Android in Action -- Heavyweight, RIA nature

[Raghavan Muthu]

Hello authors,

I do have few more questions. may be silly. If so bear with me.

Is android a heavyweight framework? - I mean to ask in terms of functionalities, features and the dependent libraries.

How can one develop RIA (Rich Internet Applications) in Android? Does it support or it is out of scope /context here..?

[Ulf Dittmer]

What do you mean by "heavyweight"? Compared to what? Android is an entire operating system, yet it runs on resource-constrained devices.

Starting with Android 2.2, Flash is supported.

[Raghavan Muthu]

Thanks Ulf. I meant to ask about the functionalities it has in store. How about the dependent libraries? All on its own or is Android dependent on some other libraries? I know it is running on top of Java. So apart from JRE, is there anything else which Android dependent upon?

[Ulf Dittmer]

I know it is running on top of Java.

No. Android is a Linux-based OS that hosts a JVM (or, to be more precise, a Dalvik VM). It's possible to run native code on it that's been compiled from C/C++, as well as Java code (as witnessed by the existence of an "NDK", or "native code DK").

[Raghavan Muthu]

Thats great. Thanks Ulf. I was under an impression that it runs on top of Java!

Is there anything special with the term Dalvik? or is it just a naming convention given by the creators?

[Ulf Dittmer]

It's more than that, there are actual differences between a Java VM and a Dalvik VM. (And those are only going to become more important, given the Oracle/Google lawsuit). Dalvik (software) explains it all.

[Raghavan Muthu]

Thank you Ulf. I was very sure that you would be the first person to reply to my Android based query You rock!!

I shall go through the link for Dalvik VM.