Ok, when I said "replacement" I really meant "alternative"...
I don't think my expectations were unrealistic, though I can see how you can think they were when I said "replacement." I was expecting to be able to long press the home key and have the activity chooser dialog (or whatever its official name is) ask me whether I wanted to use the "alternative" application or the default one. Seeing as how the default behavior is not an app I now understand that it is not possible. I still think that not allowing "alternative" actions when long pressing the home key is too restrictive. I mean, how hard would it have been to make long-pressing the home key use an intent and launch an actual app using a dialog theme instead of an internal dialog? Especially when this is the exact behavior of the short press of the home key... it launches an app based on intents and intent-filters. Thanks for your information. Though I don't agree with your opinions and it the tone of your response seemed a bit condescending (which may have just been misread), the information you provided did help me understand a little more about how Android is set up. On Aug 1, 5:05 am, "Mark Murphy" <[email protected]> wrote: > > Everything I read said that essentially any part of the phone could be > > replaced. > > First, most likely what you read refers to the fact that Android is open > source, and so you can build your own firmware and deploy it on your own > devices with whatever changes/replacements you want. > > Even beyond that, SDK applications have a fair bit of control to provide > alternatives for built-in capabilities, though there it is providing > *alternatives*, not usually outright replacements, and also only where > there are appropriate hooks. > > What you're trying to do is say that, from an end-user application, you > want to replace the right-mouse menu when you click on the desktop > background of Windows or Linux. Or you're trying to replace the > font-picker drop-down list in Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.org. > Fine-grained features like that are not necessarily designed to be > replaced in isolation without replacing more of the product. You see this > with all sorts of applications and platforms. > > > you can't control what happens when you > > long press? > > If you are willing to modify the firmware and distribute those > modifications, you can change whatever you want. By my reading of the > Android source code, you cannot change what happens on a long-press from > an SDK application. Since you are on [android-beginners], my assumption is > that you are trying to build an SDK application. > > > That is a very poor/disappointing decision by OS designers that really > > limits the possibilities of the phone.... > > You are certainly welcome to your opinion, just as I am welcome to my > opinion that your expectations are unrealistic, even for the most open > source of projects. > > > Is there anywhere to request changes and/or bugs? > > http://b.android.com > > -- > Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy)http://commonsware.com > Android App Developer Books:http://commonsware.com/books.html --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-beginners?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
