I've also proposed a solution to this - adding a permission for apps to request that they run alone, uninterrupted by other processes.
That is, the app can request a permission, demanding that the app can only be interrupted by an external event, such as phone call, all other services and background processes (other than the ones the OS can't go without) are paused when app is running. I know it's quite tricky to implement this, because, for example, when an SMS is received it needs to be stored in the database, and this will require some memory, which will need to be discarded, when the SMS is written to the database, and this will trigger GC. However, when such a message is received, and the OS knows that an app with the special permission runs in the foreground, it could delay the GC either until: - the app itself allocates memory (no matter if it might not be actually GC'ed until the app finishes) OR - the systems goes pretty low on memory At least, non-stock services (i.e. services, developed by 3rd parties) can be suspended during the lifetime of an application requesting the special permission. Cheers On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 11:51 AM, Stoyan Damov <stoyan.da...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 11:02 PM, Romain Guy <romain...@google.com> wrote: >> >> The trick is simple: avoid any allocation that might trigger a GC. >> > > It's not that simple at all. > In fact, it is *impossible* on Android, or any other mobile OS which > allows background processes. > > I've already said this once -- even though your game can be tuned to > the max, nothing prevents *other* apps from triggering GC. > That is, in my game, I *never*, *ever* do any allocation after startup. > However, other background processes do trigger GC, and voila - my game > stutters for a bit when GC kicks in. > > Compare to iPhone, which disallows background processing and the > foreground app is never interrupted. > > Cheers > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 android-developers-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
