C++ for Android Development – top 5 absolute reasons

App Development And Apps

C++ for Android Development – top 5 absolute reasons

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Leading names of the computer, and mobile industry like Apple, and Google work with specific programming languages for mobile development like Objective-C or Swift, and/or Java.

But what about small scale independent developers who spend a large percentage of their time figuring out as to how to develop applications on the iOS, and Android platform, using other parallel programming languages.

Android Development with C++
Android Development with C++

Some alternative languages that may come up as an answer to this are C# (Xamarin), and Pascal (Embarcadero-Rad Studio), however there are other possible ways for using the C++ Mobile development platform, as in Dragon Fire SDK for iOS, and Google Android.

Also, it so happened that in the previous years, for developers to be able to use C/C++ in their Java Apps, even Android Studio added support for the Native Development Kit (NDK).

Top 5 Reasons C++ for Android Development is the best

Faster Efficient Coding

Prominent Software titles like Office, Skype, Facebook Moments, Dropbox, and popular games such as “Clash of Clans”, take the help of C++ for cross-platform development as it is easy to write, modify, and implement.

Moreover, it usually does not have a standard user interface, and so the user-interface code is written in the native languages, and C++ is used for the business logic.

Also, though Java with the help of Java Virtual Machines, and optimized byte-code, can provide the code pretty fast, native i.e., machine code can be faster, efficient, and useful in areas such as gaming, signal processing, and physics simulations, which can be conveniently incorporated using C++, thus giving C++ a slight edge over other languages when it comes to faster execution, and processing of written/developed code.

Visual Studio

The first, free Express version of Visual Studio was released by Microsoft in 2005, following which the Community edition was released in 2013, thus allowing plugins, and management of them via the Nuget Package Managers.

Visual Studio, since its inception, has forever supported Visual C++ along with the not-so-popularly sought C++/CLI/CX, which thence allowed C++ to be compiled to target the Android platform, and produce Native-Activity Android applications, using the CLANG toolchain which Microsoft developed in-house to meet its own Android development requirements.

Visual Studio
Visual Studio

Moreover, a fast Android emulator along with the Android Development Kits (SDK, NDK) plus Apache Ant, and Oracle Java JDK is included with the Visual Studio, which eliminates the need of switching over to another platform for the use of external tools.

Ant, Gradle, and Cmake are already included, and in 2015 a strong element Xoreax Incredibuild was added which helps to integrate into Visual Studio 2015, and leverage networked computers for speedier builds.

Source Code of Existing Games

There are several existing game codes across the various web platforms, including open-source game engines, and free content which are founded on C++, thus allowing the debugger/developer to easily, and conveniently modify the codes, and make the games better, and updated as the requirement arises.

C++ vs Java

Java’s roots in the industry are so strong that it needs no separate introduction as one of the most popular, and excellent programming languages, especially for development purposes.

However, in the case of Android mobile development, C++ has few advantages over JAVA, one of which is owing to C++’s greater proximity to the metal, and no garbage collection ability, it has a smaller memory footprint.

Also, it is an accepted fact that C++ is founded on C, and compiles all C programs virtually so that one could easily reuse C software. Moreover, though it is a very common notion that Java programs, many times, run as fast as C++, and in some cases even faster than it, but, one may need to tweak their Java codes first to attain that level of superior performance.

Get, Set, and Go Coding!
Get, Set, and Go Coding!

Java source code is compiled in bytecode, and stored in .jar files i.e., zip files, thus requiring a warm-up time for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to load the .jar file bytecode, and compile it to machine codes by a methodology often referred to as  JIT: Just-In-Time Compilation.

However, when compared to C++, it needs no “warm-up” time before full-length execution, thus making it a little snappier than Java or for that matter other programming languages like  C#, when running on the same hardware resources.

Extensively used with Android’s Core

Many inbuilt apps, and/or development projects have bases founded on C++ coding, and application. Be it the Google Android NDK using which several games etc… are launched each year or be it services by other tycoons.

Unleash the Power of C++
Unleash the Power of C++

Thus, after having a look at the aforesaid points, you can safely be assured that C++ will be chosen over other programming languages for the purpose of Android, and/or iOS development or for C++ Mobile Development purposes.

What more points would you like to add? Or what is your opinion on this?

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