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This Is What Developing For Android Looks Like

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Re: This Is What Developing For Android Looks Like

#51

Post by ktothemc »

ktothemc wrote: post #50
codeka wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why not frame the article as "this is a hilarious photo that shows the length that one Android developer is going to in order to ensure maximum compatibility", rather than "this is what it's like if you want to make an Android app"?

You are not a blogger and that is not a viral headline. :) Joke. No but seriously, I talk to a lot of the top free and top grossing developers and taking QA seriously is a big deal. It matters. Not everyone takes it seriously and it affects your user reviews. At least that is Animoca's thesis and that's why they use 400 devices.

In all honesty, there is an interesting debate here. A lot of developers are saying 5-6 devices is sufficient for compatibility testing. But Animoca argues that doing 400 is actually a competitive advantage for them.

Re: This Is What Developing For Android Looks Like

#52

Post by dannyr »

ktothemc wrote: post #32
cryptoz wrote: post #2

> You know how all Android developers complain about fragmentation? Yeah, this is what fragmentation looks like. This is some of the most insulting garbage out there. I'm an Android developer. I don't complain about fragmentation. Ever. Don't you dare lump me into a group of people you hear complaining loudly. I'm not one of them! I know it can be hard to get apps to work across all phones. The variety of available h…

Hey, I'm the author of the article and I don't really have an agenda in the Android/iOS platform debate. Both are necessary platforms to build on at this point. Yat also wasn't really complaining about the state of affairs on Android at all. He's happy to QA test with 400 devices and he thinks it's why his company performs well relative to other game developers who don't do as comprehensive a job. I just thought it w…

Kimmai,

The way you wrote the headline suggests that you do have an agenda.

Unless you think Techcrunch should not be taken seriously, a lot of people would think that Android is such an awful platform to develop in and would stay away from it.

I've been an Android developer for 3+ years. I only test in 3 phones and my apps work in majority of devices. If a developer follow most best practices, a lot of fragmentation issues go away.

I understand that you are trying to be hilarious but it just contributes to FUDs on Android that has really not much basis.

Re: This Is What Developing For Android Looks Like

#53

Post by ssp »

nl wrote: post #29
gregable wrote: post #13

I'm not an android developer, but I am curious. Why is it that testing on dozens/hundreds of platforms is considered essential for cell phones, but not for PCs? Is android just that much worse at abstracting hardware than traditional OS'es?

Because it is early days for Android still (don't forget Android is less than 5 years old), and manufactures are still doing wacky things, and people are still uncovering bugs and edge cases. In the early days of MS-DOS compatibility was a big problem too. Magazines used to use MS Flight Simultor to test how compatible PCs were - plenty failed that.

There is a difference though: The IBM PC was the undisputed gold standard for compatibility. Software typically listed the hardware requirements as "IBM PC or 100% compatible". (Some non-IBM-compatible DOS hardware was sold, but it died out pretty quickly).

It doesn't look like there any similar gold standard is emerging for phones.

Re: This Is What Developing For Android Looks Like

#54

Post by ktothemc »

dannyr wrote: post #52
ktothemc wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, I'm the author of the article and I don't really have an agenda in the Android/iOS platform debate. Both are necessary platforms to build on at this point. Yat also wasn't really complaining about the state of affairs on Android at all. He's happy to QA test with 400 devices and he thinks it's why his company performs well relative to other game developers who don't do as comprehensive a job. I just thought it w…

Kimmai, The way you wrote the headline suggests that you do have an agenda. Unless you think Techcrunch should not be taken seriously, a lot of people would think that Android is such an awful platform to develop in and would stay away from it. I've been an Android developer for 3+ years. I only test in 3 phones and my apps work in majority of devices. If a developer follow most best practices, a lot of fragmentation…

Tks, it's a simple headline that gets a point across. I talk on a weekly basis with many of the top-grossing devs on both platforms so I try to listen to their issues.

This was not meant to be a warning for devs to stay away of Android, but doing more extensive QA testing is a reality of the platform.

