Once you start to get into such sizes, a number of additional issues appear that are specifically related to the size of the download (I.e. that go beyond the plain "apps on SD" complexity:
-The download itself can't happen into the cache partition like it currently does for market downloads. It has to go directly on the SD card. -The download system must be a lot more aggressive in restarting interrupted downloads: there's the obvious case of pausing a download when the SD card is cleanly removed instead of failing it. There's also the less obvious case of dealing with data corruption when e.g. the SD card or the battery is pulled in the middle of a download (which could be malicious or unintentional). -It's also important to pre-reserve space for the download itself, such that the SD card doesn't fill up in the middle of downloading the file because some other app created files in the meantime. -At such a size doing an extra copy become impractical, both in terms of space and in terms of speed. Something has to exist to pass ownership of files around instead of just copying the bytes. -At such a size incremental app upgrades need to be supported. -I'd go as far as saying that at such a size doing the download over a cell network is impractical, both in terms of user-side speed and in terms of carrier-side network load. It might not even be practical on a home internet line. JBQ On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 12:30 AM, Al Sutton<[email protected]> wrote: > > The maps are included in the downloaded app, that way all of the Apple > installer software can check there is space for everything and act > accordingly. > > I've done some poking around and found that the Australian version and the > New Zealand version are smaller than the UK & Ireland one (with New Zealand > being the smallest at 85.6MB), and you still wouldn't be able to install > those. > > All of the app sizes I could find were; > > Western Europe : 1.4GB > US & Canada : 1.2 GB > UK & Ireland : 241 MB > Australia : 157 MB > New Zealand : 85.6 MB > > Al. > > -- > > * Written an Android App? - List it at http://andappstore.com/ * > > ====== > Funky Android Limited is registered in England & Wales with the > company number 6741909. The registered head office is Kemp House, > 152-160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, UK. > > The views expressed in this email are those of the author and not > necessarily those of Funky Android Limited, it's associates, or it's > subsidiaries. > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of JP > Sent: 17 August 2009 07:59 > To: Android Discuss > Subject: [android-discuss] Re: Space for apps > > > > > On Aug 16, 11:14 pm, Al Sutton <[email protected]> wrote: >> The TomTom iPhone app launched in the last 24 hours, and the smallest >> version of the it I could find (The UK & Ireland version) weighed in a >> 241MB, which, if it were an Android app, simply would not install on any >> current device, and that to me is a problem that needs solving. > > > 241MB initial download? Mercy! > Not intriguing engineering exactly. Did they sandbox their platform > like one would buy in the store, or what's going on there? > > > > > > > -- Jean-Baptiste M. "JBQ" Queru Software Engineer, Android Open-Source Project, Google. Questions sent directly to me that have no reason for being private will likely get ignored or forwarded to a public forum with no further warning. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
