Google Releases Updated Tools to Develop C and C++ Apps for Android

Monday, November 17, 2014

Google has released the 1.0 version of fplutil, a set of small libraries and tools by Fun Propulsion Labs at Google (the FPL in fplutil) that can be useful when developing C/C++ applications for Android. The Fun Propulsion Labs is a team within Google that's dedicated to advancing gaming on Android and other platforms.

The work by Fun Propulsion Labs on fplutil introduces the following:

- build_all_android.py: An all-in-one build script that allows developers the chance to build (with the Android NDK), install and run native (C/C++) Android apps from the command line. This is ideal for build automation, but is also useful in a developer’s compile/run loop.

- buildutil: Performs the configuration, build and archive steps of Android and Linux C/C++ applications using a suite of Python modules. This suite of modules can automate builds in a continuous integration environment. This framework uses legacy tools in the Android Development Toolkit.

- libfplutil: Enables C/C++ developers to write traditional applications (like Hello World) using "main()" and "printf()" on Android.

- android_ndk_perf.py: A desktop tool that enables native (C/C++) developers to measure the CPU utilization of their applications on Android, guiding their optimization efforts.

The latest open source release is available on the fplutil github page.