developers expanded support for native code. "With NDK r5, we're introducing new APIs that will allow you to do more from native code," writes Google developer advocate Chris Pruett on the Android Developers Blog. "In fact, with these new tools, applications targeted at Gingerbread or later can be implemented entirely in C++; you can now build an entire Android application without writing a single line of Java."
Also new in Android NDK r5: Sound playback from native code via the OpenSL ES API, an open standard overseen by Khronos, which also manages OpenGL ES, as well as improved windows control (including direct access to the window's pixel buffer), EGL context management and prebuilt version of STLport, making it easier for developers to build STL-reliant applications for Android. In addition, r5 boasts backwards-compatible support for RTTI, C++ exceptions, wchar_t, and enhanced debugging tools.
"This release is specifically designed to help game developers continue to rock; with Gingerbread and the NDK r5, it should now be very easy to bring games written entirely in C and C++ to Android with minimal modification," Pruett adds. "We expect the APIs exposed by r5 to also benefit a wide range of media applications; access to a native sound buffer and the ability to write directly to window surfaces makes it much easier for applications implementing their own audio and video codecs to achieve maximum performance."
For more:
- read this Android Developers Blog entry
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