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I admit that I haven't paid much attention. But the whole revamp of the UI framework into Fragments was precisely to let app developers support both phones and

by euyyn 8y ago

I admit that I haven't paid much attention. But the whole revamp of the UI framework into Fragments was precisely to let app developers support both phones and tablets. Why do you say older versions of Android had better support for tablets?

wffurr 8y ago
Lots of Android system UI and first party apps had better tablet interfaces in ICS than they do in Nougat or Oreo.
- tomkarlo 8y ago
  This is a bit of a stretch. There was a lot of work done on improving tablet support in K, L and M, including work to specifically support the Nexus 9 and Pixel C. There was also the addition of multi-window, etc.
foobarbazetc 8y ago
It has nothing to do with APIs. Our app has a great tablet version, on par with iPad and we don’t use fragments at all. We just change things based on size. It’s more that Google obviously stopped caring about tablets many major versions ago.
- freedomben 8y ago
  For what it's worth, there are Android tablet users out there like me that really appreciate the work you put into making the experience great :-)
- euyyn 8y ago
  See but that doesn't answer my question: What makes you think that they stopped caring about tablets?
gleenn 8y ago
Fragments were way over engineered. Many people completely ignored them because you basically had to rewrite a significant portion of your app to support the type of flexibility they were supposed to give you. The lifecycle of apps is already complicated enough, and fragments added even more complexity. Like another poster mentions, completely ignoring fragments is a pretty reasonable choice.
- etaioinshrdlu 8y ago
  It was around the time I started playing with fragments that I realized that the native Java android toolkit was a giant pile of crap. Android, I think, is not even supposed to be a well-engineered system. It is not central to its purpose. Its purpose is to eat marketshare, collect data, and ensure there is an outlet for ads. It only has to work well enough to do those things :) I get the sense that it was all slapped together as quickly as possible.
  - themacguffinman 8y ago
    Well, yeah, that's the goal of everything commercial. Being well-engineered is a means, not an end.
    - etaioinshrdlu 8y ago
      Nah, tons of companies are incredibly passionate about quality in itself. Sometimes to a fault!
    - pjmlp 8y ago
      iOS and UWP are both commercial and the quality of their tooling and OS frameworks runs circles around Android's. Sadly it is hard to win over free beer.
  - dcbadacd 8y ago
    I got the same impression, it's just filled with hacks to get proper behavior and don't get me started on the support libraries, oof how I hate those.
digi_owl 8y ago
Keep in mind that Fragments happened while Rubin was still nominally in control of Android. Once the civil war between him and Pichai had a clear winner (after all, for a while both ChromeOS and Android were poised to push into the same market), the tablet elements were depreciated rapidly as as Duarte was free to assert more control.

by euyyn 8y ago

wffurr 8y ago

Lots of Android system UI and first party apps had better tablet interfaces in ICS than they do in Nougat or Oreo.

tomkarlo 8y ago
This is a bit of a stretch. There was a lot of work done on improving tablet support in K, L and M, including work to specifically support the Nexus 9 and Pixel C. There was also the addition of multi-window, etc.

foobarbazetc 8y ago

It has nothing to do with APIs. Our app has a great tablet version, on par with iPad and we don’t use fragments at all. We just change things based on size. It’s more that Google obviously stopped caring about tablets many major versions ago.

freedomben 8y ago
For what it's worth, there are Android tablet users out there like me that really appreciate the work you put into making the experience great :-)
euyyn 8y ago
See but that doesn't answer my question: What makes you think that they stopped caring about tablets?

gleenn 8y ago

Fragments were way over engineered. Many people completely ignored them because you basically had to rewrite a significant portion of your app to support the type of flexibility they were supposed to give you. The lifecycle of apps is already complicated enough, and fragments added even more complexity. Like another poster mentions, completely ignoring fragments is a pretty reasonable choice.

etaioinshrdlu 8y ago
It was around the time I started playing with fragments that I realized that the native Java android toolkit was a giant pile of crap. Android, I think, is not even supposed to be a well-engineered system. It is not central to its purpose. Its purpose is to eat marketshare, collect data, and ensure there is an outlet for ads. It only has to work well enough to do those things :) I get the sense that it was all slapped together as quickly as possible.
- themacguffinman 8y ago
  Well, yeah, that's the goal of everything commercial. Being well-engineered is a means, not an end.
  - etaioinshrdlu 8y ago
    Nah, tons of companies are incredibly passionate about quality in itself. Sometimes to a fault!
  - pjmlp 8y ago
    iOS and UWP are both commercial and the quality of their tooling and OS frameworks runs circles around Android's. Sadly it is hard to win over free beer.
- dcbadacd 8y ago
  I got the same impression, it's just filled with hacks to get proper behavior and don't get me started on the support libraries, oof how I hate those.

digi_owl 8y ago

Keep in mind that Fragments happened while Rubin was still nominally in control of Android. Once the civil war between him and Pichai had a clear winner (after all, for a while both ChromeOS and Android were poised to push into the same market), the tablet elements were depreciated rapidly as as Duarte was free to assert more control.