SMARTPHONE DEVELOPER Google has said that it will open source its Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and make changes to some of the application programming interfaces (APIs).
Google's recent release of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich left some wondering if the company would continue to release the source code for the popular operating system. Google engineer Dan Morrill wrote in a Google Groups post, "We plan to release the source for the recently-announced Ice Cream Sandwich soon, once it's available on devices."
Google also revealed that it will finally document the Android Calendar API. The firm warned that calendar applications using low-level unsupported access methods are unlikely to work in the future. It also announced there will be a text-to-speech API in Ice Cream Sandwich, while it will no longer support the old, unofficial C++ API.
Google's Tim Bray also explained why some APIs were not documented and said it wasn't part of a plan by the firm to hide them from developers. Writing on the Android Developers blog, Bray said, "We're not claiming that they're 'Private' or 'Secret' - How could they be, when anyone in the world can discover them? We're also not claiming they're forbidden: If you use them, your code will compile and probably run. And in fact we know of quite a few apps out there whose developers have used undocumented APIs, often to good effect. It's hard to get too upset about this in cases where there's a useful API that we haven't gotten around to stabilising."
Google has very little to gain from taking Android closed source. One of its biggest selling points is the ability for handset makers and enthusiasts to tinker with the software without having to follow prescribed recipes from Google. ยต
Google's recent release of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich left some wondering if the company would continue to release the source code for the popular operating system. Google engineer Dan Morrill wrote in a Google Groups post, "We plan to release the source for the recently-announced Ice Cream Sandwich soon, once it's available on devices."
Google also revealed that it will finally document the Android Calendar API. The firm warned that calendar applications using low-level unsupported access methods are unlikely to work in the future. It also announced there will be a text-to-speech API in Ice Cream Sandwich, while it will no longer support the old, unofficial C++ API.
Google's Tim Bray also explained why some APIs were not documented and said it wasn't part of a plan by the firm to hide them from developers. Writing on the Android Developers blog, Bray said, "We're not claiming that they're 'Private' or 'Secret' - How could they be, when anyone in the world can discover them? We're also not claiming they're forbidden: If you use them, your code will compile and probably run. And in fact we know of quite a few apps out there whose developers have used undocumented APIs, often to good effect. It's hard to get too upset about this in cases where there's a useful API that we haven't gotten around to stabilising."
Google has very little to gain from taking Android closed source. One of its biggest selling points is the ability for handset makers and enthusiasts to tinker with the software without having to follow prescribed recipes from Google. ยต
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