Re: Internet Shortcut

Lawrence,

Those are all just documents, and double-clicking displays their content
in an associated application.
>
An Intent, on the other hand, is a message to do something.

What is double-clicking or tapping a document (of any form, including
shortcuts and executables) other than (expressing) an intent ?

Also, my intent culminating into double-clicking or tapping something is a
message to the OS to do something.   What it than does is dependant on the
document thats clicked/tapped.

Furthermore, I can think of that "an intent" on Android as being a kind of
document much like a shortcut on Windows and handled by the OS itself, but
as easily as a small, self-contained program.   And yes, both methods are
viable, on Android as well as on Windows.

And than there is the ambiguity of both the "intent" and "message" words you
used in the above.

Bottom line: To me your above "An Intent, on the other hand, is a message to
do something." is, even within its context, rather meaningless (if someone
would have told me it was a bullshit-bingo phrase I would have believed
them).


Oh, bother.  I just did a quick search for "Android shortcuts" and got this
:

https://developer.android.com/develop/ui/views/launch/shortcuts

As you might notice that they also use description "shortcuts" for whats on
your Androids screen, and show your "an intent" as being a verb send from
it.

Also see, using a link in the above :

https://developer.android.com/guide/components/intents-filters

, where the mechanism is explained.    Which includes implicite and
explicite shortcuts - both of which get "satisfied" thru the aid of the OS -
much like on Windows.

The only difference seems to be that on Windows a shortcut is a (passive)
file which gets handled by the OS, while on Android its a(n active) small
program.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser