android ndk practices

Now with the release of new android NDK, given the fragmentation of android devices, what testing measures one should employ to test ov开发者_StackOverflow社区er different phones, tablets and/or google tv based devices?

Depending on how you use the NDK, you will only be able to target certain versions of Android. Basic rule is, the simpler the code, the later the version of Android will run it. See the documentation in the NDK and the Android source code for specifics on this. Don't always trust the (scarce) documentation though - read the source code when in doubt. It helps a lot.

That said, a testing policy must include what will be tested, so:

• Step 1: Based on your code, decide on which version of Android you can support.
• Step 2: Find out which devices you must target, and which devices you want to target.
• Step 3: Make the matrix of device/Android version available and what you can support, for the must category.
• Step 4: Based on your investment policy, repeat step #3 for the want category.
• Step 5: Get the devices and setup a testing structure.

And, finally, to answer your question: The problem isn't the testing, the problem is deciding what to support. Good testing measures include testing all the devices you target and provide support for. Excellent testing measures adds the devices you run on, but don't support.