Scripting Comes to Android

ase logo

Google is bringing scripts to Android. The Android Scripting Environment (ASE) will make development accessible and easy for devs who don’t want to build a full-fledge application. As Google provides these details:

Scripts can be run interactively in a terminal, started as a long running service, or started via Locale. Python, Lua and BeanShell are currently supported, and we’re planning to add Ruby and JavaScript support, as well.

These scripts can:

Handle intents

Start activities

Make phone calls

Send text messages

Scan bar codes

Poll location and sensor data

Use text-to-speech (TTS)

And more

The ASE will greatly increase the customizability of Android phones. This is one of the more interesting developments I have seen for mobile apps. I hope that the Market supports trading scripts. The ASE is not in the Market yet, but you can download it from its project page.

ase screen

Via Hacker News

Update: Via Matt Cutts, a 6 line Python script that scans book barcodes:


import android

droid = android.Android()

code = droid.scanBarcode()

isbn = int(code[‘result’][‘SCAN_RESULT’])

url = “http://books.google.com?q=%d” % isbn

droid.startActivity(’android.intent.action.VIEW’, url)

ASE is going to be very powerful.

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