When exporting a signed Android application using Eclipse, is there a purpose to using multiple aliases? According to the official guide about signing, it's recommended that you sign all applications with the same certificate to allow your applications to share data, code and be updated in modular fashion. Assuming that "alias", "key" and "certificate" are essentially interchangeable in this context, is there a reason why someone would want to use different aliases for all their applications? The only reason I can think of is that it adds more security to your applications, in the sense that a compromised key/password doesn't compromise everything. Are there other reasons?

Also, is the generated key dependent on the name of the alias? In other words, if you change the name of the alias but not the password, would the generated certificate be different?

Thanks.