Originally Posted by sivan:
And I still contend that even though Android and iPhone have deeper SDKs, the use cases for mobile development make much of them unnecessary. Other than games, the most significant mobile apps don't require deep access to C/C++/Objective-C or even a JVM. Though I'd concede that to me threading is a big ommission.
While I agree that many mobile app requirements could/can be met with Javascript, it doesn't mean it is the best tool for the job. There are many advantages to C & Java on a mobile device.
1) Use of resources
Smartphones are relatively low powered devices with limited memory and power resources. A fully compiled language like C allows a developer to utilize those resources in the most efficient way possible (exhibit A the snappy iPhone GUI). Java is less ideal from this point of view but it is still better than a scripting language (its also relatively portable).
2) Source code readability and secrecy
Its easy to write elegant readable code in Java and to a lesser extent C/C++. Javascript is not nearly as readable. Easy to read code is easier to maintain. OTOH, its impossible to read the source code of a compiled C application and somewhat difficult to read a decompiled Java program.
3) Debugging
With the Palm SDK, you don't discover your errors until your code is running (you hope) on the emulator. With Java and C, the compiler can detect typos and syntax errors. Decent debugging tools are available for Android and the iPhoneOS.