As Android is an incredibly fast paced project at this point with lots of inputs from lots of different people I think one should expect these sorts of things. It will be hard for most developers to become " professionally efficient" with their apps, but, that may not be solely the developers fault, there are a lot of things in android (such as calling intents) that are sort of gray areas as there are so many ways one could do this and pass info to that intent)
I also agree that users of our apps should be educated about the Android OS as it does handle things WAY differently than other OS. It was hard for me to get use to the fact that if Android doesn't want it dead it won't go away or that Android does a decent job of monitoring its own resources and deciding what apps to take away from when it needs extra sources. I will say the Activity Stack and the Still seeing my app in the Activity Lineup tossed me for some loops until I had a better understanding of how Android actually works and handles objects and resources and garbage collecting. As android grows and evolves I'm sure a lot of "issues" we have as developers and/or users will be steamrolled and made more efficient and user/developer friendly. With all "New" things it takes time for it to find a happy middle ground. Tommy -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kostya Vasilyev Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 2:18 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [android-developers] Re: Application still Running After Exit [ long point-by-point reply below ] 25.10.2010 18:44, mort пишет: > 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). Yes, I also get those, and respond back that Android is different. Educating users is better than implementing kludges that users wish on a whim. >>> 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. I think there are only two states, once the user has left an activity. Either there is some kind of background work, or there isn't. If both ways are valid and useful, make it controllable (re: Twitter below). >> 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...). Re: Twitter - this should be controllable by the user. I can think of a nice away to handle this in the UI, so it must not be that hard. My personal take on task killers is: if my application stops working because of a task killer, then it's not my fault. I always ask my users to disable / uninstall any task killers, as part of diagnosing "it doesn't work!" type of problems. Once they see that this fixes things, I point out that the problem really was caused by the task killer. If the user still insists on using a task killer, then I just assume that he knows what he's doing (although this may not actually be the case), and he can handle it on his own. > 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. [ snip ] > I really hope that at some point in the future (and not too far off), two things happen: - Developers get more experience with Android and the quality of applications improves. - Users realize that it's ok to just let Android do its thing, because it just works. -- Kostya Vasilyev -- WiFi Manager + pretty widget -- http://kmansoft.wordpress.com -- 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 -- 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
