4 ms·

removing support library, layouts...please.

by aw4y 9y ago

Munksgaard 9y ago
Either I'm whooshing some sarcasm, or you're missing the point.
- Aissen 9y ago
  Indeed. I thought the fact that he removed the Launcher Intent would be of more concern.
HillaryBriss 9y ago
yeah, i had the same thought. this post cannot be taken as practical advice. interesting to see just how much bloat an apk contains though.
- Frank2312 9y ago
  Is it bloat if it is required to make good app?
- kbenson 9y ago
  What made you think this article was meant to be taken as practical advice? It's code golf, which has never been about practical advice.
- s73ver_ 9y ago
  Bloat would imply that stuff does not serve a purpose.
ocdtrekkie 9y ago
Back when they introduced them, I was pretty strongly opposed, and you can see the effect. We now have half the Android UI shoved in each app package. Back when I started using Android, apps were rarely over 1 MB in size. Now, with no real improvement in functionality, apps are regularly over 50 MB.
- s73ver_ 9y ago
  Unfortunately, that seems to be the only way to get a reasonable baseline, given that Google has no way to actually update Android devices.
  - Aissen 9y ago
    No, the libs could be shared between apps, with at most one per API level, and shipped through the Play Store. If you want your app to work without Play Store, bundle the libs like today.
    - kbenson 9y ago
      So, basically the Visual C++ Redistributable[1] but for Android? Seems to work well for Windows, from what I can tell. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_C%2B%2B https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_C%2B%2B
    - s73ver_ 9y ago
      They already have one distributed through the Play Store. That's the proprietary bits. The Support libs are open source, they can work without the Play Store, and different apps can have different versions of it.
      - Aissen 9y ago
        Yes, and they can ship a shared version of the open source libs (like the system webview). And as I specified, with one per API level (different versions). Maybe that would force them to have better QA of those libs as well.
- toast0 9y ago
  These packages certainly add bloat, and make it hard to fit under 1MB (can't really do it if a hello world is 1.5MB), but developers are adding a lot of their own bloat to get to 50 MB. That said, Google could have (and probably should have) done a better job for Play store downloads with common libraries, especially common libraries they provide. They also could and should do a better job on translation strings -- the translation file must be stored uncompressed in the apk, because it wants to be memory mapped.

removing support library, layouts...please.

by aw4y 9y ago

removing support library, layouts...please.

Munksgaard 9y ago

Either I'm whooshing some sarcasm, or you're missing the point.

Aissen 9y ago
Indeed. I thought the fact that he removed the Launcher Intent would be of more concern.

HillaryBriss 9y ago

yeah, i had the same thought. this post cannot be taken as practical advice. interesting to see just how much bloat an apk contains though.

Frank2312 9y ago
Is it bloat if it is required to make good app?
kbenson 9y ago
What made you think this article was meant to be taken as practical advice? It's code golf, which has never been about practical advice.
s73ver_ 9y ago
Bloat would imply that stuff does not serve a purpose.

ocdtrekkie 9y ago

Back when they introduced them, I was pretty strongly opposed, and you can see the effect. We now have half the Android UI shoved in each app package. Back when I started using Android, apps were rarely over 1 MB in size. Now, with no real improvement in functionality, apps are regularly over 50 MB.

s73ver_ 9y ago
Unfortunately, that seems to be the only way to get a reasonable baseline, given that Google has no way to actually update Android devices.
- Aissen 9y ago
  No, the libs could be shared between apps, with at most one per API level, and shipped through the Play Store. If you want your app to work without Play Store, bundle the libs like today.
  - kbenson 9y ago
    So, basically the Visual C++ Redistributable[1] but for Android? Seems to work well for Windows, from what I can tell. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_C%2B%2B https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_C%2B%2B
  - s73ver_ 9y ago
    They already have one distributed through the Play Store. That's the proprietary bits. The Support libs are open source, they can work without the Play Store, and different apps can have different versions of it.
    - Aissen 9y ago
      Yes, and they can ship a shared version of the open source libs (like the system webview). And as I specified, with one per API level (different versions). Maybe that would force them to have better QA of those libs as well.
toast0 9y ago
These packages certainly add bloat, and make it hard to fit under 1MB (can't really do it if a hello world is 1.5MB), but developers are adding a lot of their own bloat to get to 50 MB. That said, Google could have (and probably should have) done a better job for Play store downloads with common libraries, especially common libraries they provide. They also could and should do a better job on translation strings -- the translation file must be stored uncompressed in the apk, because it wants to be memory mapped.