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What is Dalvik? by Mark Murphy

By Pamela Jones et al.

I asked an Android guy to explain some things to me about Dalvik, so I could understand the Oracle v. Google situation in more depth.

I'm not a programmer, I told him, but I need to understand the tech behind the lawsuit, so I can understand when the lawyers start arguing about what Google did and didn't do and whether it was entitled to do it or not. What is Dalvik? Why use it? So I asked Mark Murphy, the founder of CommonsWare, and who is the author of three books on Android application development, including Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development, to explain it. He also trains folks in developing for Android. Also, he doesn't work for Google, so he can speak more freely. Once you are in litigation, most companies are silent as the grave until it's decided. Don't go by SCO. That big-mouth grandstanding to the media was not typical.

If, like me, you never paid much attention before to all the intricacies of Java, it's a chance to get up to speed on all that, as the article walks us through different ways the word Java is used, sometimes a bit loosely, as well as explaining what Dalvik does and the benefits it offers.

Full post as published by Groklaw on September 15, 2010 (boomark / email).