On 9 July 2013 03:34, Robin Humble <rjh+luv@cita.utoronto.ca> wrote:

I don't know why google did it that way, but I suspect this was a

compromise they decided upon to make app development a LOT easier.

I would also argue advertising is a big factor.

What happens if somebody turns off X permission? How would I be able to do in app advertising any more?

after all, how many of us write code that checks the return value of
close()?

Don't need to do this if the language supports exceptions :-)

Seriously though, if you don't check the return value of close, especially after a write file operation, your code is buggy and this could result in data lose.

google was likely desperate for apps at the beginning. their app store
had nothing in it. even now I'm not sure it was the wrong decision to
make... apps asking for too many permissions and then abusing them is
the real problem. I don't think it's the permissions model itself.

Don't forget that Google didn't invent Android themselves, they acquired the company that did. So it is not clear where these design decisions were made.

Brian May <brian@microcomaustralia.com.au>