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Yes, it definitely seems like fixing the flaws in the original APK design would be a win! Just signing the uncompressed data, as many others here have pointed o
by iainmerrick 10y ago
Yes, it definitely seems like fixing the flaws in the original APK design would be a win! Just signing the uncompressed data, as many others here have pointed out, would allow most of your suggestion to be implemented.
I wonder if it's a sign of communication problems between the Android and Google Play teams? The Play team seems to have spent years bending over backwards to build this really awkward solution, which could have been done a lot better with some low-level Android changes (i.e. a new APK format).
- amluto 10y agoI bet there's a valid historical reason for the current design: APK looks a lot like JAR and Android is kind-of-sort-of Java. Java random-accesses its JARs, so the awkward format makes sense in the context. Android may, too, to a limited extent, but Android has no concept of running an APK in place, so it doesn't need this capability.
- iainmerrick 10y agoWell, exactly, both APKs and JARs are just zipfiles with some extra conventions over format and contents. Why not update the format? Android has been around long enough to make the advantages and disadvantages pretty clear.