Android support library now the most popular Android library

http://www.appbrain.com/stats/libraries/dev?o=0

by uwemaurer • 14 years ago

38 13 14 years ago

ch0wn• 14 years ago

Does anyone know how they analyze the apps to gather these statistics? I guess it's not trivial as it even works for obfuscated (proguard-ed) APKs and their database of libraries is quite comprehensive. Does this use some byte code fingerprinting or is their an easier way?

kryptiskt• 14 years ago

The libraries reside in /data/data/<package-name>/lib after the app has been installed. So you just have to have a rooted phone and trawl through there,

I guess the names of the libs could be obfuscated by some sad soul, but why would anyone bother? They're just binaries and it would be a pointless exercise as you can't remove the symbol names, and they would give away the identity of the lib.

cageface3• 14 years ago

As an aside, just browsing through this huge collection of Java libraries actively used in Android somewhat vindicates Google's decision to go with Java.

The Objective-C open source world is maturing but it still only has a tiny fraction of the depth of what's on offer here.

w0utert2• 14 years ago

Scrolling through the list of most active libraries, many either have iOS versions/alternatives or duplicate things that iOS has built-in by default.

Also, let's not forget that you can also use any C or C++ library on iOS as long as it has a permissive license.

cageface3• 14 years ago

Gson, guava, roboguice, rhino, kawa, mime, jaxen etc have iOS equivalents? Please post links. I'd love to use them in my next iOS app. Java the language is meh but there's a shitload of very useful and robust code to draw on.

Bridging to native is fairly easy in iOS but it's not nearly as clean or idiomatic as just dropping in a jar file.

sippndipp• 14 years ago

If you need other good libraries check out http://androidweekly.net/toolbox it's a huge collection of libraries to get thing done.

Nemisis7654• 14 years ago

It's a shame that ActionBarSherlock is not further up the list. That library is downright incredible. But, knowing that devs are using the support library to backport many of the newer APIs is great.

Edit: I'd also like to point out AQuery. If you are an Android developer and have not seen AQuery, definitely check it out.

zyb09• 14 years ago

well not really surprising, from what I have seen almost everybody uses it in their new apps these days.

johsoe• 14 years ago

Android Query far down the list as well :/

From what I've done with it, I'll reckon it'll get more used in the near future.

Android support library now the most popular Android library

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