> You just said: > "If you then press the HOME button, typically in order to return to > Activity B.." > > A better version would be: > "If you then press the HOME button and go to HOME, typically in order > to return to Activity B.."
I can see your point, although pressing HOME always takes you to the home screen. Saying "and go to HOME" is on the one hand redundant and also seems to imply its possible to hit the HOME button and not return to the home screen. The former result of that wording is okay, but the latter is bad. So, "If you press the the HOME button it will return you to the HOME screen. Typically to return to Activity B..." > Now I'm noticing that with a combination of what you just > said here together with the docs, there is a clear and immediate > understanding on my part, just a few minutes. If it was just the docs, > it would have taken me a while to understand it. Writing clear documentation is easy. Writing concise documentation is easy. Writing clear and concise documentation is hard, so we'll continue to improve our docs and try to strike the right balance. Thanks for this feedback, its always helpful to have input on the understandability of our information. Cheers, Justin Android Team @ Google On Aug 22, 4:03 pm, jtaylor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Aug 22, 5:38 pm, "Justin (Google Employee)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > > > Maybe I need a Ph.D to understand it. :) Or maybe there's a word off > > > here somewhere. How can one navigate from home back to where one is at > > > the moment? Why wouldn't I be able to return to the task/activities if > > > the home screen is in the way? > > > Let us assume you launch Activity A by pressing an icon on the HOME > > screen. Let us assume from your Activity A you start a new Activity B > > with FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK set. If you then press the HOME button, > > typically in order to return to Activity B you would need an icon that > > would fire an Intent that would resolve to Activity B in order to > > return. Alternately, since we know you can get to A from the HOME > > screen, you could provide a way to get back to B from A, although then > > its questionable why you used NEW_TASK to start with. If there is > > neither an icon on the HOME screen to access B directly or a way to > > get back to B from A (or another Activity), then B is lost forever in > > the background. > > Yes, I understand what you're saying! But I didn't understand it from > the docs alone. There is this issue though. > > You just said: > "If you then press the HOME button, typically in order to return to > Activity B.." > > A better version would be: > "If you then press the HOME button and go to HOME, typically in order > to return to Activity B.." > > > > > > I think this should be "determine if THE task already exists". > > > The original wording is precise and correct. The system searches for a > > task with the same affinity as the new Activity. (Note: Activity != > > task). If there exists a task with the same affinity as the new task > > *and* that task is not the one that started the new Activity, then the > > new Activity will be created as the foreground Activity in that task. > > Yes, my correction is incorrect. And once again, I understand what's > being said from a combination of the docs and what you're saying > here. > > > > "A process's priority may also be increased based on other > > > dependencies a process has to > > > it."http://code.google.com/android/intro/lifecycle.html > > > > I think it should say "dependencies the process has" or at least > > > "dependencies a process has". > > > The original wording is correct and your wording implies the inverse > > of what its actually saying. It is saying given a process A its > > priority may be increased if a higher priority process B depends on A. > > Process A has dependencies *to it* from another process. Your wording > > implies that the priority of A may be increased based on what A > > depends on. > > Yes, the first corrective wording I have is indeed incorrect. I > wouldn't say "to it" though, I think the correct wording would be > "towards it". "to it" doesn't sound right. > And I understood this to begin with. > > > Overall the lifecycle is a delicate thing to understand. I agree that > > it would be beneficial to have more verbose information about it, but > > what is there is precise and correct. I would note, you have > > facilitated the creation of such content right here in this question! > > I guess that's the conceptually big thing to understand - the > lifecycle. Now I'm noticing that with a combination of what you just > said here together with the docs, there is a clear and immediate > understanding on my part, just a few minutes. If it was just the docs, > it would have taken me a while to understand it. > > - Juan T. > > On Aug 22, 5:38 pm, "Justin (Google Employee)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > Maybe I need a Ph.D to understand it. :) Or maybe there's a word off > > > here somewhere. How can one navigate from home back to where one is at > > > the moment? Why wouldn't I be able to return to the task/activities if > > > the home screen is in the way? > > > Let us assume you launch Activity A by pressing an icon on the HOME > > screen. Let us assume from your Activity A you start a new Activity B > > with FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK set. If you then press the HOME button, > > typically in order to return to Activity B you would need an icon that > > would fire an Intent that would resolve to Activity B in order to > > return. Alternately, since we know you can get to A from the HOME > > screen, you could provide a way to get back to B from A, although then > > its questionable why you used NEW_TASK to start with. If there is > > neither an icon on the HOME screen to access B directly or a way to > > get back to B from A (or another Activity), then B is lost forever in > > the background. > > > > I think this should be "determine if THE task already exists". > > > The original wording is precise and correct. The system searches for a > > task with the same affinity as the new Activity. (Note: Activity != > > task). If there exists a task with the same affinity as the new task > > *and* that task is not the one that started the new Activity, then the > > new Activity will be created as the foreground Activity in that task. > > > > "A process's priority may also be increased based on other > > > dependencies a process has to > > > it."http://code.google.com/android/intro/lifecycle.html > > > > I think it should say "dependencies the process has" or at least > > > "dependencies a process has". > > > The original wording is correct and your wording implies the inverse > > of what its actually saying. It is saying given a process A its > > priority may be increased if a higher priority process B depends on A. > > Process A has dependencies *to it* from another process. Your wording > > implies that the priority of A may be increased based on what A > > depends on. > > > Overall the lifecycle is a delicate thing to understand. I agree that > > it would be beneficial to have more verbose information about it, but > > what is there is precise and correct. I would note, you have > > facilitated the creation of such content right here in this question! > > > Cheers, > > Justin > > Android Team @ Google > > > On Aug 22, 2:13 pm, jtaylor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > On the next page - "Application Life Cycle" there's this sentence. > > > > "A process's priority may also be increased based on other > > > dependencies a process has to > > > it."http://code.google.com/android/intro/lifecycle.html > > > > I think it should say "dependencies the process has" or at least > > > "dependencies a process has". I know this is incorrect because I > > > understand what it's trying to say. The problem for me in going > > > through many other sentences, is that I don't know what they're trying > > > to say. So I'm definitely being confused because chances are there are > > > mistakes (grammatical and semantic) there as well. > > > > I think this is a serious issue because if I don't understand it, at > > > least many others don't as well, and the biggest obstacle to great > > > apps is the complexity of the platform. And the only real solid > > > gateway to understanding what's encapsulated in these pages, is what's > > > written in the page themselves, how it's expressed, etc. > > > > - Juan T. > > > > On Aug 21, 9:53 pm, jtaylor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > I request that this whole page be > > > > rewritten.http://code.google.com/android/intro/appmodel.html > > > > > This is really important and complex things on tasks and such as it is > > > > now, the complexity of it is made more complex by grammatical and > > > > semantic errors. I've only gotten halfway through and here's what I > > > > call a semantic error. > > > > > "However, if the NEW_TASK flag is being used, then the affinity will > > > > be used to determine if a task already exists with the same affinity." > > > > I think this should be "determine if THE task already exists". In the > > > > previous sentence that conceptually compares itself, THE and not A is > > > > mentioned. > > > > > This page is probably very important compared to the rest of the docs > > > > given the complex nature of tasks and stacks. Maybe it needs visual > > > > diagrams. But I think it needs to be rewritten with more weight on > > > > making the complexity more easy to understand. > > > > > - Juan T. > > > > > On Aug 21, 9:23 pm, jtaylor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > "In addition, you should only use the new task flag if it is possible > > > > > for the user to navigate from home back to where they are and launch > > > > > the same Intent as a new task. Otherwise, if the user presses HOME > > > > > instead of BACK from the task you have launched, your task and its > > > > > activities will be ordered behind the home screen without a way to > > > > > return to them."http://code.google.com/android/intro/appmodel.html, > > > > > Tasks > > > > > > Maybe I need a Ph.D to understand it. :) Or maybe there's a word off > > > > > here somewhere. How can one navigate from home back to where one is at > > > > > the moment? Why wouldn't I be able to return to the task/activities if > > > > > the home screen is in the way? But really since I don't understand the > > > > > first part, the second is not going to get me anywhere anyway. :) > > > > > There must be some grammatical error here. > > > > > > Here's a grammatical error in the paragraph before which makes the > > > > > whole meaning of things unclear as well. And maybe we need > > > > > visualization in these things. > > > > > > "A task, then, from the user's perspective your application;" > > > > > > - Juan T. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Beginners" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Announcing the new M5 SDK! http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2008/02/android-sdk-m5-rc14-now-available.html For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-beginners?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
