The word task here comes from task-based user interface design, where a task is a particular objective of the user. A task in android is a particular flow the user is going through.
"Task" in CS is not actually that well defined. For example, Wikipedia claims it is a thread, while you claim it is a process. Actually we have perfectly good words for those (thread and process), so task isn't too useful there. (In fact the word "task" was somewhat deliberately chosen because this separation between apps and UI flows is fairly unique to Android. A task thus represents what the *user* perceives of as a cohesive representation of on application, what on other platforms would actually be a process.) But okay I'll buy that the word has another common meaning in CS which we aren't using, so we need to be clear what we do mean. But to say we have redefined the *English* word "task"?!? What are you smoking? A task is something you are trying to do / working on. A group of activities together represent a piece of work the user is doing, that is a task. Finally... I have *never* used the word task in relation to Android to mean anything other a stack of activities representing a state of work the user is in. If you have a case where this is used differently in the docs, I would appreciate a pointer to it, so it can be fixed. -- 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. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" 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-developers?hl=en
