This weekend, a GNAT AUX cross compiler was built for Android (ARM architecture).

While there are no regression test results available, we can at least demonstrate that a helloworld program written in Ada runs on the Android SDK emulator. The standard GCC version of GNAT runs flawlessly on the ARM v7 port of Linux with the default sjlj exception handling, but to our knowledge it's never been ported to the Android operating system before. The purpose for this cross compiler is that Android applications can be written entirely in Ada, and that they interface natively with the c libraries that control the phone/tables IO events. Starting with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) it's possible to write applications in languages other than java. The intention was to make C and C++ programmers happy, but it opened the door for the rest of us. Speaking of which, credit needs to be given to Mike Long for blazing the trail. He blogged about getting a Fortran application running on his Android device, and even has a nice You Tube video to prove it. We'll try to produce similar results soon enough, but check out Fortran on Android. Stay tuned for more developments about Ada on Android.