Android Developers Blog: Things That Cannot Change

Android Developers Blog: Things That Cannot Change

[This post is by Dianne Hackborn, whose fingerprints can be found all over the Android Application Framework — Tim Bray]

Sometimes a developer will make a change to an application that has surprising results when installed as an update to a previous version — shortcuts break, widgets disappear, or it can’t even be installed at all. There are certain parts of an application that are immutable once you publish it, and you can avoid surprises by understanding them.