Activity name in AndroidManifest.xml

Question

Is it required to start activity name with dot ('.') in manifest file.? for example activity ContactManager starts with '.'

<activity android:name=".ContactManager" android:label="@string/app_name">

where as the activity ContactAdder is without dot

<activity android:name="ContactAdder" android:label="@string/addContactTitle">

in the manifest file of ContactManager sample http://developer.android.com/resources/samples/ContactManager/AndroidManifest.html

UPDATE: If activity name starts with . it is appended to package name to become fully qualified name, but what happens if it doesn't start with '.'

Answer 1

From the Android Dev Guide < activity > reference:

The name of the class that implements the activity, a subclass of Activity. The attribute value should be a fully qualified class name (such as, "com.example.project.ExtracurricularActivity"). However, as a shorthand, if the first character of the name is a period (for example, ".ExtracurricularActivity"), it is appended to the package name specified in the element. There is no default. The name must be specified.