Greets folks...
Yowzer.. I finally registered on LWJGL forums.. Woot.. My bad.. Should have years ago.. I'm "Catharsis" on JGO and been active there off and on for ages.
I've always been very appreciative of the LWJGL community and would like to continue this discussion on supporting LWJGL on Android and in particular OpenGL ES 2.x support. As things go I'm sure Google and the Android team will not extend an open hand just like Sun in integrating LWJGL, but that doesn't stop things at all. LWJGL can be available as a 3rd party binding just as it is with with the desktop.
All that is necessary to get things working for Android app development is a Linux binary (.so) with the native/binding code and additional jar file with the wrapper. For Android even if developing on Windows all you need to do is drop the .so and jar file into the libs directory of an Android project, compile as per normal, and it's golden. I'm currently investigating in adding additional Java side support to Kwaak3 (a native port of Quake3 port) in this manner, so I know an LWJGL Android binding can work in the same fashion.
I would like to work with the LWJGL community to create a 3rd party binding for OpenGL ES for Android. I can try and take the initiative on this _soon_, but would be very excited to work with the knowledgeable folks of the LWJGL community that already work with the binding generation and such for the desktop. While I mostly work at the Java level I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty with binding specific work, but guidance alone with how to make it compatible with the LWJGL build process would be fantastic. Of course I'd like to see it be a blessed LWJGL community binding as well.
I firmly believe that acting on this right now will garner a decent amount of exposure for LWJGL in the Android community as Google is seemingly dropping the ball regarding Java OpenGL 2.x support. At best the only statement made and this comes from Romain Guy is that the Java API _"should"_ available in FroYo (Android 2.2). There isn't even a strong statement saying it will be supported in the next Android release which is kind of sad really.
The thread on the Android developers list is here:
http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_frm/thread/5e93f608ddaa10b1/ecc27511ceb8b639#ecc27511ceb8b639This however is not acceptable because even if it is supported in Android 2.2 that OS won't hit the larger ecosystem for 6 months to a year. We desperately need a 3rd party OpenGL binding on Android and LWJGL can be that solution. Again no need to coordinate with Google on this one. No disrespect to the Android dev team; Android is fantastic, but leading edge Java real time app & game developers on Android can't wait 6 months to a year for OpenGL 2.x API support especially when there are several and plenty more 2nd gen Android devices coming out this year that already have the hardware support.
So who do I need to talk to and how can we continue this discussion. I really do believe LWJGL can extend itself onto Android and I'd like to assist in making it so..