It's good to see Google staff take this issue seriously :-) I'll repeat my personal opinion that fragmentation will not be so much of an issue, unless you desperately need 2.x features in your app, in which case you'll have to accept a <1% market share of your app.
On Jan 18, 9:45 pm, Dianne Hackborn <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 11:58 AM, JP <[email protected]> wrote: > > >http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2009/04/backward-compatibility... > > This means having to cut off users on older Android releases, no? > > Um. No? The entire article is about how to use newer APIs while remaining > compatible with older platforms. Am I missing something? > > > Kevin illustrates the problem nicely. > > What is that exactly? I see him talking about incompatible manufacturer > customizations and how fixing those are the responsibility of the > manufacturer (true), about newer platform versions being compatible with > older ones and maintaining support for older ones not being a big deal, and > concern about minSdkVersion not filtering app from older platforms which > should definitely not be true. > > I'd just like to understand what the specific concern is. > > > It is different in that XP through Windows 7 have been released over > > the course of, what, eight years now? > > True, we have gone through a number of releases in the last year. Of course > windows has also gone through lots of service packs etc. But regardless, in > both cases basically one release builds on another, so you are looking at > targeting release X through Y and whatever number of intermediate steps > there are between is not that much of an issue (though you will certainly > want to be testing against intermediate release to verify there are no > surprises). > > > Users are much more educated and > > experienced in what to expect. At work, I, like many users > > (hopefully), "just" pick up the phone or send an email, and the > > problem will be taken care of. > > On a mobile device however... it just kindof ought to work, which > > isn't an unreasonable expectation. Being facetious with the backwards > > logic, the level of support that Google set aside to support the > > release of the N1 seems to confirm that idea. > > Sorry I am really not following this part. :} Yes, you should be able to > just pick up a phone and use it, and for the most part that is the case (as > long as developers properly mark their minSdkVersion to not be visible on > older platforms, and the occasional manufacturer-specific bug here and > there). I don't know how much support you think Google set aside for the N1 > (was it large or small? support for what?) so I am pretty lost there. > > > As far as OS X goes, during a couple of years of transition, Apple > > supported "fat" binaries just like they did when they switched > > OpenSTEP from Motorola to Intel a decade earlier. There's experience > > with that, and in the mobile environment, this is all new stuff and > > needs to be managed accordingly, IMHO. > > Sure and when 1.6 came out to introduce new screen support, it also included > a lot of compatibility design and code to ensure that existing applications > would work on the new screens. (Or when not possible, such as QVGA screens, > require that applications be explicitly updated and marked as compatible > with them before allowing them to be available to users of those devices). > > What's different here? > > > I want to add, no question of course, it would be unjust to criticize > > anybody that an expectation wasn't set that Android would be subjected > > to a degree of fragmentation when Android was first released > > "wayback". Yet, here we are, and it would be disappointing to see the > > issue glossed over. > > I'm not sure how things are being glossed over...? > > -- > Dianne Hackborn > Android framework engineer > [email protected] > > Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to > provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails. All such > questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see and > answer them.
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