what is stopping someone from making htc sense apps run on droid?

[tktouch12]

i really like the sense apps. so, i was wondering what is so difficult about taking the sense apk's and making little changes to port them over to the droid? i dont know about this stuff, but it seems like it shouldnt be too hard. if we got a majority of them ported then we could load them up into a custom rom and boom. have people tried? what is ultimately stopping this from working?
i know the devs are really smart, so i dont understand why they couldnt make the necessary changes to them to make them work on drod. (no disrespect. you guys are brillant and seeing what u've done, i think you devs could do anything)

i would pay if someone got most sense apps to work on droid.

 

[stanrc]

Well from a legal stand point you can't, because I'm pretty sure Sense UI (and its widgets) are not open source like the base android is.

 

[tktouch12]

Let me clarify, I understand how difficult it can be to port apps to other phones. So instead I think they could try rebuilding the app from copying the sense app. Use the same code and images, but rebuild it so it would work on a droid, then put all the new apk's into a system image in a rom.
I don't know about this stuff, like I said, but is there a reason what I just described wouldn't work?

 

[tktouch12]

Well from a legal stand point you can't, because I'm pretty sure Sense UI (and its widgets) are not open source like the base android is.

Yes, I think that is true, but zeusdroid tried to port the entire rom over, so what would htc do?

 

[takeshi]

i dont know about this stuff, but it seems like it shouldnt be too hard.

Gotta love statements like that. Famous last words. Everything looks easy when you're not aware of the details.

 

[Se7enLC]

what is stopping someone from making htc sense apps run on droid?

HTC

(crap, my intentionally terse response is foiled by the 10 character minimum message length...)

 

[hookbill]

Because it just doesn't make any sense.:rofl3::rofl3::rofl3:

Stop it. If i didn't say it someone else would of.

 

[tktouch12]

i dont know about this stuff, but it seems like it shouldnt be too hard.

Gotta love statements like that. Famous last words. Everything looks easy when you're not aware of the details.

Lol. No. I'm sure it would be terribly dificult, but the devs have done such amazing things I believe they could do it unless there is some strange problem.

 

[mcapozzi]

Unlike the core Android components, HTC does not release the source code of their proprietary software. So figuring out what to change would be more impossible than difficult.

This isn't in the same category as building a kernel from source or swapping out some PNGs in an APK so the app will match a theme.

It would be easier to build the app from scratch than to reverse engineer someone else's code and hack it together to work outside of Sense.

-Mike

 

[tktouch12]

Unlike the core Android components, HTC does not release the source code of their proprietary software. So figuring out what to change would be more impossible than difficult.

This isn't in the same category as building a kernel from source or swapping out some PNGs in an APK so the app will match a theme.

It would be easier to build the app from scratch than to reverse engineer someone else's code and hack it together to work outside of Sense.

-Mike

Ok. That makes sense. So the only real way anyone could do this wold be to start from stratch? But then could someone fairly easily make apps that work exactly like the sense apps by looking at the sense apk's? And couldn't they even use the sense pngs to make it look the same? Would that be more doable? Because they have the sense apps to use as a guide.

Or maybe its just not realistic.

 

[mike919]

Unlike the core Android components, HTC does not release the source code of their proprietary software. So figuring out what to change would be more impossible than difficult.

This isn't in the same category as building a kernel from source or swapping out some PNGs in an APK so the app will match a theme.

It would be easier to build the app from scratch than to reverse engineer someone else's code and hack it together to work outside of Sense.

-Mike

Well said... The source code for HTC thats tied into the system is completely different than that of the droid. to get a app/widget running on the droid from HTC takes days worth of work.

I mean just look at ZD team... they busted their @sses for months on the ROM port, and still have trouble spots with something as "simple" as weather widgets... Its just not goin to happen..

 

[mcapozzi]

People have made Sense-like widgets, one is called Beautiful Widgets, and the other is FancyWidget.

HTC has sent their legal teams after both of them.

What widget are you looking to replicate? Chances are someone has already developed a clone of what you are looking for.

-Mike

 

[Se7enLC]

Ok. That makes sense. So the only real way anyone could do this wold be to start from stratch? But then could someone fairly easily make apps that work exactly like the sense apps by looking at the sense apk's? And couldn't they even use the sense pngs to make it look the same? Would that be more doable? Because they have the sense apps to use as a guide.

Or maybe its just not realistic.

Not realistic is an understatement. HTC has intellectual property to protect, so any app that decides they want to exactly mimic HTC Sense will most likely be receiving a C&D from HTC.

There's no technical reason why somebody couldn't make an app that works like Sense, it just wouldn't be a good idea to put all that work in just to get squashed by HTC.

Didn't somebody try this with a clock widget? Beautiful Widgets, maybe? They got strongarmed into changing their appearance to keep HTC happy, IIRC.

 

[mike919]

Ok. That makes sense. So the only real way anyone could do this wold be to start from stratch? But then could someone fairly easily make apps that work exactly like the sense apps by looking at the sense apk's? And couldn't they even use the sense pngs to make it look the same? Would that be more doable? Because they have the sense apps to use as a guide.

Or maybe its just not realistic.

Not realistic is an understatement. HTC has intellectual property to protect, so any app that decides they want to exactly mimic HTC Sense will most likely be receiving a C&D from HTC.

There's no technical reason why somebody couldn't make an app that works like Sense, it just wouldn't be a good idea to put all that work in just to get squashed by HTC.

Didn't somebody try this with a clock widget? Beautiful Widgets, maybe? They got strongarmed into changing their appearance to keep HTC happy, IIRC.

Weather and Toggle i believe it was... They had the wiper blades in the rain and everything... pretty sure they got the C&D order...

 

[clucernoni]

Unlike the core Android components, HTC does not release the source code of their proprietary software. So figuring out what to change would be more impossible than difficult.

This isn't in the same category as building a kernel from source or swapping out some PNGs in an APK so the app will match a theme.

It would be easier to build the app from scratch than to reverse engineer someone else's code and hack it together to work outside of Sense.

-Mike

Ok. That makes sense. So the only real way anyone could do this wold be to start from stratch? But then could someone fairly easily make apps that work exactly like the sense apps by looking at the sense apk's? And couldn't they even use the sense pngs to make it look the same? Would that be more doable? Because they have the sense apps to use as a guide.

Or maybe its just not realistic.

Besides the fact that HTC would not allow it, and have in the past not allowed stuff like this to stay out there...there is the fact that an apk isn't a good guide like you think it is. It's not as if you can just open it up in a code editor and see how it works, these things are compiled. So you would literally have to work backwards to get the code..which would be very very time consuming. You might as well write your own app that does what the HTC one does but using your own code...it would probably take less time.