Re: [android-developers] Re: RIGHT way to kickstart composing a new Calendar event?

DulcetTone wrote:
> I am confused why such a flexible network of high-level inter-app
> communication would be established, and then sawhorses placed across
> the on ramps. I know time and testing resources are at a premium, but
> blanketing the earth with a variety of phones that belie their
> seemingly common platform undercuts the vision substantially.

Let's take an example:

On Windows, there is a calendar program called Outlook (does a bit of
email on the side too, I'm told). There are any number of other ones,
such as Mozilla's calendar add-on to Thunderbird.

Windows also has the COM mechanism that allows for high-level inter-app
communication. Outlook supports a COM API to work with its calendar. Few
other calendars do, AFAICT, and none necessarily support Outlook's COM
API. In fact, even if there were a COM interface between the calendar
add-on to Thunderbird, it might not be part of a supported public API
(e.g., designed for communication between the add-on and Thunderbird
itself).

This is pretty much the same situation as Android faces with calendars:
great potential for interoperability, limited actual interoperability.
And Windows calendars have been around a *lot* longer than have Android
calendars.

At most, you can argue that it is the core Android team's fault for not
mandating a calendar API. Then again, it's unclear where you draw the
line (e.g., do we need a carved-in-granite alarm clock API? a cast-iron
music player API?). And the calendar app isn't exactly something the
Android team controls exclusively, since it's tied to Google Calendar.

So, I think it's unfortunate but not unreasonable that we are where we
are with respect to adding events to local calendar applications.

If there isn't an issue already on the topic, you might want to open one
on http://b.android.com, requesting an SDK API for calendar operations
(basically, pulling the com.android.calendar stuff into android.calendar
or whatever). If you open one, post the link here, and I'll star it.

--
Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy)
http://commonsware.com | http://twitter.com/commonsguy

_The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development_ Version 2.8
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