Improve and shrink resources

[TobiGr]

I took a look at the resources and I think that there is potential to minimize NewPipe's size further.

1. Remove duplicate resource strings

In main/res/values/strings.xml you will find several identical strings/values with different names:

• Play: play_btn_text, view
• Video preview thumbnail: list_thumbnail_view_description, detail_thumbnail_view_description
• Popup: controls_popup_title, settings_category_popup_title
• Error: general_error, msg_error
• Downloads: downloads, downloads_title
• Audio: play_audio, audio
• History: title_activity_history, action_history
• NewPipe: app_name, preferred_open_action_share_menu_title
• Download: download, download_dialog_title, settings_category_downloads_title
• Settings: settings, action_settings
• About: action_about, tab_about

By removing at least one duplicate occurrence, we'd not only reduce the effort it needs to translate all parts of the app but also the APK size. In some cases it makes sense to not remove the whole string and its value, but replace the value with a reference to another string:

<string name="downloads_title">Downloads</string>
=>
<string name="downloads_title" translatable="false">@string/downloads</string>

2. Remove unused strings

There are several unused strings which we should consider to remove. Unfortunately, Android Studio didn't do a good job while searching for unused resources and removed various required strings. For this reason, I wrote a small programme which is more reliable in finding unused strings. Nevertheless we should discuss what to do with strings which are likely to be used in the future. (e.g everything about TOR).

3. Optimize drawables

Our images need quite much memory. We should use vector graphics instead of PNGs (see #1199 for more info). There were some attempts to do this, but they got rejected. Until this is done, we can minimize the images manually or via ImgBot.

---

But before I dig a bit deeper in the optimization, I'd like to hear the common opinion on this. @theScrabi @wb9688 @mauriciocolli @karyogamy

[theScrabi]

Go for it. But remember that we should make our png files compatible with fdroid reproducable build.

[TobiGr]

But remember that we should make our png files compatible with fdroid reproducable build.

Did you have problems with PNG files?

F-Droid's docs say, thee shouldn't be a problem:

An awful lot of builds already verify with no extra effort since Java code is often compiled into the same bytecode by a wide range of Java versions. The Android SDK’s build-tools will create differences in the resulting XML, PNG, etc. files, but this is usually not a problem since the build.gradle includes the exact version of build-tools to use.

[theScrabi]

ok

@TobiGr I took a look at the project with Android Studio.
it provides some more possibility's to improve the code and minimize NewPipe's size further.

I opened 2 PR's (#1625, TeamNewPipe/NewPipeExtractor#100).
But there is even more to improve, according to Android Studio (see included screenshots in each PR). But some changes require a good understanding of the code and some effort.

maybe someone of you will check it out :)

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[triallax]

I'm trying to solve section 1, but I have a question regarding this statement:

In some cases it makes sense to not remove the whole string and its value, but replace the value with a reference to another string

Can anybody clarify what would those cases be?