In this world of S60 and Symbian, one thing I have always found very hard yet intriguing to follow are the tools used for developing applications. I love installing applications on my handsets, but I don’t know the first thing about the process that goes in the background: the coding, the debugging, the testing… I also don’t know a lot about developing languages and frameworks, but what I am amazed by is the amount of different ways I’ve read about and that you can use to develop for S60.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe other platforms support only one or 2 ways top, whereas for S60, there’s like what, seven, that I can name of the top of my head?
First, there’s C++ or what people like the call the “Symbian-flavor of C++”. I believe it’s the one mainly used by developers. Then there’s the all-mighty Java, since S60 devices can run J2ME applications. They might be slow, they might eat battery, they might be limited, but still, they’re the easiest to do since they don’t need any signing, and they run not only on S60 but also on thousands of other devices. The 3rd language must be Python, which seems to me like it’s not as complicated as the others, and has seen a lot of relatively new and individual developers use it for freeware applications like Scribe.
Other languages/frameworks have either been recently added, either are still receiving little support compared to the others. New ones are for example Ruby and the cross-platform Qt resuting from Nokia’s purchase of Trolltech, which were both announced at the Symbian Smartphone Show.
This leaves the ones that keep me baffled each time I think about them. The first is .Net, which you can use to program like you do for Windows Mobile and then run on S60 using Red Five Labs’ new Net60 CF2.0 and the second is the ability to run PalmOS-made applications using StyleTap’s S60 emulator.
Are you a developer, or do you know a thing or two about developing? Can you tell us more about the advantages and issues you face when you program for S60?
