android build without android studio (godot inspired)

[Tomek CEDRO]

Hello world :-)

When I was looking for alternative to a JavaScript mess for a cross
platform mobile apps development I found GODOT Game Engine [1] and
Kivy :-)

Godot does not use fully featured Python but its own GD Script
language (kind of castrated Python alike) so it is out of my interest
in favor of Kivy as I can import any known Python module as I please
here :-)

But what surprised me in Godot: I was able to generate APK for Android
on my FreeBSD workstation having zero Android Studio available here!
And it took several seconds :-)

Imagine not using shitty slow macOS and that whole complex Buildozer
build process.. that still depends on Android SDK not available on
FreeBSD :-)

I know that XCode seems mandatory to generate apps for iOS. But there
may be a better / faster / simpler way of generating Android apps?

Is anyone aware of the faster and more open process of generating APK by Godot?

Thanks :-)
Tomek

[1] https://godotengine.org/

--
CeDeROM, SQ7MHZ, http://www.tomek.cedro.info

[Robert]

Hmmm, the assumptions in the reasoning are not clear to me.

Buildozer doesn't require Android Studio installed.
Buildozer does all this for you https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/development/compiling/compiling_for_android.html#requirements  (one thing it is really good at 😂).

Buildozer is of course open source.

I agree that a Buildozer first build of a project is slow.
And that there are a huge number of options, this is a feature for advanced users, noobs should leave the options well alone.

If you are interested in an apk from Python source, also look at https://beeware.org  , it is an example of a simple build system but dig deeper and find the constraints.☹️

If Python is not the implementation constraint, there are a lot of solutions.

One of which is Java, however Java has been shown to induce insanity in laboratory mice.🤣

Of course the best solution is the one that makes us happy, and that will vary by individual.

[Tomek CEDRO]

On Wed, Aug 10, 2022 at 2:01 AM Robert wrote:
>
> Hmmm, the assumptions in the reasoning are not clear to me.
>
> Buildozer doesn't require Android Studio installed.
> Buildozer does all this for you https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/development/compiling/compiling_for_android.html#requirements (one thing it is really good at 😂).
> Buildozer is of course open source.

Again. What my point is that Godot can build APK in seconds with no Android SDK.

When you look at Buildozer internals it downloads Android SDK and
Tools for you. Assuming you are on a platform supported by Android SDK
and Tools. If you work on a system, lets say FreeBSD, that is
unsupported by these tools, so no packages are available from Google,
then Buildozer won't do much.

Still, on such "unsupported" platform Godot was able to generate working APK :-)

I was wondering if anyone is aware of these tricks that might be also
applied in Kivy?

> If you are interested in an apk from Python source, also look at https://beeware.org , it is an example of a simple build system but dig deeper and find the constraints.☹️

Thanks for the reference :-) What are the constraints? :-)