On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 7:49 PM, Hari Edo <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Jan 21, 7:52 pm, Dianne Hackborn <[email protected]> wrote: > > Further, if you are planning on publishing an app to Market, I would > *very* > > *strongly* urge you to *not* do development against a device that does > not > > itself ship with Market. You have no idea what kinds of things may be > > different in it. > Thanks for the note about the Market. I don't agree with that > principle, > but if that's how Google decides compatibility, that's what we have. > I'm not sure what you mean by "Google decides compatibility." Compatibility is defined in the open source platform, through the CDD and CTS tests. Google requires that a device be compatible according to these definitions to be able to include Market, to keep the application development target consistent. Android is an open-source platform, so anyone can do anything to the software they ship on their device. And they do. Of course other people doing their own application stores can (and also do) define their own definitions for compatible... or have no definition at all except "my store app is able to run on the device." I think it is better for everyone to have a little more control over it. Is there another way you think would be better to manage compatibility. > I wouldn't make a NOOKcolor my *only* hardware test, surely, but I > would > recommend app developers try a wide variety of screen sizes, at least > in the > emulator, and on other devices that are conveniently borrowed or > bought. > Then you do have some idea what kinds of things may be different in it. > Sure, do try a wide variety of screen sizes. But especially for that kind of thing, you *really* want to do this on a compatible device. When someone makes a device with an even moderately non-standard screen, you really have no idea how they accomplished that if it isn't a compatible device. Keep in mind: to make it work, they had to make modifications to the platform in some way. What did they do? Ghod knows. For example, you can guarantee you will encounter devices that don't report an appropriate screen density, but where they just tweaked the graphics and layouts to be the size they want on their screen. If you test your app on such a device, you are going to be *hurting* yourself, because you are going to try to make it run in a way that is wrong and conflicts with the environments it will find on compatible devices that have Market. -- 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
