Page 294 -
P. 294

scripting layer for android




                                                 You were to open your web browser on your desktop computer
                                                 (or phone) and enter “Python for Android” into your favorite
                                                 search engine. You were then to make a note in the space below
                                                 of the most promising site from your search results:
              Is this the one
              you found?

                           http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting (the home of the SL4A project.)






           Run Python on the coach’s smartphone

          A quick search of the Web uncovers a pleasent surprise: Python runs on Android.
          At least a version of Python runs on Android. A project called Scripting Layer
           for Android (SL4A) provides technology to let you run Python on any Android
           device. But there’s a catch.










                                                Ummmm...I just checked
                                                the SL4A website, and
                                                it looks like it supports
                                                Python 2.6.2, not Python 3.
                                                   Phooey!






                                                    Yes. SL4A ships with Python 2, not 3.
                                                     Python 3, this book’s preference, is the best version of
                                                     Python yet, but it achieves its greatness at the cost of a
                                                     lack of backward compatibility. There’s some stuff in
                                                     3 that will never work in 2 and vice versa.
                                                     Is this fact alone a show-stopper?







           258    Chapter 8
   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299