How does the ART runtime affect Clojure-Android apps?

[Nicholas Kariniemi]

Google introduced the experimental ART runtime with KitKat. It uses AOT compilation instead of JIT (see this XDA post), compiling apps when they are installed instead of on the fly when they are run. Has anyone tested this out? I would be interested to see how it affects Clojure app performance, in particular with respect to startup times, and I can't test it myself for a little bit. You can activate it in developer options, after which the phone will reboot and generate ART versions of all of your apps.

[Profpatsch]

On 13-11-18 02:07am, Nicholas Kariniemi wrote:
> Google introduced <http://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/art.html>the experimental ART runtime with KitKat. It uses AOT compilation instead
> of JIT (see this XDA post<http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47482844&postcount=64>),

> compiling apps when they are installed instead of on the fly when they are
> run. Has anyone tested this out? I would be interested to see how it
> affects Clojure app performance, in particular with respect to startup
> times, and I can't test it myself for a little bit. You can activate it in
> developer options, after which the phone will reboot and generate ART
> versions of all of your apps.

Won’t this make serious code rewrite in clojure-android necessary?

How I understand it, a big part of the core deals with the intricacies
of Dalvik as compared to the normal JVM.

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[Alexander Yakushev]

Hi Nicholas,

I saw this announcement, but there is nothing I can say about it before I see the official documentation. It would be nice to have a faster runtime, but much depends on whether we are able to compile Clojure code for that runtime. Even worse, if ART drops facilities to dynamically load DEX-files in runtime, it will be impossible to work in REPL with it.

I say we have to wait until this is no longer experimental and there appears official explanation how it works.

Best regards,
Alex

[Zach Oakes]

I have also not had a chance to try ART (my Nexus 4 and 2012 Nexus 7 are still waiting...) but there is an early indication that there may be issues. I've received several crash reports from Nightweb users with the Nexus 4 and 5, presumably running 4.4 with ART enabled. Here's the error: http://pastebin.com/stJptfWB

[Daniel Solano Gómez]

Hello,

I tried installing my Clojure REPL on a Nexus 5 with ART enabled and ran
into a similar error. I've flashed a Galaxy Nexus to CM11 build (based
on KitKat), and am planning to examine this a bit closer. I just need
time to get to it.

Sincerely,

Daniel

On Wed Nov 20 07:12 2013, Zach Oakes wrote:
> I have also not had a chance to try ART (my Nexus 4 and 2012 Nexus 7 are
> still waiting...) but there is an early indication that there may be
> issues. I've received several crash reports from Nightweb users with the
> Nexus 4 and 5, presumably running 4.4 with ART enabled. Here's the error:
> http://pastebin.com/stJptfWB
>
> On Monday, November 18, 2013 5:07:47 AM UTC-5, Nicholas Kariniemi wrote:
> >

> > Google introduced <http://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/art.html>the experimental ART runtime with KitKat. It uses AOT compilation instead
> > of JIT (see this XDA post<http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47482844&postcount=64>),

> > compiling apps when they are installed instead of on the fly when they are
> > run. Has anyone tested this out? I would be interested to see how it
> > affects Clojure app performance, in particular with respect to startup
> > times, and I can't test it myself for a little bit. You can activate it in
> > developer options, after which the phone will reboot and generate ART
> > versions of all of your apps.
> >
>

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[Alexander Yakushev]

I have 2012 N7, so I'm also lacking a testground. Can be tested on the emulator though (if emulator supports ART). I hope updating dexer in our custom Clojure build should be enough to make it work again.

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[Mike Qin]

Hi

I tried a simple sample app using neko, it report exactly the same error trace. Is this bug fixed? I was really curious to see if the start up time of clojure is acceptable using ART now.

[Mike Qin]

Also, I think I found: https://github.com/cernekee/android_art/commit/fc2ac71d0d9e147c607bff9371fe2ef25d8470af

Which indicate this might be a ART bug.

On Wednesday, November 20, 2013 10:12:58 AM UTC-5, Zach Oakes wrote:

[Alexander Yakushev]

Hello Mike,

I haven't yet had the guts to install 4.4 update. I hope this weekend my call of duty (and that bottle of bourbon) will make me brave enough to update and see what is going on.

Thank you for pointing at the commit. It could be related.

Best regards,
Alex

[Mike Qin]

I think the simulator does support 4.4. It's just that it only support
the armhf image and runs extremely slow on a x86 laptop.

On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 10:48 AM, Alexander Yakushev <al...@bytopia.org>
wrote:

[Benjamin Chi]

I'm running Gummy 4.4.2 on Galaxy S3 on ART runtime, it's very fast. I have similar problem with clojure apps. CatLog shows useful information about the crash.