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View Full Version : Visual Studio Heresy

Texrat
02-02-2007, 02:55 PM
I realize this will be a travesty to post in this crowd, but what would truly help me develop for the tablets is a means of leveraging my current Visual Basic skills. Currently there are tools to develop for S60 within Visual Studio... so what would prevent the same sort of capability for Linux handhelds? Besides hardcore fanboy inertia that is. :D

Any thoughts? Pro or con.
michaelalanjones
02-02-2007, 03:00 PM
Well, I thought the same thing, but I have been looking at Python. Python is practically VB anyway. Try that. It's not that hard.

I never even saw Python before this week, and now, I am working on this doofy PDA problem (as in the lack of one). I intend to build an Outlook clone that resides on the 770.

If anybody else is doing the same, then tell me now, so I don't waste all weekend on it!
gisborne
02-02-2007, 04:28 PM
I realize it's heresy to VB6 fanbois, but Mono (which is .Net for Linux) is being ported to N800, and looks like it isn't far off. With that, you should be able to use VB.Net, at least.
fpp
02-02-2007, 04:33 PM
Hehe. If you can "waste' only one weekend writing an Outlook clone on Linux in a language you've never seen, there's a high-paying job waiting for you in Redmond, WA :-)
iFrank
02-02-2007, 05:09 PM
fpp, that's exactly what I was thinking; it's supremely impressive to clone (or write) an email client for Maemo platform in a weekend; our email issues will be a thing of past by mid next week :D :D
michaelalanjones
02-02-2007, 05:10 PM
I realize it's heresy to VB6 fanbois, but Mono (which is .Net for Linux) is being ported to N800, and looks like it isn't far off. With that, you should be able to use VB.Net, at least.
I looked into Mono on the 770 (which already works on the 770), and it
was not very friendly for me, and I have 14 years of experience with VB and a few of .NET.

I don't want you to think Mono on the 770 is easy, like VB on the PC, because it is not.
michaelalanjones
02-02-2007, 05:31 PM
Hehe. If you can "waste' only one weekend writing an Outlook clone on Linux in a language you've never seen, there's a high-paying job waiting for you in Redmond, WA :-)
I would rather work for Nokia.

I was thinking about a single application for Tasks, Calendar items, Journal, Notes and Inbox, and a freeform data section.

This latter section could hold things like passwords and little databases, all stored on the SD card, not the internal storage. And the Inbox I was thinking about would be a mirror of the Inbox on my PC. Similar to what you get with PocketMirror on the Palm.

I don't know if I want to replicate the email functionality that is already in there, you know? It seems like a waste, and the built-in email is heavily integrated into the unit. Although the current email client is weak.
fpp
02-02-2007, 05:39 PM
You know, except for the inbox, you've just described Winzig ? :-)
Texrat
02-02-2007, 07:54 PM
I realize it's heresy to VB6 fanbois, but Mono (which is .Net for Linux) is being ported to N800, and looks like it isn't far off. With that, you should be able to use VB.Net, at least.

If it works well enough, I'd love to try it!
gisborne
02-03-2007, 01:13 AM
I looked into Mono on the 770 (which already works on the 770), and it
was not very friendly for me, and I have 14 years of experience with VB and a few of .NET.

I don't want you to think Mono on the 770 is easy, like VB on the PC, because it is not.

As I understand things, you ought to be able to write your application in VB.NET, compile it, drop the compiled program on your 770, and run it under Mono.

The only wrinkles on that, once Mono is set up correctly and assuming it's fairly feature-complete on the 770, is if you're using a .Net feature not yet implemented in mono, or if you need a tablet-specific feature. That would depend on either which of those had been implemented on Mono on the 770, or if you care to dive into foreign function calls.

But I'd love to become wiser on this. I would be a dead-keen mono developer if only it worked on the Mac (well). Now that it works on the web tablet, I have a newer reason to start using it.
michaelalanjones
02-03-2007, 02:37 AM
You know, except for the inbox, you've just described Winzig ? :-)
Huh. Well, I just now tried installing WinZig on my 770 (w/OS2006), and it would not work. It said I needed Python 2.4, and I already have Python 2.5 installed on there. I tried uninstalling 2.5 (to install 2.4); the 770 wouldn't let me.

Then I copied the Winzig source code (*.py) files over to my 770. Yes, they will run from Python 2.5, okay, but they are not Hildonized (they use gtk, hot hildon, and so they run a little over the edge of the screen). Plus, they use a custom database, and I wanted a plain, simple textfile-based interface.

I tried building an interface for Gazpacho, but then it wouldn't let me run the Glade file. I wonder if Gazpacho only works on the N800? I don't know; I thought it might make it easier, if I could use Glade to draw the screen and design the events and signals.
fpp
02-03-2007, 03:45 PM
The Winzig source in the package that you couldn't install was partially hildonized and adapted to the screen size, so it runs OK on the tablet. The "custom database" is actually textfile-based. If you haven't tried the excellent "Buzhug" I recommend you look it up instead of rolling your own...
Also, for simple Hildonized interfaces in Python, Gustavo Barbieri's Eagle is more adapted, I think, than Gazpacho/Glade :
http://blog.gustavobarbieri.com.br/category/python/