Follow related website bookmark from Reddit:
Perspective: Android Architecture Sucks and other thoughts. Am I wrong?
First this is meant as a discussion. I really like the openness of the platform compared to lock down state of iOS/wp7. I currently own a Captivate running cm7. As a user I love it. As a developer I loathe it. * My background: I taught myself BASIC when I was 10. Then c and c++. I've worked as an intern (software engineer) at MS. After college I started a game studio with friends, we did contract code and music for over 6 GBA titles and 2 DS titles. I've moved on and I'm currently a senior software engineer & software architect for a local company. Now I mostly work in c# with vs2010. * Java Why choose an inferior language to base your OS around? To me c# is what java should be. They could have worked with the mono guys and really had a solid product. In addition, why isn't c/c++ the low level language? I understand that they have finally allowed the ndk to be used without java but why did it take so long? This also makes me wonder if some of the latency issues are because of this decision. As for c# I bet most will think that it's MS owned and bad. But really, I feel that if google approached them with the idea of using it they would have been on board. If you think java is better than c# or was the right choice, tell me why. Openness is not a valid reason either since c# is open, and with all the trouble at oracle... * Architecture Complaints about how slow android feels compared to iOS and wp7 are everywhere. Yes they've done much to fix these issues but there is still room for improvement. Hopefully ICS will be the answer but I doubt it. I feel the reason behind this is they didn't properly develop the low level display architecture. It should have been created where it works with a software or hardware renderer. [Link](https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0ATd_esqYSHtAZGN6ZmdjcnZfM2dxcmpudGdm&hl=en&pli=1) This is what I consider spaghetti code/architecture and tells me whoever wrote/designed this has no clue what they are doing. Another problem with their architecture is how slow the updates for devices are released. Why do the device makers have to build each OS iteration for each device? They should have a low level driver interface that the device maker works with. The OS sits on top of that and can be updated easily. I haven't looked into the lowest level of android so maybe this is how it's done but if so then why the delays. I know some will say that the custom launchers are to blame, but I argue that if the OS was done correctly and concerns are separated then the launcher should be replaceable without any extra work (or very little). This separation of concerns also relates to my point above about the renderer, if it was done correctly then adding hardware (opengl) would be invisible to the OS and it would just run faster. I'm not a hardware guy so all this could be true and I'm just blowing smoke. * XML GUI Going back to c# land, WPF or XAML in general is by far the best GUI approach I have ever used. I've used different GUI tool kits before and nothing, absolutely nothing is close. Yes WPF/XAML has issues and drawbacks like anything else but once you've tried it I don't think you'll want to go back to the hard coded widget classes like QT, GTK+, MFC, etc. One of the reasons I think it succeeds is the fact that you can very easily build custom controls. Another reason is the data binding engine. And finally the vector based graphics it uses. Now back to android's xml gui. It's a step in the right direction but wow, does it miss the mark. Java like c# has reflection and they could have done a similar design with data binding. Data binding is such a powerful feature that I can't imagine building a GUI without it. The controls they provide are horrible. An example: In wpf if I want to make a panel (layout) with a button on the top and another on the right and a textbox filling the middle it is very easy to do with a dock panel. You just tell the two buttons to dock="top" or dock="right". To do this in android, well I have no clue honestly. I'm guessing a relative layout with me having to define each button with an id and then tell the other elements to be leftof/below that id. Okay, so now if I need to add another button that docks on the left, all hell breaks loose. In wpf I just tell it to dock="left" and we're done. * Vector graphics vs Patch9 I understand the purpose of patch9 and I actually think it's a cool idea and useful. However, if they had written the renderer correctly they could have done vector graphics and avoid a whole mess of stuff. The current application I'm working on for my day job, we have no images. We have paths which can be scaled, colored, have effects applied, etc. I don't have to worry about getting a image at size 32x32 and another at 64x64. I just tell it to draw at that size and it's done. And if I want it to have a different color when it has focus then I just tell it the color to use (or brush). Patch9 is their way of allowing expanding graphics. But if they had gone with vectors then we wouldn't need low density, medium density and high density artwork. You just need a vector file and it gets drawn correctly. Not to mention you don't need multiple images for states. Yes you might still need multiple paths for certain effects but I think for the most part a single one would work. In addition, orientation could be supported without extra layouts or graphics. Yes you could provide a different layout but when controls automatically resize and position themselves then it reduces a bunch of headaches. * Activities I think the idea behind activities is great, but the implementation is bad. I'm a fan of black box coding and activities uses this idea. Having to declare activities in the manifest is poor planning. Use meta-data, reflection and java attributes. Another issue is the destruction/re-creation of activities when the screen orientation changes. Are they are lazy or do they have no clue what they are doing? There should be no reason this happens. It is not that difficult to request a new layout or if they had used vector graphics then they wouldn't even need that. * AppWidgets This is where I live in android dev land. This is probably the most unique and powerful feature of android compared to the other mobile OSes. The problem is it feels like an after thought and is gimped. The way to interact with the view via remoteviews is lame. It is so limited that to do anything different you have to rely on hacks. My widget for example renders everything to a bitmap and then sends that via remoteviews. That's the only way to get a truly custom view. Why didn't they allow a full application to run with it's full view options? Yes I know that it could be abused and suck down the battery but I'm sure users can make their own decision whether that's a problem. Also they don't give the appwidget the size of the view. They give you a minimum size but that doesn't help. So again we're playing the hack game and trying to compute what we think is the size based on screen size and rows/columns. And of course it doesn't always work. I can go on about this topic but I shall restrain myself. * Graphic Design I'm sure this is a very touchy subject but android looks like crap. No it doesn't need to look like iOS or wp7. It does look very amateur, almost like it was designed by engineers and not someone with artist ability (which is probably spot on). It's getting better now, HC actually looks decent to me. I really have been impressed with wp7 with the way they went. It's very different. Not sure if that's a good thing or not but at least they didn't go with a me-too look. The thing I think android has going for it is the ability to customize the look yourself. That's a killer feature but that shouldn't be an excuse for the vanilla to look like crap. * Polish This is a problem with google in general. They release beta products. Android is riddled with bugs, the api has poor documentation and samples. Why couldn't they have at least this once tried to make the product solid before releasing it. I can't think of another place in any industry where this would be allowed. I just find it hard to believe that google, with all the talent they supposedly have, puts out a piece of crap. This would never get approval for release where I work and I personally would be embarrassed to say I worked on it. And now I'm afraid it's too late to start over and do it correctly. Which is too bad as I feel that with some under the hood work they could make android unbeatable. Also if apple wasn't exclusive to att when the iPhone launched then android would have been a never-was. I think the only reason it was adopted and succeed was because people wanted the iPhone but couldn't get it on their carrier. * Talent I'm know this will be controversial but it needs to be said. Not only should google have more devs on android but more talented devs. I looked up *Romain Guy* and *Dianne Hackborn* on linkedin and neither have impressive resumes. In fact they don't have any experience in OS or mobile design with the exception of Dianne who worked at palm, which was also horrible. Those are the faces of android that I can tell. Maybe there are others that I'm unaware of (hopefully) that are in charge. So you have a developer that has no experience in the industry and another from a failed mobile company with a crappy product and you put them in charge? **Question** Is there any thing we as developers can do to fix this? Can we get a petition to have the android team sacked and have some people with knowledge and experience take over. Or do we have to wait until something better comes along? Or am I an idiot who has no idea what he's talking about? more