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With respect to technology, the problem with Android is the exact problem with Linux on the desktop. The Surface Graphics Manager and Surface Graphics Library

by pkaler 16y ago

With respect to technology, the problem with Android is the exact problem with Linux on the desktop. The Surface Graphics Manager and Surface Graphics Library are just not as good as Quartz and CoreAnimation. And it seems like no one on the Android team thinks that GPU acceleration of the UI is a key problem. http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=6914 http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=6914

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
- blinkingled 16y ago
  "I've played with friends' Evos and I can definitely notice the jerkiness in scrolling the app marketplace." GC is far more likely cause for the jerkiness. The 2.2 and below GC implementation is not very latency friendly. They fixed that in 2.3 with concurrent GC with a target GC pause of 3ms. Looking at 2.3 on Nexus S - there are literally no user visible pauses / jerkiness - I just can't bog it down. GPU acceleration may be useful in some specific cases and I am sure they will get there - but having to support bazillion devices that have different GPUs - that's going to take little longer.
  - hammerdr 16y ago
    Cool. Good news. How much market share does Android 2.3 have? As a developer, I like Android. I really do. I'm pulling for it. But as someone who has helped develop a first class Android application, the hardware fragmentation is the largest headache I've had to deal with. Even pulling out all performance enhancing techniques, it is hard to deliver an experience on a G1 running Android 1.6. I want Google to take a firmer stance around the hardware that powers their devices. Call it brand protection, a licensing requirement or just plain "we're better at tech than you." Please, just make the phones work. Oddly enough, it's Microsoft doing that, not Google.
    - blinkingled 16y ago
      The jerkiness is subjective - it's not an active problem to worry about or rely upon. So the market share of 2.3 isn't really a pressing issue. G1 is a bad example - it is too weak spec wise. Aging hardware problem is not something anyone can do anything to resolve. With Google the pace of obsolescence is faster than Apple's but that's a fair price to pay and not many common apps are demanding enough to care about hardware specs. There is always going to be faster hardware and specialized software that exploits it - it's not a problem, just evolution that you got to manage. Also now a days most Android phones do have decent enough hardware to not cause you the G1 class of headaches. So there isn't much to worry if you target 2.1+ phones which gives you 85% coverage. The only solution for the developers of that uncommonly demanding app is to have minimum specs requirement for the app. And I have heard that Honeycomb will come with base minimum hardware requirements - but that may be a moot point as already most Android devices have decent hardware now a days.
      - Xuzz 16y ago
        My iPhone 2G on iOS 3.0 can scroll a list smoothly. Every brand new Android phone (possibly excluding the Nexus S -- I haven't yet used one) cannot. Sadly, since I still see devices stuck on 2.1, 2.0, or even 1.6, that fix will not come to everyone soon (or, for some devices, ever).
      - stcredzero 16y ago
        The jerkiness is subjective - it's not an active problem to worry about The whole point of the article is that the subjective matters -- literally to the tune of Billions.
        blinkingled 16y ago
        Subject to devices in use, firmware they are running etc. My Nexus One, Galaxy S with TouchWiz UI, or the Nexus S do not have jerky scrolling for instance. The G1 does. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xEKrY0VQKQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xEKrY0VQKQ So it is possible today for people to buy Android devices and not notice any out of the ordinary jerkiness.

by pkaler 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

blinkingled 16y ago
"I've played with friends' Evos and I can definitely notice the jerkiness in scrolling the app marketplace." GC is far more likely cause for the jerkiness. The 2.2 and below GC implementation is not very latency friendly. They fixed that in 2.3 with concurrent GC with a target GC pause of 3ms. Looking at 2.3 on Nexus S - there are literally no user visible pauses / jerkiness - I just can't bog it down. GPU acceleration may be useful in some specific cases and I am sure they will get there - but having to support bazillion devices that have different GPUs - that's going to take little longer.
- hammerdr 16y ago
  Cool. Good news. How much market share does Android 2.3 have? As a developer, I like Android. I really do. I'm pulling for it. But as someone who has helped develop a first class Android application, the hardware fragmentation is the largest headache I've had to deal with. Even pulling out all performance enhancing techniques, it is hard to deliver an experience on a G1 running Android 1.6. I want Google to take a firmer stance around the hardware that powers their devices. Call it brand protection, a licensing requirement or just plain "we're better at tech than you." Please, just make the phones work. Oddly enough, it's Microsoft doing that, not Google.
  - blinkingled 16y ago
    The jerkiness is subjective - it's not an active problem to worry about or rely upon. So the market share of 2.3 isn't really a pressing issue. G1 is a bad example - it is too weak spec wise. Aging hardware problem is not something anyone can do anything to resolve. With Google the pace of obsolescence is faster than Apple's but that's a fair price to pay and not many common apps are demanding enough to care about hardware specs. There is always going to be faster hardware and specialized software that exploits it - it's not a problem, just evolution that you got to manage. Also now a days most Android phones do have decent enough hardware to not cause you the G1 class of headaches. So there isn't much to worry if you target 2.1+ phones which gives you 85% coverage. The only solution for the developers of that uncommonly demanding app is to have minimum specs requirement for the app. And I have heard that Honeycomb will come with base minimum hardware requirements - but that may be a moot point as already most Android devices have decent hardware now a days.
    - Xuzz 16y ago
      My iPhone 2G on iOS 3.0 can scroll a list smoothly. Every brand new Android phone (possibly excluding the Nexus S -- I haven't yet used one) cannot. Sadly, since I still see devices stuck on 2.1, 2.0, or even 1.6, that fix will not come to everyone soon (or, for some devices, ever).
    - stcredzero 16y ago
      The jerkiness is subjective - it's not an active problem to worry about The whole point of the article is that the subjective matters -- literally to the tune of Billions.
      - blinkingled 16y ago
        Subject to devices in use, firmware they are running etc. My Nexus One, Galaxy S with TouchWiz UI, or the Nexus S do not have jerky scrolling for instance. The G1 does. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xEKrY0VQKQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xEKrY0VQKQ So it is possible today for people to buy Android devices and not notice any out of the ordinary jerkiness.