We have been trying to define features for every kind of semi-sane piece of hardware that could disappear, and have these reported as required by default by applications. This is to ease any changes in the future to what is a compatible device -- you will not that we have been fairly rapidly loosening compatibility requirements over the last year, as the platform is grown to help applications deal with them.
Just because an app is automatically reporting today that a particular feature is required doesn't mean it is disappearing tomorrow. We've tried to give developers a fairly early heads-up on these kinds of changes before devices ship in such a configuration. Of course, in the realm of hardware features that are likely to become optional in the next year, one can imagine a touch screen being one of the more possible candidates. There is no such plan at this point, though -- to be honest there are still a lot of platform-level things to address before doing so. I would consider the lack of a touch screen to be a very significant change for developers, at least as significant as the introduction of different screen sizes, and not something to be done lightly. On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 9:01 PM, Peter Webb <[email protected]> wrote: > Looking at the Developer's console, I note (correctly) that my > application needs permissions for touch-screen operation. > > I don't think it used to do that, but maybe I just didn't notice. > > Furthermore, touchscreen is a standard part of the google android > hardware specification, and it is hard to see how it could be a > security issue. > > Perhaps the market is being expanded to allow devices without > touchscreen (and hence not android hardware compatible) to > applications that they can run, in much the same manner as the market > will filter out apps that need high res if you are on a low res > phone ? > > Why else might they filter on touchscreen? > > -- > 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]<android-developers%[email protected]> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > -- 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
