Originally Posted by
Dale_M Have had tablet for over a month now, and one of the things I find a bit disconcerting that there is no "end" or "quit" or "exit" to end many apps and continue on to do other things... Most seem to rely on "back button" (multiple or repeat pushes) to end app and get back to main menu... Some apps actually do have "exit" button, most not... Seems like really sloppy programing when you consider almost all PC programs actually have way to exit gracefully..... Some times I wonder if something is really "turned off"....
Can somebody please explain....
Dale
The individual application lifecycle and system resource management are both significantly different on mobile devices than traditional desktop environments. Application state is not unregulated while using your device; apps are paused, stopped, and resumed in multiple ways, in multiple situations, and typically without visual indication to the user. If you leave an app in the multitasking/recent apps view, and return to it later to find it looks
exactly how it did before, it is entirely possible the app was fully stopped while not in use and its Activities (think 'windows' or 'screens') fully 'destroyed' by the system. That's rather unlikely unless you're running low on memory, though. I highly recommend reading through this article by Jerry:
RAM: What it is, how it's used, and why you shouldn't care | Android Central
The bottom line is that you shouldn't be overly concerned about managing running applications. Background and foreground components of apps are managed separately, but are both influenced by what else you have running, how you're using your device, currently available resources, and your actions in the multitasking/recent apps view. I highly encourage those interested to read up on these topics, as well as to become familiar with what's running on your device and how system and third-party apps behave. Combining such knowledge with task manager applications and battery analysis tools will offer a lot of insight into your device's software routine.
Have to agree with you there... it should be ridiculously easy to exit out of each app once you're done... but like you said, Exit buttons are usually buried in a menu somewhere... or it's multiple back presses until you can finally exit and even then, you often get that aggravating Are you sure you want to exit ? toast. If you had hit back just once, okay it's fine to make sure you were not exiting in error... but after 4 subsequent back presses, yes I'm sure
