[Interest] Building for Android: armeabi-v7a and x86

Thiago Macieira thiago.macieira at intel.com
Wed Jan 2 13:28:45 CET 2019


On Tuesday, 1 January 2019 14:28:57 -02 mail at herrdiel.de wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've noticed "by accident" that when building for Android, it doesn't seem
> to matter what processor architecture (armeabi-v7a or x86) I build for, my
> connected device is able to run the program.
> 
> First thought: that's cool.

<Work hat on>
You're welcome.
</Work>

> I use an Asus Fone Tab for x86 and various arm devices (Nokia 8, Nexus
> 10...).
>
> Second thought: how's that possible, does it bring considerable
> disadvantages, in speed, size or safety?

You should notice a performance drawback when running ARM code on x86. The 
Houdini engine is good, but it cannot do magic.

Whether that's significant or not, will depend on your usage and often on how 
much code you're running natively, versus Java. Given that there are a number 
of x86 performance optimisations in QtCore (far more than for ARM), you're 
leaving a lot on the table by shipping only ARM binaries.

> Is it still advisable - to have to different kits and provide
> two different APKs in order to deliver for both architectures?

You should provide one APK with both or even all four architectures.

> [I have sent an almost identical mail to android-qt at googlegroups.com 2 weeks
> ago, but recieved no answer, that's why I'm crossposting it here.]

-- 
Thiago Macieira - thiago.macieira (AT) intel.com
  Software Architect - Intel Open Source Technology Center






More information about the Interest mailing list