Help Please, an informed answer on saving Apps

[Nadrazi]

Alright, I'm new to all this so forgive me for the redundancy, but I would LOVE a well informed answer on this issue.

Every review/forum/newspaper I've found continues to bash the N1 and Android for only allowing 190mb of internal memory to save applications. However, every once and a while somebody mentions something about only a small amount of code is saved to the actual physical memory, and everything else can be saved to the SD card. Here's an example from a different thread by Astronomer:

"Android app space is divided up into executable binaries and data, and only the executable binaries -- which tend to be quite small -- can't be stored in the SD card."

So, can someone please provide an easily understood answer to all of this? IS there an issue with saving decent apps to the N1? Are developers hamstrung because of this, or can most data be saved to the SD card? If its not a problem, why is such a big deal being made about this?

Thank you to anyone who can help clear this up.

 

[oniongirl]

This is a good question. As far as I understand it, the executable itself is stored on the phone. Images and audio for the game can, I believe (but anyone feel free to correct me!) be stored on the SD card. In fact, I think I saw a note saying as much within an apps description, but as is always the way, I can't remember which one!

Oh, and I think the reasoning behind this is copyright... if the main app code can be stored on the SD card, people might buy apps and then copy them to/from other cards and hand around to other people for free. Maybe.

How'd you like that for a completely non-definitive answer?

 

[Nadrazi]

Ok, so how much of the app contains the actual "executable" that must be saved to the internal memory? Meaning, if an application is 5mb, would 4mb on average go to the SD card? Also, is this the standard process, or does the developer need to force this?

So can the N1 handle a game or other app that's as large as 1gb? Assuming most of that size is composed of graphics and other data stored to the SD card? IF so, then what is the need for partitioning the SD card and Apps2SD?

I feel I am missing something here.