On May 3, 11:59 pm, mort <m...@sto-helit.de> wrote: > And what's wrong with "resource consuming"? I coud cache several MB of > data in a non-running service, it wouldn't matter. Android would just > kick it if the memory's required, and the service would just reload > the data when it's restarted. > It's similar with CPU usage. If your service happens to do something > in the instance the task killer loads it, it'll be killed, even if it > only does that on certain events or once a day? And some services just > need to do more than others... > Besides, most task managers only show the main application, not the > service. So CPU usage alway is 0, and memory usage, as said, doesn't > really matter.
I don't think it's necessarily right to say "there's nothing wrong with consuming a huge amount of memory if you're sleeping, because the low memory killer can just remove you". It's been my experience that the user's experience on the phone is largely correlated with memory and not CPU usage. When I am flipping between activities, stuff feels significantly less responsive as I see the GC run. Also, obviously if an activity has dropped out of memory because of the low memory killer and it needs to be recreated there's going to be slowdown. So for some service that is sleeping, but still in memory consuming a large amount of RAM, you can only make the claim that it is "harmless" if it doesn't cause extra GC in the foreground apps and also doesn't cause a situation where some activity was killed by the low memory killer instead of the service. Which I don't think is a claim you can make about a resource intensive service that is just sleeping but not stopped. Maybe Dianne could comment on that, maybe I'm wrong. But it seems to me that you can't guarantee that more activities wouldn't be able to fit in memory if the service was actually gone. Also, I didn't know that the application stop caused alarmmanager to unschedule the app, that certainly makes the use of it almost certainly not what the user wants. Perhaps it needs to stay in the API to maintain compatibility, but it can cause a pop up with an extra disclaimer. Kind of like .apk installs can only be initiated and not completed without interaction with the platform. -E -- 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
