Question

In the Android docs, in section “Available width” it reads “Added in API level 13.” before mentioning some XML attributes that have been introduced as well.

But does that mean the “available width” qualifier (wXXXdp) is only supported in API levels 13+ or is it just those XML attributes that have become available in that SDK version?

I would like to use the “available width” in applications for API level 8+ and there is no real alternative to that qualifier, is there?

Answer 1

Qualifiers are ignored if the platform does not recongize it:

Note: Some configuration qualifiers have been added since Android 1.0, so not all versions of Android support all the qualifiers. Using a new qualifier implicitly adds the platform version qualifier so that older devices are sure to ignore it.