Re: Internet Shortcut

Marion,

most descriptions abut Android "Activities" & Android "Intents"
are for Android app developers, and not necessarily from the
perspective of the user.

:-)  It the other way around : where those developer (people-in-the-know)
would be about the first people to refer to something by its given name
(just to be clear what they are talking about), they too are using the
"shortcut" name for it instead of "intents".

As for the users ?  They use whichever name is easiest to remember.  And as
Windows has been using the "shortcuts" name for a very similar thing for
decades, its rather likely that the users will use that, instead of a new,
whatever-it-may-actually-mean "intents" name.

From the perspective of the user, what I love about Android
"Activities", is that if the activity is declared by the app,
then any user can easily create a shortcut to that "Activity"
without any programming necessary.

:-) Even you are calling it a shortcut.

On Windows I can drag-and-drop most every document, regardless of if it is
an executable or something else, and have a shortcut.  Heck, this thread is
about internet shortcuts - which are as easy to create as document
shortcuts.  Just drag-and-drop.  Furthermore, programs on Windows /could/
create their own shortcuts, but there seems to be very little need for it.

After that I can open that Windows shortcut and change it any way I want -
giving me full freedom over what happens.


Android is a tad different.  Its is created for knobchen-druecken users,
always starting apps from the "home screen".   I would not be amazed if only
a small percentage would know of the filebrowser and even less how to use
it.  A commandline interface ?  Whats that ?

Also, on Android there seems to be no way to alter or even just inspect
whats in a shortcut.

IOW, that Android programs create their own shortcuts is outof necessity,
because neither drag-and-drop really exists, nor does it have a way to start
apps by a user-created ... something (bash, script, other).

On Android, that is called an Intent.

And neither those developpers nor you are using that name.  :-p

Regards,
Rudy Wieser