I don't have the 40 years experience of the original poster.. just a kid in the industry at 30 years. Little more if counting the time in college doing programming.
By their nature, all decisions are limiting. As I look back over the various OS/programming systems I've used, most (LInux ecosystem excepted) were not only limiting but also closed. Real Programmers by their nature were (and are) innovative and found ways to accomplish the requirements even with those limitations. Linux and now Android as it's version for smartphones has changed that. We are free to fork/ clone the OS, we are free to look into the source and see what makes it tick, what might be hidden (ie: not documented) there. Someone who forks into a separate version for sure will change some things..that's the basic reason for a fork. The Google team has to make decisions and have a cohesive roadmap. They have proven many times that they are open to suggestions and willing to discuss why things are the way they are and to make changes. None of the non-Linux OS providers come close. So Diane and the rest of the team (+ the AI team) thanks for your willingness to soldier on despite the arrows that get shot your way. On May 25, 6:14 pm, Dianne Hackborn <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm still wondering what these "limiting decisions" are. The only thing> > have heard is limits on what applications are allowed to do, but that > actually gives us more flexibility in maintaining Android -- it is far > easier to remove such limits on apps than it is to introduce new limits that > you find you need to improve security, stability, etc. > > > > > > > > > > On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 1:17 PM, DanH <[email protected]> wrote: > > > While I would agree that there are some unfortunate and limiting > > decisions > > > in the design of android (but maybe not agree with you about which those > > > are), I'm not sure that this actually matters that much in the long run. > > > I think you're getting the gist of it. It's always hard to tell how > > much impact these "limiting decisions" will have in the future (and > > there will always be differences of opinion about them), but certainly > > they're there. The analog is designing a CPU with a too-small > > addressing space -- you can invent fixes, and patches on the fixes, > > and kludges on the patches on the fixes for awhile, but sooner or > > later it catches up with you, and the platform gets more and more > > expensive to build and use along the way. > > > Usually the platform will coast along under the momentum of existing > > apps and users for awhile, but sooner or later the costs make it more > > feasible (for both vendor and customer) to dump the old and switch > > rather than to keep going. Some vendors (not to be named) "finesse" > > this issue by forcing users to change platforms at regular intervals, > > others, thanks to good initial design (or sometimes just clever > > emulation), are able to advance their platforms while still > > maintaining compatibility with apps that are 30 years old. But I > > don't see the basis for either in Android. > > > On May 25, 10:17 am, Chris Stratton <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Tuesday, May 24, 2011 11:29:03 AM UTC-4, DanH wrote: > > > > Additionally, Android, as it's currently designed, does not have > > > > > "legs". The process model and UI are both too restrictive to be > > > > extendable to the pads and other new paradigms of the future. > > > > While I would agree that there are some unfortunate and limiting > > decisions > > > in the design of android (but maybe not agree with you about which those > > > are), I'm not sure that this actually matters that much in the long run. > > > > The thing that android has is momentum. If you look around, it's almost > > > like every company who wants to think they are in the consumer > > electronics > > > business is now offering, or working on offering, their own android > > device. > > > > And I think that's very important; the original IBM PC wasn't perfect > > > either, and some of its issues are with us today, but a large enough > > variety > > > of interests jumped on the bandwagon and adapted it to tolerably > > accomplish > > > the huge variety of things they needed. > > > > A possible relief-valve for what one person or another may see as a > > > limitation of android is that it's not necessarily clear what android has > > to > > > be in order to be android. A mobile phone operating system? Well, there > > > are now non-phones. A framework built on linux? I hear someone can run > > > apps on QNX and someone else hopes to on Windows. Linux with an apache > > > userspace? I expect someone has or is working on a GNU version. > > Dalvik? > > > Someone will run a more conventional java, and someone else will > > > re-implement the core APIs in C++. Software at all? People are putting > > > Ubuntu on devices sold for android. > > > > As more and more interests get involved, I expect we will see a someone > > > offering a contrasting alternative to every possibly controversial aspect > > of > > > "android", created so that some interest can leverage what they do like > > > about the platform (or the supply momentum behind it) while working > > around > > > the aspect that doesn't work for them. > > > > Chris > > > -- > > 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 > > -- > 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
