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January 10, 2008
Android support
Android support: Interesting story from Linux Devices: "Several actual hardware devices have been hacked to run Google's Java-based Android software stack, according to blogs and forum posts around the Internet." Brings up the point that there's no certification of implementations... one "Android" may not have the same capabilities as another. This problem is intrinsic to the spec-first approach, and causes it to (realistically) advance slower than capabilities-based approaches. It's like an application advertising "HTML support"... this could mean so many things, that you have to really inspect what the phrase "HTML support" means, for each particular implementation. In comparison, if a device advertises "Windows Mobile 6", then you have a known and predictable implementation to build atop. Complex specs with a number of different incomplete implementations are almost an employment-act for specialists in the specification, leading to partisanship and FUD, but if you're interested in actually getting projects finished, then working to a known implementation is far more economical.
Posted by JohnDowdell at January 10, 2008 8:09 AM