Last time I checked, pure NDK apps are best for games that use OpenGL as their primary interface. If you want native controls, you can't really do that entirely from the NDK side.
So far I have endured the NDK because I cared more about playing around with graphics between Android and WP on my hobby coding.
Something like Qt allows for native like controls, but one is loosing the functionality the platforms offer for free, as well as, increasing the APK size considerably. And JNI wrappers are still required for interacting with the OS for intents and such.
From the JVM languages Clojure would be a good candidate for staying in Android user space and also allow targeting iOS (RoboVM) and WP (Clojure-CLR), specially with the help of the upcoming reader conditionals.
But with this performance, Xtend, Kotlin and Scala appear to be better candidates if one is just focusing on Android.
It is certainly doable. I haven't done it myself, but I know of people who have done it successfully on Android.
Unfortunately, I don't think Phonegap is a very good solution. Depending on your application, it may be good enough, but it's overall not as good as true native development.
So, I've been involved on Clojure/Android for a long time. I really like what Alexander has done with Skummet, and I think there is still room for improvement. However, I have to wonder to what extent is it good enough?
I use a lot of applications which have terrible load times. Some of these may be native, others are probably using some sort of cross-platform development framework. While I would prefer better performance, I am coming to the conclusion that startup time really isn't an absolute deal-breaker for a lot of people.
1. Clojure is a general purpose programming language. Just because it isn't used much for desktop GUIs doesn't mean it's not usable for that. What percentage of Java/Scala development is used for GUIs?
2. Clojure in iOS isn't just available via ClojureScript. There is also RoboVM, though it doesn't support REPL-driven development, if I understand it correctly.
3. I am very interested in what React Native can do. For me, the key questions about using it are: Can you create applications that fit will into the UX idioms of the host platform? What happens when something goes wrong? Do the various levels of indirection make debugging much more difficult? Do you still have access to the full platform? If not, then only certain classes of applications can be implemented using React Native.
Additionally, at least with Vanguard, if you have a lot of money invested you get access to funds with lower costs. For example, for $3,000-$10,000 you can VFINX which costs 0.17%, but if you have more than $10,00 invested you can buy VFIAX, which costs 0.05%. For $5M and up, you can buy VINIXm which costs 0.04%.
It's not so much that you are paying only for algorithmic/mechanical money management, but there are transaction costs as well. For example, an fund that tracks a particular index will need to buy/sell as the composition of the index changes. Even without that, you still have contributions and redemptions to deal with. Ideally, you try to match redemptions with contributions dollar for dollar, but they won't always match up, resulting purchasing or selling stock (which incurs transaction fees). Of course, there's the administrative overhead of managing a fund (keeping records, filing reports, etc.). As such, you aren't just paying for the algorithm.
Those lists aren't even close to being correct. For example, Clojure was accepted last year and this year. syslog-ng, Python, and X.org were all accepted this year.
What is most interesting to me is the number of accepted organisations is down significantly: from 190 last year to 137 this year, the lowest since 2007. Naturally, the question that arises is 'Has Google cut funding for GSoC, or is it adopting a significantly different strategy from what they have done the past ten years?'
I would not be surprised at all if the budget for this has been reduced. Google's profitability is under pressure from its decreasing search advertising margins. The story recently about how YouTube wasn't actually profitable points to how Google has struggled to find anything other than search advertising that could bring in the bacon, and well Facebook is nibbling on that bacon already.
That said, Mozilla (and/or Yahoo!) might be in a good place to host something. A "Get Your Social On" sort of thing with Twitter/Facebook could be intriguing. And generally a non-company specific 'Coding Man' (think Burning Man but with more screens and less dust) sort of festival might be quite the event to attend some day.
No idea, but it does seem the programme has been scaled back. Last year there were 190 organisations accepted, and this year only 137, the fewest since 2007.
I don't think it's so much that it's hard to get a productive working environment. In my experience, getting vim-fireplace working with a new Leiningen project takes nearly zero effort. Moreover, I get all sorts of nice functionality (easy evaluation of expressions, sourc/doc lookup, etc.). Getting all of these features with ClojureScript takes quite a bit more effort, especially connecting it all to a browser REPL. At least, this has been my experience.
