This afternoon I was looking at whether much was new over at the folks who took over Metacard when I stumbled into the Google 'Android' code project.
The link to an XML example of a UI layout was a good reminder of why we love Curl.
A UI layout is typically hierarchical and models a containment structure, but a comparison of that XML to a comparable Curl declarative layout could be misleading: and that is because in addition to that XML there is still all of the Java code required to to get that little UI up and running.
What Google may be after is the mobile market (OpenLaszlo may be the competitor they have in their sights) and perhaps they can rely on the perception that competant java UI developers are cheap and plentiful.. But the reality may be a little different if there is any big demand for Android app's. Because tolerance for bugs in mobile software is, well, you know, low: the thing has gotta work. Those little gadgets are, well, kinda personal ... and we rely on them in corporate life when we are far removed from any friendly, near-my-cubicle rescue-techie.
Just what Dilbert needed: an Android running on Java ...
It might be fun to parse some of the example XML as UI spec's for a Curl applet ... stay connected; more to follow.
The pain is that you have to identify the declared ui element in your code and then add all the event handler. Not really fun.
Friedger (SplashPlay - Openintents : Top50 at Android Developer Challenge Round I)