For anyone interested in how Android deals with this, here's what I've gotten from a developer I've been communicating with:
that close part is another story. According to the documentation and *lots* of discussions in the forums, developers are not supposed to ever consider closing their app themselves. We are supposed to let android swap it out when resources are needed for more recently used apps.
...
What we are really supposed to do is to split the application (at least apps of doggcatcher's breed) into two parts, the UI and a service. The service is where all the business logic resides, and the UI talks to the service to get data and cause things to happen....like downloads. Android will prioritize a service higher than the UI when it comes time to swap things out, so the service should always stay running and the UI can be swapped in and out.
I don't totally disagree with this method of application management. It would be nice to have things running at all times in the background, but this isn't a desktop computer, so I don't expect the same type of multi-tasking experience.
Anyway, I've given up arguing in this thread. I'll admit a bias and rooting interest in the Android platform, and while I have a hard time seeing how it will get there, I think it's going to be pretty big. I certainly hope so, at least.
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