[Python-ideas] python on mobile

[Russell Keith-Magee]

Hi Daniel,

I've been working on this problem recently; I posted about the idea to this
very list a few months ago:

https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2014-October/029856.html

At the time I posted, I had posted Python builds that work on both Android
and iOS:

https://github.com/pybee/Python-iOS-support
https://github.com/pybee/Python-Android-support

and template projects that get you to "hello world" on a mobile platform
without much effort.

https://github.com/pybee/Python-iOS-template
https://github.com/pybee/Python-Android-template

I've also tackled the cross-language bridging issue:

https://github.com/pybee/rubicon-objc
https://github.com/pybee/rubicon-java

and wrapped native widgets up into a cross-platform widget library:

http://pybee.org/toga/

Now - I'm not claiming that these are anywhere near production ready -
they're proof of concept at best. However, I completely agree with your
original premise that Python needs a story on mobile platforms, and I'm
interested in working on that story. If you go back and read the
Python-ideas thread from a few months ago, it looks like there was broad
support for the idea, but it would all hinge on the specifics.

So, that's what I've been working on. Since I posted to Python-ideas in
October, I've been focussing on getting the patches necessary for Python's
own build system. However, I've been distracted by work life etc, so I
haven't made as much progress as I would have liked. I'm hoping the
Christmas/New year break will give me a chance to make some headway.

As far as Kivy goes - I have tinkered with Kivy; I've even used Kivy's
tools as a starting point for some of my own efforts. However, to me, Kivy
is focussing too far up the stack - their toolchain appears to be based on
getting *Kivy* working on mobile, not *Python*. This is an entirely
reasonable approach if Kivy is what you want at the end of the day - but
it's not what *I* want. I've been taking a much more atomic approach. The
Kivy toolchain is also anchored in old versions of Python 2; something that
definitely needs to be addressed.

Ultimately, I want to get these patches in to Python's trunk; but I'm still
a way off that being a reality. If you're interested in collaborating and
helping me get to that point, please get in touch - there's plenty of work
to do, and if you're keen to help, I'm happy to share what I've got so far.

Yours,
Russ Magee %-)

On Fri, Dec 26, 2014 at 6:34 PM, Fetchinson . <fetchinson at googlemail.com>
wrote:
>
> Hi all, maybe the best list would be python-dev but I don't dare
> waking the sleeping lions there :)
>
> So my question is this: is there a coherent mobile strategy among core
> dev people? I mean you guys release python for linux/macos/windows and
> the question is if there are any plans to do the same for a mobile
> platform. It doesn't have to be android or ios just anything that the
> core dev team chooses and sticks with.
>
> I've been developing python apps for smartphones (mostly hobby
> projects though) using sl4a but that seems like is dead. Now people
> suggest me using kivy which seems to be alive but who knows how long.
> There are some other projects qpython, etc, which are small and
> equally not so reliable at least looking from the outside. Is kivy now
> an officially blessed distribution? Since google was so integral to
> both python (through employing Guido) and android I'd think it would
> make sense for google to have an official python environment for
> android in cooperation with the python dev team.
>
> Does the PSF has an opinion on this? It would be great if there would
> be something for mobile phones that we could rely on not going away
> just as with linux/macos/windows.
>
> Or there are some issues which preclude this from the start?
>
> Cheers,
> Daniel
>
>
> --
> Psss, psss, put it down! - http://www.cafepress.com/putitdown
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