14 DAY TRIAL // Ruby-based business applications might soon become available for Google's Android operating system, courtesy of the development team that delivered the JRuby version of the Ruby programming language. According to a recent article on computerworld, Charles Nutter, JRuby (an implementation of Ruby for the Java Virtual Machine) architect at Engine Yard, stated recently that they were already on the road with the work on the development of a tool set.
“Android runs Java, and anywhere that Java goes, JRuby can go, so we've been working on Android support for Ruby,” Nutter has reportedly said. At the same time, he also noted that the Dalvik JVM enabled JRuby to work on Android, yet that a series of improvements needed to be performed so as to enable application development. For the time being, the only systems that can use JRuby to run on Android are the simple ones, such as interactive consoles.
“We'd like it to be possible to build any application [with JRuby] that they would build with Java on Android. That's the goal,” Nutter said. In addition, he also noted that, if the development team managed to fulfill its goals, Android could see new applications developed for it, such as a Twitter client. For the time being, however, the project has just kicked off, yet the tool set is to be added to JRuby itself.
The Android operating system is becoming increasingly popular on the mobile phone market, as more and more handset makers opt for it on their future devices. At the same time, Google is also working on enhancing the platform, and only yesterday it released the SDK for Android 1.6, which is available for download on Softpedia as well. Both Charles Nutter and his colleague Tom Enebo have recently left Sun Microsystems to focus on the development of Jruby, given the fact that Sun is being acquired by Oracle, which might not be committed to the JRuby project.