> 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.
We are very happy to receive patches and we do work on getting them into the final builds. Unfortunately we have deadlines and adding code to Android is not just a matter of merging a patch. Patches need code reviews, testing, documentation if necessary, etc. In this particular the patch has been received on July 31st, after an internal milestone. This patch will not go in Donut, as some of the patches I would have liked to add to Donut. It is at this point to late to add features to Donut. And unfortunately the same goes with Eclair. Some engineers internally clearly expressed their enthusiast about this feature. Being an Open Source project does not mean "check in code for new features whenever we/you/the community feel like it." We understand the frustration and we are sorry for that. > 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. It does matter. I would love to see the community be involved and I've been monitoring the Android groups since they've been created. I can say for instance that the community did not show any interest at all in opening discussions about the UI toolkit for instance. There have been, it's true, numerous discussions in other areas though. But again, this does not mean we do not have constraints, they will simply not go away because you wish it was easier without them. > 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. We do not ignore this feature and there have been (long) discussions about it in the open. We clearly stated what our reservations on the matter are and an appropriate solution as yet to be defined, at least to my knowledge. > But given that every phone announced except the > galaxy has 512MB or less ROM, it seems nobody cares. The core Android team does not have control over decisions made by the manufacturers. Yes we understand that some people really want to have the ability to install apps on the SD card. And yes we agree it would be a nice feature to have, but we want to do it in a safe and robust way. In the meantime, if you have any patch related to the app framework or the UI toolkit or the Home screen I will be happy to review them and merge them to the appropriate internal code branch when they get accepted. -- Romain Guy Android framework engineer [email protected] Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to provide private support. 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 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
