Some time ago, Google communicated on their ASE project for Android Scripting Environment. This tool allows you to edit and run scripts in different languages (Python, Perl, JRuby, Lua, BeanShell, JavaScript, Tcl…). A page exists on the wiki which awaits only the contributions of the motivated ones. This project, under the Apache license, allows you to easily open up to other languages. This is the case with the PHP for Android project.
The project is developed by the Ironic company. Ultimately, it will allow the development of real Android applications from this language. For this, an API makes it possible to use the standard Android interface elements. In addition, the team is working on the possibility of sharing these applications as simple Android apk.
At the moment, it is sparse in functionality and does not allow you to do much more than programs in the PHP console. To give you an idea of the state of the project, the development team offers you a short video of the installation and 3 basic programs.
PHPforAndroid.apk HOWTO install and test from irontec on Vimeo.
We see that the Google team plans to make mobile development accessible to as many people as possible. And in the event that they cannot develop the functionality on their own, the system is open enough to easily accept the extension.
