On 25 Okt., 05:41, Frank Weiss <[email protected]> wrote: > I kind of agree, but I think I'll stick with what I said. I think the issue > is that when developers see an "app" listed in what appears to be a list of > running processes (like unix ps or Windows Task Manager), they tend to jump > to the conclusion that there's a similarity.
Not only developers. I get at least one mail each week asking me why my badly programmed app is still running after the user left it (i.e. pressed home or exit button). Android really needs a task manager from a user's point of view, i.e. a task is listed from first appearance of an Activity until left with "back", and there's an easy way to swith to a "running" task and to remove a task from the list. The "recent apps" (long press on Home) feature is nice, but not what users are used to (and hard to find). > > Also, despite what Google has said in the past, there really are times > > when the user really does want to just STOP the app, even dump it from > > memory. (...) > > I think the Force Close button in the Android Applcation Manager serves this > purpose. What do you think? Wasn't there something about a different behaviour in FroYo? Anyway, this is a really complicated issue. There are those users who "only" want something like a closed application in Windows, i.e. if you "kill" the alarm clock, it still will wake you tomorrow. Then there are those who don't want the app to do anything at all until it's manually restarted. Android makes both ways complicated, because apps can be "relaunched" by broadcast intents. > See above. The way Android OS works is OK, I think that it's that when > presented with a list of "running" apps they see a deceptive similarity with > unix ps or Windows Task Manager. If you have another explanation for why the > question "why is the app still running after I press home?", I'd be glad to > hear it. Well, there is the trouble with seemingly "misbehaving" apps. For example, some users want their Twitter app to check for new Tweets (and show new direct messages) when it's in background, but not when it's been "closed". Some users assume it's closed when left with "back", others expect an "exit" button, and others simply kill it with a task manager (and will be surprised if the app's respawned by some broadcast intent or the AlarmManager...). But yes, I think in most cases it's just the deceptive "task list". > I might add that we should contact developers who add "exit" buttons to > their apps (against Android development guidelines) that they are > contributing to the confusion of new developers. If any such developers read > this, I'd be interested to hear their defense. I must admit I did this in a recent update, though with a bad feeling. The reason's related to the above described "misbehaviour". My app uses a background service which is also used by home screen widgets. I formerly stopped the service when my app was left with "back", but this caused confusion - why's does the Widget need to initialize (start the service) again after the app was left? (For most user's there's no difference between "back", "Home", or any other app appearing by e.g. a call or a notification). So now I keep the service running for a certain time after last usage, and it can be stopped either manually in the widget or if the app's left with the exit button. I know it's bad because it's against guidelines, and I know I'll get even more mails about the exit button's "not working" (I just stop the service but don't kill the process, so Android can do it's better memory management), but I don't think a menu entry "stop service now and close activity" would've been more intuitive to users. I could imagine there are others who also use "exit" in a similar manner: "Back"/"Home" = leave app, but service resp. AlarmManager broadcasts running, "Exit" = leave app and stop services/update events. It'd be really nice if there'd be an intuitive unified way to handle with this situation. -- 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
