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Anyone using ART?

CrimsonToker

CrimsonToker

Android Expert
I'm still a little confused about the differences, but so far the consensus I've gathered is that dalvik is generally better on this phone.
 
On art the speed increase was good. Everything was smoother and apps opened fast.... But I would rather have more storage.
 
I've gone back and forth, didn't see much difference in performance, now parked on ART because I'm tired of going back and forth.
 
I'm using ART... I've noticed absolutely no difference in my storage. 188 apps, 77 of them user apps, many of which are large games.
It's running well, apps certainly load faster.
 

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Here's a thread that @EarlyMon posted a while back: http://androidforums.com/threads/introducing-the-new-android-runtime-art.792223/

It's no longer experimental as referenced above as it's shipping out of the box (without the Dalvik runtime) for many new devices.

Here's Google's info on ART: http://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik/art.html (taken from EM's link above).

The excellent page that @DaKillaWilla linked above (http://www.gottabemobile.com/2014/06/21/lg-g3-release-date-rumor-roundup/) says this:

In Android 4.5 Google will swap out Dalvik with ART, which uses an “Ahead of Time” compiler. This makes the app code ready to run the moment the user installs the app on their phone or tablet, instead of waiting until the user taps on the app icon. Removing that step of compiling the app each time someone taps the icon will save some time, speeding things up in a noticeable way.

The speed increase comes at an expense. Apps already compiled with ART will take up more space, as the process of compiling the code makes the installed app larger.
Click to expand...

I've certainly seen performance improvements, but I'm sure it will vary for each user and what they're doing.
 
Thank you all for the info! If i switch from dalvik to art will it erase any user data or uninstall apps as if i flashed a rom? I have a lot of space taken up as is, and i would hate to switch and have too many apps or something..
 
CrimsonToker said:
Thank you all for the info! If i switch from dalvik to art will it erase any user data or uninstall apps as if i flashed a rom? I have a lot of space taken up as is, and i would hate to switch and have too many apps or something..
Click to expand...

None of your apps or you user data will be touched in the process of switching between runtimes.

There are files that the runtime environment's build for you in the background when the app is first installed or when the runtime method changes that are wholly separate (but obviously related) from your app that the runtimes use to help execute your app as fast/efficiently as possible.

You will likely see the "Android is upgrading..." message when you reboot after switching between runtimes--totally normal (edit: that's Android telling you it's rebuilding the background files I mentioned above).

Cheers!
 
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Okay, that is weird. On ART, where I've had it parked for months, it said 1.16 of 3.91GB available, with 115 apps, according to them. After switching back to Dalvik, it says 2.11 of 3.97... that's quite a difference. Needless to say, I'm leaving it parked at Dalvik for the new time being.
 
I'm trying to make room on my sd card, and for some reason when i try to delete some of my music, it says what I'm trying to delete is part of the system. I'm using Sd card manager, only trying to delete mp3s from /music. My plan is to move some apps to my sd card to make room for the switch to ART (i only have 600mb)
 
jefboyardee said:
Okay, that is weird. On ART, where I've had it parked for months, it said 1.16 of 3.91GB available, with 115 apps, according to them. After switching back to Dalvik, it says 2.11 of 3.97... that's quite a difference. Needless to say, I'm leaving it parked at Dalvik for the new time being.
Click to expand...
Yep.

With Dalvik, apps are compiled when loaded and stay that way as long as in ram.

ART compiles everything ahead of time, as scary said, and saves the compiled versions to your app storage.
 
So with Dalvik, I can have two hundred apps, available as fast as they can be read. With ART, the apps will be instantly available, but I can only have a hundred of 'em.
 
Not seeing an appreciable difference in performance and taking a monstrous hit in storage when using ART, I can't help but stay with Dalvik, even though it seems inexplicably wrong.
 
CrimsonToker said:
Keep in mind that it's still developmental on our phones
Click to expand...

That, what I said earlier and the fact that if I hadn't learned to tap About Phone seven times, I'd had never stumbled upon it in the first place all pretty good reasons to stick with Dalvik, aware that I will wind up having to go ART at some point.
 
bg4m3r said:
Also, it doesn't effect how the app runs, so much as how fast it launches.
Click to expand...

Apps in most cases, will run faster (not just the launch) since ART isn't doing the just-in-time compiling (everything's already pre-compiled--hence the larger runtime files).

One of my apps I developed runs significantly faster with ART vs. the Dalvik runtime (it's a pretty resource (CPU and memory) intensive app), but your mileage will (always :p) vary.

:)
 
Just to round things out -

Some apps have always come precompiled - native.


And the JIT compiler was advanced for its day. I believe it's served us well. Personally, I'm not ready to move on yet. :D


Google studies back in the day found no appreciable speed difference between NDK and SDK apps. Fwiw.
 
jefboyardee said:
That, what I said earlier and the fact that if I hadn't learned to tap About Phone seven times, I'd had never stumbled upon it in the first place all pretty good reasons to stick with Dalvik, aware that I will wind up having to go ART at some point.
Click to expand...

I'm curious about this but how do you get into the place to change. I see the above but as soon as I tap About Phone it goes to the Phone settings. I tried to tap it real fast but it still goes to the settings after about 3 or 4 taps. Am I missing something?

Gerry
 
gerryex said:
I'm curious about this but how do you get into the place to change. I see the above but as soon as I tap About Phone it goes to the Phone settings. I tried to tap it real fast but it still goes to the settings after about 3 or 4 taps. Am I missing something?

Gerry
Click to expand...
You tap the build number in software information.
 
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