Al Sutton wrote: > Switch b.android.com to Grid view, then change the Rows setting from > none to "Stars", then click update.
Hey, that's pretty slick. So, getting back to 6th-starred complaint: > I would have to say given that the 6th most starred issue in the > Google Android's bug database had a perfectly working patch submitted > from the community and it's been stated that it won't possibly be > included even in eclair, Android isn't what most of us think of when > we think of an open source project. Android isn't what you may think of in terms of an open source project, but this hopefully isn't the reason. All open source projects bigger than breadbox have a point of feature freeze, heading to a release. This appears to be even more prevalent among open source operating systems. Android exacerbates this situation in two ways: 1. It is aimed pretty much exclusively at consumer electronics. Note my use of "aimed" -- garden-variety PCs might *run* Android, but that's not the *aim*. AFAICT, consumer electronics has a longer freeze period, simply for manufacturing reasons. Any time you switch from bits to atoms, things slow down. I know of Android handsets, not yet released, that froze for manufacturing a couple of months ago. 2. The fact that we find out about the timetables on freezes after the fact and via comments attached to one issue out of a couple thousand doesn't exactly help the whole transparency thing. The patch in question was submitted two weeks ago. Either Android donut/eclair was frozen at that point, or Jeff Sharkey (who people on that issue seem to not realize *is* a Googler) wasn't able to find somebody with the time to do all of the security checks before the freeze came into place. As they say, shit happens. This is not significantly different than somebody proposing a new package be added to Ubuntu Karmic after their freeze, except that the freeze period is longer, indeterminate in length, and obscurely noted. Also, note that the underlying issue (FLAC support) might be solved by another means, as Mr. Nelissen notes in the one Gerrit entry: https://review.source.android.com/#change,10910 > I just hope the attitude of "stop asking for something and submit a > patch" will stop. Patch or no, it doesn't matter. There's no community > involvement at the platform level. That's a fair assessment. Much of the infrastructure is in place (e.g., Gerrit). However, as with any other open source project, community-contributed patches only get integrated in the master repo if one of the following is true: 1. It scratches an itch of a core contributor, who then takes it upon herself to do what's needed to incorporate the patch (testing, security checks, etc). 2. There are core contributors whose mission is simply to process community contributions, or at least will take the time to process community contributions even if that is not their sole responsibility. Right now, Android appears to lack #2, and #1 is a hit-or-miss proposition. The answer eventually needs to be #2, but that requires management buy-in, staffing increases (or roadmap curtailment to free up staff time), etc. > I think it's only a matter of time as Google ignores the Apps on SD > card feature until a different Android repository becomes the leading > Android distribution. This is theoretically possible. I suspect I will see a winged side of bacon fly by my window first, though. If you're talking about a partial fork -- more community contributions plus porting all the enhancements made to the original Android -- that's a huge chunk of work, requiring a huge chunk of developers. If you're talking about a total fork, the forked project will wind up ahead of Android in some areas (reflecting the itches of the fork founders) and behind on others (where Android continues engineering work but its capabilities are not ported). And, in either scenario, the project either needs device manufacturers to start using the fork *or* continued good luck in rooting/flashing alternative firmware onto existing Android devices. Otherwise, it's a fork with no point. -- Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy) http://commonsware.com | http://twitter.com/commonsguy Android 1.5 Programming Books: http://commonsware.com/books.html --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
