===== THE PROJECT IS NOT USABLE YET =====
Python for android is a project to create your own Python distribution including the modules you want, and create an apk including python, libs, and your application.
In terms of comparaison, you can check how Python for android can be useful compared to other projects.
| Project | Native Python | GUI libraries | APK generation | Custom build |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Python for android | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PGS4A | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Android scripting | No | No | No | No |
| Python on a chip | No | No | No | No |
WARNING: the current version is working only on Ubuntu oneiric (11.10). We don't provide support on other platform. If it doesn't work, send us patch, not bug report.
You need the minimal environment for building python. Note that other libraries might need other tools:
sudo apt-get install build-essential patch
You must have android SDK and NDK. You can download them at:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/index.html
If it's your very first time into android sdk, don't forget to follow documentation for recommended components at:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing.html#which
You need to download at least one platform into your environment, so
that you will be able to compile your application and set up an Android
Virtual Device (AVD) to run it on (in the emulator). To start with,
just download the latest version of the platform. Later, if you plan to
publish your application, you will want to download other platforms as
well, so that you can test your application on the full range of
Android platform versions that your application supports.
After installing them, export both installation path:
export ANDROIDSDK=/path/to/android-sdk export ANDROIDNDK=/path/to/android-ndk # examples export ANDROIDSDK="/home/tito/code/android/android-sdk-linux_86" export ANDROIDNDK="/home/tito/code/android/android-ndk-r5b"
Step 1, compile the toolchain:
MODULES="openssl pygame" ./configure.sh
Step 2, package your application:
...
List of available modules: jpeg pil png sdl sqlite3
The up-to-date list is available at: https://github.com/tito/python-for-android/tree/master/recipes
Only hostpython and python are 2 mandatory recipes, used for building hostpython / target python libraries.
A recipe is a script that contain the "definition" of a module to compile. The directory layout of a recipe for a <modulename> is something like:
python-for-android/recipes/<modulename>/recipe.sh python-for-android/recipes/<modulename>/patches/ python-for-android/recipes/<modulename>/patches/fix-path.patch
When building, all the recipe build must go to:
python-for-android/build/<modulename>/<archiveroot>
For example, if you want to create a recipe for sdl, do:
cd python-for-android/recipes mkdir sdl cp recipe.sh.tmpl sdl/recipe.sh sed -i 's#XXX#sdl#' sdl/recipe.sh
Then, edit the sdl/recipe.sh to adjust other information (version, url) and complete build function.
- PGS4A: http://pygame.renpy.org/
- Android scripting: http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/
- Python on a chip: http://code.google.com/p/python-on-a-chip/
- Make Android API configurable (defined in src/default.properties => shoudl be generated)
- jni/Android.mk must not include ttf/image/mixer if not asked by the user
- application should be automatically generated (Android.mk etc...)
- Python try always to import name.so, namemodule.so, name.py, name.pyo ?
- restore libpymodules.so loading to reduce the number of dlopen.