[NTLK] Global Newton Users Meetups #15, 18th May 2024, 17:00 UTC

[Matthias Melcher]

Well, yes, that is exactly what it comes down to. I wrote the original port, but it was a PITA. Android requires that apps are written in Java, which is a terrible language in itself. They do have C++ (Einstein is written in C++) fallbacks, but they are incomplete and very limited to mainly support games. 

The best would be a port to SDL, a standard library for games that runs on iOS and desktop systems as well, no Java knowledge required. This is relatively easy, but has no options for GUI elements like a setting dialog, and no Android specific access, like the address book. Network access is another hurdle.

I ported Einstein to FLTK because FLTK was planning to support SDL, which would then run on all platforms, macOS, iOS, Windows, Linux, and Android, but the FLTK release is getting rescheduled, and the SLD port is at least half a year away. But that would solve all of the above.

For me, it's not a money issue, but purely time. Porting Einstein to SDL would take time away from FLTK's port to SDL, But FLTK is stuck. So I don't really know how to solve this. And unless someone has a Newton App that would clone me into a few new instances, I don;t know how to solve this ;-)

 - Matthias

> On 7. May 2024, at 04:26, Dan <dan at dbdigitalweb.com> wrote:
> 
> I suspect it comes down to we don't have many good Android developers that are also "Newtonion's".
> 
> On 5/4/2024 3:08 PM, Doctor Clu wrote:
>> Sounds interesting.   My current favorite topic is "Android... more and better devices than Apple, easier to distribute and load, and yet completely forgotten with Einstein."