Android Scripting Environment (ASE) was announced yesterday. It allows you to “edit and execute scripts and interactive interpreters directly on the Android device”.

The key part of this for me is editing on the device. There’s a large number of people out there who would like to create simple utilities on the device in their spare time. A long time ago, the Psion series of devices had great success with OPL that allowed people to create small simple applications on their phone. Since then there have been attempts at re-creating a mini-ecosystem, for example Python on S60, but none have reached the simplicity, depth and usefulness of OPL. I believe ASE has the potential of becoming as successful and useful as OPL was on the Psion.