Like Google, software giants are disrupting the otherwise safe and established players in the mobile application development business. Newcomers like Android have led to significant structural changes in the future of mobile application development by imposing their rules. This changed environment brings not only additional opportunities but also adds certain constraints. Developers today need to assess their options and determine how they can benefit from this changing environment.
While mobile computing has caught the attention of application developers, very little work has been done to examine these technologies’ programming ease. Here, we will look at two of the most widely available mobile development environments – Android and Windows Mobile and explore and assess these options from a developer’s perspective.
Android
Google released Android in 2007 as an open-source platform for mobile software development for smartphones. The Android platform was released as part of the Open Handset Alliance. The primary aim of this alliance was to set up open standards for smartphones. Android is a Linux-based, open-source operating system for mobiles. As a mobile operating system, it allows developers to create managed codes in Java using Java libraries developed by Google. Android provides a mobile operating system, including a development environment. It also offers a custom virtual machine known as the Dalvik Virtual Machine for running applications and acts as the middleware between the operating system and the code. Regarding application development, Android facilitates the usage of 2D and 3D graphic libraries, advanced network capabilities such as 3G, Edge, and WLAN, and a customized SQL engine for continual storage.
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Windows Mobile
Developed by Microsoft, Windows Mobile is an operating system for mobile devices. Based on Microsoft Windows CE 5.0, Windows Mobile operates on many smartphones, PDAs, and touchscreen devices. Windows Mobile facilitates the creation of custom-written applications in managed and native codes. The Application Programming Interface (API) in Windows Mobile is extensible and has rich features and a programmable layer. Besides that, Windows Mobile also takes advantage of the capabilities provided by the Microsoft.Net environment.
We will compare these platforms and closely examine their strengths and weaknesses. The media will be compared based on implementation, performance, and developer support. We have chosen these criteria for the comparison as they represent the most important aspects of mobile software developers.
Implementation
We will use persistent storage as the basis for comparing the implementation aspect. The technology used for persistent storage in mobile technology varies between various mobile development environments. Both Windows Mobile and Android can use an on-device database, which facilitates easier data manipulation and extraction. As far as local file storage is concerned, both environments support memory cards for additional storage space. However, the difference lies in the way the storage space is exploited. While Android cannot install applications on memory cards, Windows Mobile allows it. Both Android and Windows Mobile platforms have a relational database. Also, on both media, the libraries have several useful persistence features. Once the libraries have been initialized, access to the database is available via an object-oriented interface, easily accessed by developers.
Performance
Performance figures are important for both users as well as developers. The performance comparison of the two platforms will be carried out based on the file size. The basic purpose of measuring file size is to better understand the configuration and the runtime dependencies included in packaged applications.
Android applications come packaged in-app (Android Package) files. The. APK file generally has a group of.DEX (Android program files) files operate as a single application file for use within the Android platform. The. APK file is the compressed version of the contents in the ‘Androidmanifest.xml’ file.
Windows Mobile applications make use of cab files for application packaging and deployment. The first step while making a distributable file involves packaging the application in a CAB (Cabinet) file. This CAB file can be deployed to other devices that can be expanded and installed. A CAB file is an executable archive that contains the application, resources, dependencies like DLLs, and other resource files.
Tom Morten Gronli, Jarle Hansen, and Gheorghita Ghinea of Brunel University, London conducted a comparative study of mobile development environments. In this comparative study, a demo example application was created for both the Windows Mobile and Android development platforms to better illustrate each application’s deployment file size. The demo example application was a simple program that printed a line of text on the screen. The result from the code example was as follows:
- The deployment size of the demo application in the Windows Mobile environment was 2.8 KB.
- The deployment size of the demo application in the Android environment was 9.3 KB.
The file sizes, as denoted, were without any obfuscator or shrinker software. This type of file is that an end-user would download or get shipped and installed on their device. As seen above, the demo application in Windows Mobile had a file size of 2.8 KB, while Android was approximately three times the size at 9.3 KB. This indicates the total amount of configuration files and runtime dependencies that must be bundled along with each client’s applications. Regarding the number of code lines, Windows Mobile required only 11 lines, whereas Android needed 28.
Developer Support Comparison
Developer support is an essential aspect when it comes to gaining speed as well as quality during the development process. While both mobile development platforms have similarities, developer support has some unique differences. The differences become clearer when we consider the integrated developer environment (IDE) and the tooling.
The only choice for development in Windows Mobile is Visual Studio, which Microsoft again develops. With Visual Studio, Windows Mobile needs Microsoft backing to implement and ship new features in the IDE. The community can only make suggestions but doesn’t have any direct influence. However, there is a positive side as consistency is assured. Also, the quality approval process implemented by Microsoft while shipping new products will ensure quality.
On the other hand, there are several tooling options for Android, with quite a few IDEs. Android has open-source communities that contribute to IDE development by providing and assuring the quality of plugin functionalities for software. However, the multiple IDE environments can be quite challenging for maintaining consistency and quality assurance. Character becomes challenging as extension features may be available for only some competing IDEs. Quality assurance becomes a major challenge as development carried out by the community is not governed by a common standard for quality required before making the new integrated development environment feature available. Quality assurance of the delivered code is essential for delivering fully functional products. These two factors can potentially make code and application portability between environments impossible.
One of the differences between the Android and the Windows Mobile development platforms regarding developer support and quality assurance becomes more apparent in the testing environment. Let us look at this closer during unit testing of both development platforms.
Unit testing is a quality assurance and validation tool for testing small computer or mobile application parts. The aim is to have each section isolated and tested separately. This will help to isolate and assure the quality of the different units of the application.
Unit testing for Android is considerably straightforward as the API uses the JUnit test framework. The JUnit framework enforces the hierarchical organization of the various test units, which is a major advantage. Besides that, the JUnit pattern ensures the independence of the test units as well as minimizes interference. This is done by creating and destroying the recently completed test environment before and after each test method. Android even takes JUnit a step further by allowing on-device code testing. The test libraries are incorporated as part of Android’s standard libraries.
However, one challenge with Android’s on-device testing compared to Windows Mobile is the results’ readability. Android’s on-device tests don’t have a user interface to display the results. A handler that deals with Android’s test runner’s callbacks must be implemented to view the test results.
On the other hand, Windows Mobile exhibits high readability and visibility, while the Android platform is a bit hard to use regarding efficiency. The difficulty with Android is the lack of feedback issued automatically through visual tools in the integrated development environment in Windows Mobile.
Windows Mobile implements a version of the xUnit framework. The code for test classes is kept in a separate project, though it still stays inside one IDE solution. Like Android, Windows Mobile’s xUnit testing also allows on-device testing. The biggest difference here, as mentioned earlier, is its test feedback. Windows Mobile has a more comprehensive user interface that offers feedback based on each test run. This makes it easier for developers to understand better which test succeeded and why a particular test failed.
