What would be good options for end-user Android pr...
# of-end-user-programming
k
What would be good options for end-user Android programming today? Simple single-purpose personal apps, with simple touch UIs (a few buttons, a menu, maybe a text entry field), but access to all the hardware (sensors, ...) and interaction with other apps (sharing). On-device programmability would be nice, but not essential.
i
[moved from top level, original post by @Jim Meyer] My immediate thought was https://www.createwithplay.com/ but looks like they're iOS only for now 😕
k
iOS-only indeed, but otherwise it looks like just what I am looking for!
The Android version of PicoLisp looks interesting. It's a very idiosyncratic Lisp dialect, implemented in Java with good Java interop. The Android implementation is an app that combines the interpreter with a simple editor/REPL and a WebView for local display of Web UIs written in PicoLisp. Combining well-known building blocks in this way looks like a good approach. Does anyone here have practical experience with PicoLisp?
g
Do you mean like https://www.adalo.com/ ?
k
@Greg Jarmiolowski Hard to say. The site puts forward "no-code", which doesn't mean much and is certainly not what I care about. What I am looking for is the mobile equivalent of a small shell or Python script. Simple, low-ceremony code for personal use. Not "no code that runs everywhere but you have to learn our framework to get started".
g
Gotcha @Konrad Hinsen. When I looked at that createwithplay I got the wrong impression. Plus in my mind end-user programming mean declarative. This is limited thinking on my part.
k
The Lua-based game engine LÖVE (https://love2d.org/) has an Android implementation that permits developing and running games. Apparently some people are using it for non-game Android applications (much like @Kartik Agaram does in a different context). I don't quite see yet which limitations this implies. A game engine should be plenty good enough for my UI needs, but I am not sure I'd get access to all the system functions I'd want (reading out sensors, for example).