Why Don't SmartPhone Apps Provide Exit?

Why don't SmartPhone applications provide an exit function? Would I be doing something wrong if I develop an application with an exit function?

Thanks,

[155 byte] By [JosephGeretz] at [2007-12-16]

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# 1

Yes. It would be as drastic as Apple producing a 5 button mouse Tongue Tied

I' think the reason that they don't close is because people are used to them working that way. And on a phone you are more likely to minimize an application then you are to close it.
*shrug* It's a technology that is virtually all but useless to me so that is about as far as I can really analyze it.

MarcD at 2007-9-9 >

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# 2

First of all, let me say that I find my SmartPhone IMMENSELY useful. I'm a former PocketPC Phone Edition user. I liked the added Pocket PC features, but the reduced size and weight of the SmartPhone more than makes up the difference.

As a PocketPC user, one of the first add-ons I purchased was Spb Pocket Plus.

http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/?en

One of the major features of Spb Pocket Plus is the ability to reconfigure the [x] button as a true application Exit button, rather than as application Hide. On both Pocket PC and SmartPhone I do find that the greater number of concurrently running programs do seem to cause OS slowdown. I don't find your assertion to be true at all. If I'm done with an application, why wouldn't I want to Exit it in order to free up resources?

I'm asking this question as a developer. I'm working on a SmartPhone app and I'm wondering why shouldn't I provide an Exit function? On the other hand, I'm noticing that no other applications do provide this and I wouldn't want to go out on a limb with this if there's a particular reason NOT to provide application Exit.

JosephGeretz at 2007-9-9 >

# 3

B"H
As far as I understand, the traditionally the reason this was done, was to:
1. Not cause a large lag in the startup time of the application each time the user goes in/out of the app.
2. So that when the users "comes back", he comes back to where he left off.
However, as both a developer and user of these devices, I actually use the "X" button as an Exit button, as
1. Today's Pocket PC ought to be fast enough to handle the "startup code" of the application (and if not the question becomes: why not? :-)
2. I use the registry to save/restore the user to where he/she left off
I have yet to hear a complaint about this!
on the other hand, as you write the advantage of not having every application that I launched, still in memory /using resources is very noticable (that i often find myself stopping all applications from the "settings" menu)

JewishContent.org at 2007-9-9 >

# 4

BS"D

Thank you very much for your reply.

As far as startup lag, I find that my Audiovox SMT5600 starts applications up very quickly. In fact, starting an application with a minimum of applications running, executes more quickly than a resume of an application at a time when many applications are running concurrently. Therefore, I think that I will provide an Exit function on my application menu.

In fact, I think that I will provide two options: Suspend - which will preserve application state to be restored on the next startup, and Exit - which will dump the application state and start up cleanly on the next startup.

Thanks for your advice!

JosephGeretz at 2007-9-9 >

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