[myTouch 4G Android Development] ckisgen:
i'm pretty sure you ask this every time there's a new version. :D

let me try and put questions like this to rest...

i am fairly certain that i won't ever be replacing the stock dialer. or anything else that's a core or 'base' aosp app in this ROM.

it goes completely against what i've tried to do here.

my aim is to offer to most stable 2.3.x base possible .. i know "aosp" is quite the buzzword recently around here but in my opinion, it's kind of hyped up and misunderstood. i personally don't care whether a google engineer designed this or that piece of my framework or if a networked community of hundreds (thousands?) of amateur but dedicated part time programmers did over time (CM). the point is, in both cases, __(whatever part it is)__ was designed specifically for our devices with a specific function in mind. what IS important to me? how well does it work? how fast does it do it? how well does it integrate and interface with the other umpteen-skillion moving pieces that makes up what we know of as a ROM?

RoyalGinger has always tried to provide the best balance between 'vanilla' android/gingerbread (aka - NOT Sense...i'm not even gonna use the 'a' word) and CM7's amazing work.

i've stripped out a lot of fluffy extras and though there's lots 'under the hood' that was designed by our great amateur programming community (CM) - the UI and overall feel/presentation is REAL darn close to what a base/stock/vanilla/aosp/etc. 2.3 was designed to give you.

one of the first things we ever did with this ROM was take out ADW as the bundled 'stock' launcher and gave you the stock aosp launcher. and it's continued on from there.

did i do this because i want you 'locked' into a certain app/design/way of doing things?

quite the opposite

! i personally use a 3rd party launcher at least half the time or more. i just don't want to force everyone by DEFAULT to have to use my 'pet' ______. (launcher, dialer, contacts app, gallery, sms app, etc)

customize, guys! there's 3rd party / after market alternatives to practically anything you can imagine on these phones! find the setup that works best for YOU. if you wanna make it super painless and easy - go into Titanium, backup your pet apps and create some labels for yourself (its under "filter) .. you can add all these backed up apps that you usually have to go back and reinstall/restore every time you reflash/update and automate the process.

(like i have a label called 'frozen' .. where i've defined all the apps that come preloaded on this ROM that i don't personally use often or at all and with one click titanium freezes this entire pre-defined list of apps. same thing for restoring after market apps. i have a list of things that the market doesn't auto download and i can restore all of those apps with one push of a button. how about the apps that DO auto download but you want your data restored on them? we recommend not restoring data on system apps but i have a label setup to restore data on my XDA app, my dropbox app, my user dictionary, etc)

the point being - i can't possibly anticipate what this group of people are going to want to use for a launcher or contacts management app or calendar, etc. if i catered to them, it would be to the exclusion of several others. what i CAN do is give you the most solid, stable, controlled base where typically a dozen testers all run more/less the same setup and try and ensure everything is working as it should. this way - you can be confident that you'll be able to add or take away whatever you please and if something goes wrong or funny along the way - you can always return to the stock base and ideally figure out what you've added or subtracted that is throwing your system off.

hopefully this sheds some light for any of you with questions regarding this point ..

(if you are the anal type and just GOTTA have it baked into the ROM - cook it in yourself! it's really not that hard. there are countless resources out there if you just take the initiative to look. and once again, i feel i've provided you with a real solid base for you to make yourself a tweaked ROM just for yourself if you are feeling inclined)

PS - on that note , can't remember if i mentioned this in a previous post but one of the changes in v2.0 is that i've moved almost all of the optional/non essential CM apps (and a few others) over to user storage so that they can be even more easily uninstalled now using the traditional uninstall button via the manage applications menu (under settings/applications).

these apps are:

- Terminal

- XDA

- DSP Manager

- FM

- Rom Manager

- Spare Parts

- Stk

- Swype

- Torch

- YouTube