[General Topics] Jsilver73:
ART - What is it? Is dalvik VM still better ?

OK guys - here we go!!! Over the past 24 hours I have switched over to 4.4 and discovered Google's new solution to making the most out of our hardware. Now - please let me be clear from the outset, I am certainly not a dev, technical whiz, nor even someone who understands coding nor microchips! I am simply an enthusiastic Android geek who loves to mess around with the latest optimizations and offerings bestowed upon us by our ever hard working devs.

My interest in starting this thread is to give a forum for discussion around the pros and cons of Android Run Time (ART) and dalvik VM and in so doing become a place where information can be shared and a knowledge base that can be built upon. I come to posting this after the dev of the new omnirom 4.4 [MENTION=4213920]nims11[/MENTION] (i9100) posted that ART was working on his ROM. I asked the question 'so what does ART do and what benefits does it give?' to which he suggested I google it! Once I got off my lazy arse and started searching I discovered that there are many posts that relate to this subject however they are all in device specific forums - obviously, this topic is far bigger than just Nexus 4 or 5! Thus this general forum for all Android users who have (or are thinking of) upgrading to 4.4

Introduction

My limited understand of what ART does is this: ART compiles the code of all our apks into a near native code which makes it more economical for our Android to read and execute in run time - which means that apps and operations should load quicker, be more battery efficient and generally perform better. Like I said this is a simplistic description and there are much more detailed explanations in the threads I have linked below:

Here's some useful information - this list will be added to as and when new info becomes available:

Wiki description of dalvik VM

What is ART? Android Police

BREAKING: New Runtime Compiler in Android 4.4 to Possibly Bring Better Performance in Future Releases XDA

Find out about which apps can run in ART (Android Run Time), the easy way [MENTION=3789188]bippi79[/MENTION]

ART Broken apps androidruntime.com

Top tip: use PA 4.4 gapps as they are compatible with ART thanks [MENTION=2225255]herna[/MENTION]

Now - this I believe is just a start and I feel there is lots more information but this is some of the resources I found useful to help me to get a basic understanding.

Summary

I've been running on ART for a week now and can report that for me ART seems to be running very nicely. I have tried swapping between dalvik and ART and am certain there is a perceptible difference in the speed that apps load and operate, don't get me wrong - I think KitKat in general seems fast and smooth, although ART seems to just give it a little edge - it seems more instant. I'm not sure how much of this is placebo but what I am sure of is that Google has invested much time and resources into developing this new run time and I can't for the life of me see how it has got this far without the intention that this is the future of Android.

The only problems I have had is that Titanium Backup still will not run on ART - however it will run on dalvik so my simple workaround is to swap to dalvik - restore or back up with TB then switch back to ART - not pretty but it works : EDIT: TB now works with ART. The other problem is that the xposed framework [MENTION=4419114]rovo89[/MENTION] is running on 4.4 with dalvik but unfortunately not with ART. [MENTION=4419114]rovo89[/MENTION] says the framework will likely need to be completely re-written to run on ART, I hope he can (well I'm sure he can but hope he does) rewrite so we can have his excellent framework and all modules that run from it working on ART ;)

Rules of this forum are very simple:

All rules that apply to XDA forums in general

Be nice ! This is supposed to be a helpful forum for people to learn, if someone asks a question that has already been answered please just direct them to the right place.

Share your experiences pro and con for both using dalvik and ART

Please post any articles and resources and I will copy and paste them into the OP as I have time

Ask questions - but search before you do - there is no such thing as a stupid question unless it has already been answered umpteen times before!

PRESS THE THANKS BUTTON IF SOMEONE HELPS YOU :)