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The lack of quality control in the Android SDK is pretty impressive. It is by far the worst SDK I've ever used. Hell, even simple think like hiding/showing a ke

The lack of quality control in the Android SDK is pretty impressive. It is by far the worst SDK I've ever used. Hell, even simple think like hiding/showing a keyboard requires a ton of code and checks. In 2020.

netdur 6y ago
I think Android SDK was made with something else in mind, I did read it was made for digital cameras, ironically Android have very bad camera api too, the concept of activity and fragment is just weird... I can say everything there is weird, but definitely not the worst SDK.
- matchbok 6y ago
  You're right. It was never designed as a mobile OS with a soft keyboard. Hell, it's 2020 and rotating the device still doesn't work as it should.
  - what_ever 6y ago
    > rotating the device still doesn't work as it should. What exactly is the issue?! Been using Android for about a decade now and can rotate the device just fine.
    - matchbok 6y ago
      Yeah so it works, but from a developer perspective it's about 10x more complicated than iOS. It's also a source of bugs and crashes because of how Android manages the state change.
    - AnssiH 6y ago
      For me, a lot of apps lose various state, e.g. text written in input fields, when rotating.
      - pjmlp 6y ago
        No wonder, rotating the phone restarts the app and it is the developer's job to restore it somehow.
    - pjmlp 6y ago
      Rotating the phone restarts the app and it is the developer's job to restore it somehow.
jerrygoyal 6y ago
I've heard there will finally be an api for keyboard state change.. not sure if that's added to the upcoming android version
enos_feedler 6y ago
It is out of control. I actually think between the HAL layer, OEMs, chipsets and 3P ecosystem it is very difficult to dig out of the hole that Android has built. Too much was put into short term thinking on annual releases and gap closing with Apple. While Apple planned APIs years out for end to end products, Android had to blindly copy APIs and everything is far less elegant. Android isn't working. It isn't capturing the smartwatch ecosystem well (Fitbit) and it isn't capturing the TV ecosystem well (Roku). The net impact is harmful to developers. We don't get the reach and compatibility we were promised. We have very fragmented ecosystem to develop for. We have specific device SDKs we have to use to tap into novel hardware. I can't complain enough. Android had a huge opportunity to define the next evolution of compute platforms on top of the linux kernel and it has kind of blown it. I think there are even signs Google leadership sees this and is investing in a portfolio of strategies such as CameraX, Pixel, Flutter/Fuschia. With the Huawei situation too, I think the general health of the Android ecosystem is some of the worst it has been. Globally I think we are going to see even more fragmentation. We need something that ties this all together. It's not going to be a full blown OS layer, but something to manage the madness for 3P devs.
- zozbot234 6y ago
  Some of this complexity is unavoidable. pmOS is based on the ordinary Linux stack, but even then it has a lot of trouble with supporting basic features like phone calls, etc. At least Android works as a daily driver, even in its basic AOSP version.
  - enos_feedler 6y ago
    I think there are two kinds of complexity with Android. One is given from the nature of the ecosystem and the pace at which smartphone platforms have evolved. There is no fault of Android developers here. However, there is some responsibility to design the frameworks and HAL interfaces to gracefully expand into future requirements. It seems there are lots of "oh shit" APIs where they needed to be reworked. Camera.. just kidding! camera2.. just kidding CameraX!
    - 6y ago
xigency 6y ago
> even simple think like hiding/showing a keyboard requires a ton of code and checks To be fair, I have had the same experience while doing iOS development.
pjmlp 6y ago
I use mostly the NDK, and as incredible as it may sound, I occasionally do miss Symbian even with its clunky Symbian C++. At least Symbian had a proper C++ API, not a bunch of C wrappers to Java and C++ code, expecting everyone to write their own wrappers and cloning half maintained github repos released by someone on the Android team.

netdur 6y ago

I think Android SDK was made with something else in mind, I did read it was made for digital cameras, ironically Android have very bad camera api too, the concept of activity and fragment is just weird... I can say everything there is weird, but definitely not the worst SDK.

matchbok 6y ago
You're right. It was never designed as a mobile OS with a soft keyboard. Hell, it's 2020 and rotating the device still doesn't work as it should.
- what_ever 6y ago
  > rotating the device still doesn't work as it should. What exactly is the issue?! Been using Android for about a decade now and can rotate the device just fine.
  - matchbok 6y ago
    Yeah so it works, but from a developer perspective it's about 10x more complicated than iOS. It's also a source of bugs and crashes because of how Android manages the state change.
  - AnssiH 6y ago
    For me, a lot of apps lose various state, e.g. text written in input fields, when rotating.
    - pjmlp 6y ago
      No wonder, rotating the phone restarts the app and it is the developer's job to restore it somehow.
  - pjmlp 6y ago
    Rotating the phone restarts the app and it is the developer's job to restore it somehow.

jerrygoyal 6y ago

I've heard there will finally be an api for keyboard state change.. not sure if that's added to the upcoming android version

enos_feedler 6y ago

It is out of control. I actually think between the HAL layer, OEMs, chipsets and 3P ecosystem it is very difficult to dig out of the hole that Android has built. Too much was put into short term thinking on annual releases and gap closing with Apple. While Apple planned APIs years out for end to end products, Android had to blindly copy APIs and everything is far less elegant. Android isn't working. It isn't capturing the smartwatch ecosystem well (Fitbit) and it isn't capturing the TV ecosystem well (Roku). The net impact is harmful to developers. We don't get the reach and compatibility we were promised. We have very fragmented ecosystem to develop for. We have specific device SDKs we have to use to tap into novel hardware. I can't complain enough. Android had a huge opportunity to define the next evolution of compute platforms on top of the linux kernel and it has kind of blown it. I think there are even signs Google leadership sees this and is investing in a portfolio of strategies such as CameraX, Pixel, Flutter/Fuschia. With the Huawei situation too, I think the general health of the Android ecosystem is some of the worst it has been. Globally I think we are going to see even more fragmentation. We need something that ties this all together. It's not going to be a full blown OS layer, but something to manage the madness for 3P devs.

zozbot234 6y ago
Some of this complexity is unavoidable. pmOS is based on the ordinary Linux stack, but even then it has a lot of trouble with supporting basic features like phone calls, etc. At least Android works as a daily driver, even in its basic AOSP version.
- enos_feedler 6y ago
  I think there are two kinds of complexity with Android. One is given from the nature of the ecosystem and the pace at which smartphone platforms have evolved. There is no fault of Android developers here. However, there is some responsibility to design the frameworks and HAL interfaces to gracefully expand into future requirements. It seems there are lots of "oh shit" APIs where they needed to be reworked. Camera.. just kidding! camera2.. just kidding CameraX!
  - 6y ago

xigency 6y ago

> even simple think like hiding/showing a keyboard requires a ton of code and checks To be fair, I have had the same experience while doing iOS development.

pjmlp 6y ago

I use mostly the NDK, and as incredible as it may sound, I occasionally do miss Symbian even with its clunky Symbian C++. At least Symbian had a proper C++ API, not a bunch of C wrappers to Java and C++ code, expecting everyone to write their own wrappers and cloning half maintained github repos released by someone on the Android team.