What's your app? How many DLs does it have? How many DAU do you have?

Re: This Is What Developing For Android Looks Like

#55

Post by notJim »

gregable wrote: post #13

I'm not an android developer, but I am curious. Why is it that testing on dozens/hundreds of platforms is considered essential for cell phones, but not for PCs? Is android just that much worse at abstracting hardware than traditional OS'es?

> Why is it that testing on dozens/hundreds of platforms is considered essential for cell phones, but not for PCs?

I'm pretty sure it's not. Do you really think everyone who's written a successful Android app has a full stable of hundreds of phones?

Re: This Is What Developing For Android Looks Like

#56

Post by dannyr »

ktothemc wrote: post #54
dannyr wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kimmai, The way you wrote the headline suggests that you do have an agenda. Unless you think Techcrunch should not be taken seriously, a lot of people would think that Android is such an awful platform to develop in and would stay away from it. I've been an Android developer for 3+ years. I only test in 3 phones and my apps work in majority of devices. If a developer follow most best practices, a lot of fragmentation…

Tks, it's a simple headline that gets a point across. I talk on a weekly basis with many of the top-grossing devs on both platforms so I try to listen to their issues. This was not meant to be a warning for devs to stay away of Android, but doing more extensive QA testing is a reality of the platform. What's your app? How many DLs does it have? How many DAU do you have?

The apps I built varies. Some have hundreds, some have 10K+.

But you know what's a better example? Netflix. They test on 10 phones & 4 tablets.

http://techblog.netflix.com/2012/03/testing-netflix-on-andro...

Netflix App has at least 10 million installs - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netflix.me....

Re: This Is What Developing For Android Looks Like

#57

Post by sigmaxipi »

greggman wrote: post #47

Someone needs to take a picture of all the desktop PCs, laptop PCs, tablet PCs, netbook PCs and then say "This is what developing for Windows looks like". I'm sure it would be an order of magnitude bigger, maybe 2 or 3 depending on how far back you decide to go. Or even add up all the mac models from the last 5 years. Heck, I have friends still using power PC macs.

Windows does a good job of abstracting the hardware away and preventing the OEMs from tweaking the APIs so this isn't an issue in most cases. The major exception is for the large game developers who have to buy tons of various configurations of GPUs and motherboards in order to test various configurations. Basic hardware accelerated graphics works well across platforms but AAA games use complex shaders and heavy optimizations which are based on the incomplete and broken implementations of GPU vendors.

Re: This Is What Developing For Android Looks Like

#59

Post by mdwrigh2 »

cageface wrote: post #43
stesch wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the emulator in the SDK usable now? Last time I tried Android programming it was slow as hell. Unusable even for a simple Phonegap app.

If you use the Android x86 system image it's not bad at all. ARM emulation is still slow as molasses.

Try enabling GPU emulation if you're dealing with ICS. It's much, much faster.

Re: This Is What Developing For Android Looks Like

#60

Post by codeka »

ktothemc wrote: post #51
ktothemc wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not a blogger and that is not a viral headline. :) Joke. No but seriously, I talk to a lot of the top free and top grossing developers and taking QA seriously is a big deal. It matters. Not everyone takes it seriously and it affects your user reviews. At least that is Animoca's thesis and that's why they use 400 devices.

In all honesty, there is an interesting debate here. A lot of developers are saying 5-6 devices is sufficient for compatibility testing. But Animoca argues that doing 400 is actually a competitive advantage for them.

Firstly, it's not the headline I'm talking about. The whole tone of the article is "this is what developing for Android is like." Having to test on 400 devices is NOT what developing for Android is like, AT ALL.

So you talk to many of the top developers. That's great, how about we hear from a selection of them? How many devices do most of them test on? Taking QA seriously is not the same thing as testing on hundreds of devices.

So when are we going to see the other side of the "debate"? Personally, I don't see a debate at all, just some pageview-bait article that takes a single developer and makes out like this is normal.

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