Android's Dalvik Runtime Scrapped in Favor of ART

It's been pretty clear for a while now that Google was going to move Android from Dalvik to a new runtime called AOT runtime called ART - we talked about it in November, then December, then again in March - but it looks like it's finally happening: Dalvik has been removed from the AOSP master branch.

From AOSP's change 98553 comes this gem, which knocks the whole thing home:

Dalvik is dead, long live Dalvik!

And if you want to see the change that adds ART, you can find it here: change 98618.

According to The Inquirer's Chris Merriman, this change is leading up to Google's official announcement of Android 5.0 Lollipop, which will run ART rather than Dalvik.

Get ready for some performance boosts, and watch out for any changes this might lead to in your own apps!