A Short Android SDK Follow-Up

Something interesting has happened since I posted my thoughts on the Android SDK. Two interesting things, actually. Both were e-mails from people who work on the Android SDK, one from Google and another from Motorola.

Despite the fact that I was quite critical of several aspects of the Android SDK in that post, neither e-mail attempted to argue with me. Neither took an adversarial approach at all. Both basically thanked me for my opinion and asked me for more information so they could improve Android and address those things I criticized in my post.

It may seem like a small thing, but those two e-mails impressed the hell out of me. Regardless of language or preferred design patterns or any of the other million things that we developers love to argue about over a pint of beer, one of the true marks of a good developer is the ability to take criticism without getting defensive combined with a true desire to make your products the best they can be. Reaching out to somebody who has criticized a product you work on is not an easy thing to do.

So, I felt it was only fair to point this out here because I think it bodes really, really well for Android's future. I think we'll see great things out of Android as it matures. I don't think those things will change my personal desire to work with Android as my primary platform, but that's simply because I don't like Java anywhere near as much as I like Objective-C, but I'm definitely not going to bet against Android doing well.

Posted in: Android