Neha Patil (Editor)

Scripting Layer for Android

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Written in
  
C and Java

Type
  
Library

Operating system
  
Android

License
  
Apache License 2.0

Website
  
github.com/damonkohler/sl4a

The Scripting Layer for Android (abridged as SL4A, and previously named Android Scripting Environment or ASE) is a library that allows the creation and running of scripts written in various scripting languages directly on Android devices. SL4A is designed for developers and (as of March 2016) is still alpha quality software. As of January 2016, other developers have forked the SL4A code to enable it to run on Android Lollipop and Android Marshmallow after development on the main code branch stopped, for example the kuri65536 branch of SL4A and droid-python

These scripts have access to many of the APIs available to normal Java Android applications, but with a simplified interface. Scripts can be run interactively in a terminal, or in the background using the Android services architecture. Currently supported languages are:

  • Python using CPython
  • Perl
  • Ruby using JRuby
  • Lua
  • BeanShell
  • JavaScript using Rhino
  • Tcl
  • Rexx using BRexx
  • SL4A was first announced by Google in June 2009, and was originally named "Android Scripting Environment" (ASE). It was originally developed by Damon Kohler, and it has grown through the contributions of many developers.

    References

    Scripting Layer for Android Wikipedia