Chapter 5. Writing a Fully Native Application

In previous chapters, we have breached Android NDK's surface using JNI. But there is much more to find inside! The NDK includes its own set of specific features, one of them being Native Activities. Native activities allow creating applications based only on native code, without a single line of Java. No more JNI! No more references! No more Java!

In addition to native activities, the NDK brings some APIs for native access to Android resources, such as display windows, assets, device configuration… These APIs help in getting rid of the tortuous JNI bridge often necessary to embed native code. Although there is a lot still missing, and not likely to be available (Java remains the main platform language for GUIs and most frameworks), multimedia applications are a perfect target to apply them...

This chapter initiates a native C++ project developed progressively throughout this book: DroidBlaster. Based on a top-down viewpoint...