This thread is better off being on [android-discuss]. Olaf Encke wrote: >> Planned? My guess is no, only because few applications need charting and > > I beg to differ. I think a lot of business applications, science tools > and even some system/network utilities could really benefit from a > builtin charting api. It would make developing such applications a > breeze and with consistent (and themeable) charting graphs Android > would present itself as a prime business platform.
Sorry, by "few" I mean "few as a percentage of the overall market of applications". Few desktop applications need charting, as a percentage of the desktop applications that exist. Few Web applications need charting. Few mobile applications for other platforms need charting. Hence, I don't feel like I'm completely out of line to suggest that few Android applications will need charting. Perhaps I'll be wrong, particularly if a robust charting API comes to life. I certainly won't quibble if that's the case. > Since flash memory in mobile devices is now at 256-512 MiB standard I > think an investment of 1-2 MiB for a lean charting API would be well > worth it instead of each app developer struggling to create his or her > own charts which thus wouldn't look consistent on a systemwide scale > or resign from implementing charts alltogether, leaving a lot to > desire in the resulting app usability. Just look at WinMob for a lot > of bad examples. Everybody and their sister has a claim out on what goes in that silicon. You want charting. Another guy wants infrared support. Others want a wider range of programming languages. Others want more Bluetooth profiles and a Bluetooth API. Others want video recording. I'm not saying charting is necessarily more or less worthy than any of the other candidates. I am saying, though, that there are limits as to what the silicon can hold and what the core Android team can manage, particularly without heavy lifting from the community. > Yes that would be one way to do it, but my goal would be for (most) > all charts in Android applications to deliver a consistent user > experience and the only way to make sure we'll come close to meeting > it in my opinion would be to integrate one suitable charting engine > into the Android core. The first step is to either port a charting API to Android or build one from scratch. The second step is to get lots of applications to settle on it as their charting solution (probably easy, since it'll be the only one available). The third step is to propose it as a contribution to Android once it's open source, demonstrating its success in the marketplace and the valuable contribution it makes to the platform. The sooner somebody with a charting itch to scratch starts in, the sooner you'll see your vision realized. -- Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy) http://commonsware.com Android Training on the Ranch! -- Mar 16-20, 2009 http://www.bignerdranch.com/schedule.shtml --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
