Dan, I know it's a bit late in the challenge to throw this out, but perhaps it can be agreed that a completely clean default install of the emulator is made available on the judges machine (with the tools dir in the path). And the ADC contestants can submit a zipfile with their apk, sdcard image, mock location provider files, and a deploy script. The deploy script would handle starting the emulator with or without using a sdcard, and would install their apk and any mock location provider files.
On Apr 5, 4:39 pm, "Dan Morrill" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hmmm. > Thanks very much for this feedback, Greg. I'll talk to my colleagues and > see if there's anything we can do here. > > One issue is that since many of the judges are not developers, it may be > tricky to get them to successfully set up and use your SD card image. We'll > see if we can figure something out, although I can't promise anything right > now. > > I'll get back to you as soon as I can. > > - Dan > > On Sat, Apr 5, 2008 at 3:31 PM, Greg_G <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Hi Dan, > > > Thanks for your reply. I have some really important follow-up > > comments, however. > > > > When a user first downloads/installs your application in the > > > "real world", they would not have any content on the SD card. > > > Similarly, judges will not be setting up specific SD card images. > > > You can, however, assume that an SD card will be present, meaning > > > that you can download or copy data onto it. But you'll need to > > > initialize it from within your application, just as you would > > > need to when first installing your application on a user's device. > > > In the real world, the purpose of my application is a very specialized > > kind of media player specifically designed for local files that the > > user would provide on their SD card. Without elaborating, streaming > > would make no sense for my application. I was, for the judges > > convenience, setting up an image with public domain and creative > > commons (for obvious legal reasons), purpose-specific media. This is > > entirely representative of what the real-world situation would be, > > where the user would load the files that they want onto the SD card > > for use with my application. > > > The app would not, in the real world, have any reason to handle the > > downloading of files from a remote site. I could add that > > functionality, but it wouldn't be at all representative of the > > functionality of the software; it would just be something tacked on > > for the purpose of the Challenge. That doesn't really make much sense > > to me. > > > If the judges are going to load a blank SD card image for testing > > anyways, and they want to test it as a true end-user, then loading my > > sample image seems like a much more sensible scenario. > > > > However, that's a *lot* of data to > > > ship with your software, and may result in a long wait while > > > it downloads, etc. Since judges will be reviewing the user > > > experience, you'll definitely want to keep that in mind. I > > > would suggest making it as small as possible, or only > > > downloading pieces on-demand, etc. > > > Again, the real world app would never do the downloading as it doesn't > > make sense. The data would already be on the SD card because the > > files they would be using would most likely be media they pulled from > > their own CDs, etc. And by the very nature of it, the user would want > > it all available: on demand doesn't again make must sense here. > > > Even if you feel a syncing mechanism is necessary, that would most > > likely be provided by the android platform syncing files to the unit > > (like the shared documents folder used for Windows Mobile devices). > > I'm just speculating on that point, but if I found out later a > > proprietary syncing mechanism were necessary, I could provide one. > > But it wouldn't be necessary for testing the core functionality of the > > app for the Android Challenge. What makes this app special will be > > evident when it's used. But it needs files available that are > > representative of what the end-user would have to demonstrate. > > > I'd very much appreciate it if you and your team would consider that > > some specialized apps may have good, even critical, real-user- > > simulating reasons for needing to provide a SD card image (or a .zip > > of data to copy onto a real SD card if a device and not the emulator > > is going to be used) and permit it for the Challenge. > > > Thank you, > > Greg --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Challenge" group. To post to this group, send email to android-challenge@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-challenge?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
