Huawei's HarmonyOS system will no longer be compatible with Android applications. NetEase, Meituan, and other companies are urgently recruiting HarmonyOS developers.
The HarmonyOS SDK is still thoroughly Java based. They also have a Typescript system, but that’s not as “native” as the Java API as far as I can tell.
Modern Java is fine, but Java 7 with hacks (which Android uses, which HarmonyOS in was based on) is indeed quite terrible. Unlike Google, Huawei doesn’t seem to care much for Kotlin. With how much Kotlin basically backports modern language constructs to shitty old Android Java, I feel for those HarmonyOS developers that want to build something more native than a web app on steroids like when you use their JS API.
Android 12 started the modernisation effort and brought basic Java 11, and now we’re getting Java 17 with Android 14. I don’t think “two years and three months” counts as “years”, these are relatively recent developments.
It’s a welcome change, but I don’t think any devs can afford to only target Android 13+ at the moment. It’ll take a while for the weird Java 7½ compatibility system to be completely phased out.
harmonyos is almost aosp where they did a “search and replace” for “android” strings
i understood “HarmonyOS NEXT” is different, if it’s not rewritten from scratch then it’s a waste of time+money, forcing devs to port apps for “it’s almost the same but it’s a bit different” it’s not a smart idea
Could be worse. I’d take a Java 7 over Objective-C any day of the day.
Also what exactly is stopping developers from using Kotlin? It compiles to the same bytecode. Is there a framework that can’t be imported? I thought IntelliJ handed all of that, not Google.
I’m not sure, but the HarmonyOS documentation is all Java except for the bits of Javascript. I suppose you probably can compile Kotlin just fine, but you’ll have to rewrite (and possibly redesign) the HarmonyOS examples if you do that.
The HarmonyOS SDK is still thoroughly Java based. They also have a Typescript system, but that’s not as “native” as the Java API as far as I can tell.
Modern Java is fine, but Java 7 with hacks (which Android uses, which HarmonyOS in was based on) is indeed quite terrible. Unlike Google, Huawei doesn’t seem to care much for Kotlin. With how much Kotlin basically backports modern language constructs to shitty old Android Java, I feel for those HarmonyOS developers that want to build something more native than a web app on steroids like when you use their JS API.
Android has moved on from Java 7 for years, Android 14 is Java 17 now
https://developer.android.com/about/versions/14/behavior-changes-14
Android 12 started the modernisation effort and brought basic Java 11, and now we’re getting Java 17 with Android 14. I don’t think “two years and three months” counts as “years”, these are relatively recent developments.
It’s a welcome change, but I don’t think any devs can afford to only target Android 13+ at the moment. It’ll take a while for the weird Java 7½ compatibility system to be completely phased out.
harmonyos is almost aosp where they did a “search and replace” for “android” strings
i understood “HarmonyOS NEXT” is different, if it’s not rewritten from scratch then it’s a waste of time+money, forcing devs to port apps for “it’s almost the same but it’s a bit different” it’s not a smart idea
Could be worse. I’d take a Java 7 over Objective-C any day of the day.
Also what exactly is stopping developers from using Kotlin? It compiles to the same bytecode. Is there a framework that can’t be imported? I thought IntelliJ handed all of that, not Google.
I’m not sure, but the HarmonyOS documentation is all Java except for the bits of Javascript. I suppose you probably can compile Kotlin just fine, but you’ll have to rewrite (and possibly redesign) the HarmonyOS examples if you do that.
IntelliJ IDE’s will convert automatically if you paste Java into a Kotlin file.