Re: The Android port and the Emacs web page

[Óscar Fuentes]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> The user can uninstall the application and then install whatever version
>> he wishes, right?
>> 
>> OTOH, priorizing easy downgrading over convenient installation &
>> upgrading is a tell-tale sign of an application that is still on a
>> semi-broken state, and AFAIK Emacs on Android has surpassed that level
>> long time ago.
>
> Are you saying that having versionCode with an old major version
> prevents or gets in the way of installation and upgrading?

No.

> If so, can you elaborate on the problems this could cause?

Just to clarify a bit:

A versionCode is simply an integer number that increases monotically
with releases. A versionName is a string, what the user sees (i.e.
"30.1") and is not required to change. A versionName has no effect on
the installation process, it is all about the versionCode.

Android uses the versionCode to prevent downgrades (which can be very
problematic in the general case, as you can imagine.)

Po is putting a lot of importance on easy downgrades (by not changing
versionCode, so Android allows the user to "reinstall" a package with
the same versionCode but which really is a prior version.) IMHO it is
more important to make installing and upgrading an easy thing for the
user (which means removing hurdles that difficults packaging by
F-Droid), and for that Emacs should play by the rules expected from any
Android app.