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I'm not sure the "overblown" fragmentation problem is about the developer. I thought it was about the end user. Sure it's somewhat difficult to develop and tes

by runjake 14y ago

I'm not sure the "overblown" fragmentation problem is about the developer. I thought it was about the end user. Sure it's somewhat difficult to develop and test Android applications due to fragmentation, but I see the bigger problem being the end users with Android devices in their hands that can't run apps because their particular device or their new, but ancient build of Android isn't supported. What Color? is an example of this. It doesn't work on the Galaxy Nexus. Who knows why. The Netflix app was another example, for at least a while. And who knows if it will ever be supported, because only $x number of people own that device, which is one of hundreds available worldwide at any given time.

ajross 14y ago
This app?: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jarcikon.whatcolor&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jarcikon.whatc... Seems to work fine on my Galaxy Nexus, though I've never heard of it before and maybe support was recently added. And to be fair: this (a camera-integrated "what is this color?" tool for colorblind users) is a really obscure app! The Netflix example is AFAIK wrong; I don't think it was ever "unsupported" in ICS, but maybe I'm misremembering. Are there any real-world examples? I mean, sure: occasionally you see an app that has bugs on one handset or another, and sometimes those go unfixed. But to pretend that this is a serious problem for "end users" is vastly overstating the case.
- gcp 14y ago
  Chrome (doesn't work on pre-ICS). Grand Theft Auto 3 (and most games - don't work on particular devices due to graphics). Firefox Native (only supports ARMv6 devices in unofficial builds)
  - ajross 14y ago
    The Chrome bit misses the point entirely. Of course some software requires the latest version of the OS, if it didn't, there would have been no need to release the new version of the platform. You might as well talk about how terribly fragmented iOS is because Siri doesn't work on the iPhone 4. The GPU thing is legitimate. If you let the market differentiate on graphics performance then software vendors will choose to optimize their platform compatibility in ways that don't include everyone. That's "fragmentation", though I'm hard pressed to see how you avoid it without making everyone code to a single core SGX 540 like iOS does. And Firefox ships an app that doesn't support the native ABI of the platform (which, to be clear: has a slow ABI precisely to avoid fragmentation. iOS has the same backwards-compatible floating point issue, btw). Again, I don't see how preventing software vendors from making these decisions is helping anyone.
  - DominikR 14y ago
    You can't expect that a game with 3D graphics will run on some random 50$ device. If you want 3D graphics on your mobile device, then you'll have to pay for adequate hardware. (like you do for your PC if you want to run Crysis 2 or something like that)
- runjake 14y ago
  Prior to a few days ago, it was incompatible with the Galaxy Nexus. Upon visiting it now, it says its compatible. The NetFlix example was not specifically referring to the Galaxy Nexus or ICS. Upon its initial launch it was only compatible with selected devices. What Color? may be an "obscure" app, but like I said, it's a case example of what I run into time and time again. And that's where I see the bulk of the fragmentation problem (however large the fragmentation problem is).

by runjake 14y ago

ajross 14y ago

This app?: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jarcikon.whatcolor&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jarcikon.whatc... Seems to work fine on my Galaxy Nexus, though I've never heard of it before and maybe support was recently added. And to be fair: this (a camera-integrated "what is this color?" tool for colorblind users) is a really obscure app! The Netflix example is AFAIK wrong; I don't think it was ever "unsupported" in ICS, but maybe I'm misremembering. Are there any real-world examples? I mean, sure: occasionally you see an app that has bugs on one handset or another, and sometimes those go unfixed. But to pretend that this is a serious problem for "end users" is vastly overstating the case.

gcp 14y ago
Chrome (doesn't work on pre-ICS). Grand Theft Auto 3 (and most games - don't work on particular devices due to graphics). Firefox Native (only supports ARMv6 devices in unofficial builds)
- ajross 14y ago
  The Chrome bit misses the point entirely. Of course some software requires the latest version of the OS, if it didn't, there would have been no need to release the new version of the platform. You might as well talk about how terribly fragmented iOS is because Siri doesn't work on the iPhone 4. The GPU thing is legitimate. If you let the market differentiate on graphics performance then software vendors will choose to optimize their platform compatibility in ways that don't include everyone. That's "fragmentation", though I'm hard pressed to see how you avoid it without making everyone code to a single core SGX 540 like iOS does. And Firefox ships an app that doesn't support the native ABI of the platform (which, to be clear: has a slow ABI precisely to avoid fragmentation. iOS has the same backwards-compatible floating point issue, btw). Again, I don't see how preventing software vendors from making these decisions is helping anyone.
- DominikR 14y ago
  You can't expect that a game with 3D graphics will run on some random 50$ device. If you want 3D graphics on your mobile device, then you'll have to pay for adequate hardware. (like you do for your PC if you want to run Crysis 2 or something like that)
runjake 14y ago
Prior to a few days ago, it was incompatible with the Galaxy Nexus. Upon visiting it now, it says its compatible. The NetFlix example was not specifically referring to the Galaxy Nexus or ICS. Upon its initial launch it was only compatible with selected devices. What Color? may be an "obscure" app, but like I said, it's a case example of what I run into time and time again. And that's where I see the bulk of the fragmentation problem (however large the fragmentation problem is).