Hi All, I inquired on the asp.pad_support newsgroup about extending PADGen support for PAD files to include Android and its .apk files, because it becomes increasingly painful for developers (including me) to keep their application listings up to date on all Android download/ distribution websites. Appended are two reply messages from the asp.pad_support newsgroup. Could developers indicate their interest in using PAD files to have their own websites automatically regularly polled for any release updates rather than having to "push" through a diversity of web interfaces?
Thanks === Are there examples of mobile phone app sites which accept PAD files? PAD does not cover every type of software that can be written (e.g. video game cartridge, embedded, mainframe, supercomputer, OSS projects) and PAD would appear to be behind the curve in mobile (no Android, no iPhone, no BlackBerry). Before leaping to address this area, it would be good to know what sites could/would use an improved mobile phone PAD. Is Android the name of the hardware spec or the name of the OS? I think this issue comes up with iPhone as well. The apps for iPhone are basically Safari web pages. The platform choices in PAD are meant to reflect the OS. -- Dennis Reinhardt http://www.dair.com === Thanks Dennis. > Are there examples of mobile phone app sites which accept PAD files? This is in part a chicken-and-egg question. The owners of the Android distribution websites AndAppStore ( http://andappstore.com ) and SlideME ( http://www.slideme.org ) appeared open-minded with respect to PADGen when I asked them some time ago, but of course it only makes sense to them to support PAD files if it is going to be widely used for Android applications. For application developers, however, it is definitely a pain already today to manually keep listings up to date on say five or more Android websites, each with its own web interface for updating with new releases. Apart from this, there is the myriad of websites that implicitly support, through their use of PAD files in submitting applications, any operating system covered by PADGen. This is for instance how The vOICe MIDlet (for Java ME) amd The vOICe for Android gets listed on download sites like http://www.download3k.com > PAD does not cover every type of software that can be written I understand that one has to draw the line somewhere. > Is Android the name of the hardware spec or the name of the OS? The OS. Android is the new open-source mobile phone operating system developed and promoted by Google together with over 30 other companies in the Open Handset Alliance. See http://code.google.com/android/ > no iPhone The iPhone is closed: applications are exclusively available through Apple's App Store, so iPhone seems irrelevant for PAD. I don't know about BlackBerry, but I think its downloads run exclusively via the phone's service provider, thus limiting distribution channels. Moreover, RIM (maker of the BlackBerry) *is* already in PADGen's checkbox list for supported operating systems! I really cannot see why Palm is (still) in the list, along with Windows Mobile and Symbian, while Android would not be added soon? The effort seems really minor to me: just add a checkbox for "Android", and remove the restriction for the Web Info tab that currently blocks files with .apk extension in the download URLs (.apk files currently fail in PADGen's "Verify entries"). I may also post your legitimate questions as a probe on one of the Google Android forums. Best regards, Peter Meijer --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" 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-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
