Howto: Doing development on Windows for Maemo
 

Their are now two projects that try and make this a simpler for windows developers and take a lot of the complexity and simplify it.

Both of these use a virtual image and run in a free virtual machine emulator on your windows system, so you don't have to install Linux.

The first is MaemoVMware a VMWare or VirtualBox image http://maemovmware.garage.maemo.org/ it is geared towards GTK development on both Diablo (N800/N810) and Fremantle (N900). It uses a IDE based on Eclipse called EsBox. http://esbox.garage.maemo.org/

The second is VPC-SDK a Virtual PC image (Can also be converted to VMWare) https://garage.maemo.org/plugins/wik...id=1033&type=g that currently only has the Fremantle SDK for N900 development. It is primarily focused towards QT development on N900. It has the QTCreator IDE (QT) and Geany IDE (GTK) as optional installs. (Full disclosure, I'm the VPC-SDK developer)

The EsBox project is well integrated for making GTK projects. The QTCreator IDE allows you to make and test applications QT applications in the Linux host; but no current integration with the scratchbox has been made as of right now (it is planned).

Either image can be used to develop for either GTK or QT, it just that they have pre-installed IDE's in them that makes it simpler for a new user to use a specific development set. You can install EsBox in the VPC-SDK and you can install the QTCreator in the VMWare image.

It has been disclosed by Nokia that QT is what will be the official toolkit on Harmatten (the next OS version). GTK is the official toolkit on Fremantle (and the prior OS versions). GTK applications "should" run fine on Harmatten, so if you develop now with a GTK your app "should" run on Harmatten (unknown past that). QT apps run fine right now on Fremantle (and the prior OS versions). The difference is that GTK is the CURRENT officially support toolkit and QT will be the officially supported toolkit in the future OS versions. Your applications (QT or GTK) should run fine on all the existing OS versions (Chinook, Diablo, Fremantle, and Harmatten).

Nathan

Re: Howto: Doing development on Windows for Maemo
 

I've heard many people say that Maemo 6/Harmattan will create a "code break" with the legacy OS builds. From what you're saying, that won't be even remotely true, and probably rare. Is my assumption correct? Will past Maemo apps work on Harmattan? Qt or GTK?

Re: Howto: Doing development on Windows for Maemo
 

or is this break only applying to the UI elements drawn on the screen?

Re: Howto: Doing development on Windows for Maemo
 

Based on the information I've seen (But only a Nokian would know for sure) their will be some code breakage in GTK (Since Nokia is not developing it for Harmatten) -- but my guess is that QT (Since Nokia [b]is[b] doing the fremantle QT version also) will be probably mostly just a re-compile (unless you do some really off the wall stuff). QT is geared to be cross platform compatible and so QT Fremantle, QT Harmatten and even QT for the S60 platform will probably be close enough that moving between all three platforms will be mostly a cinch if you are using standard QT components.

Their is what I feel the small possibility that they do replace some of the underlying framework; but since they "appear" to be targetting Harmatten in around a year; I would venture that the underlying framework will probably be fairly stable and shouldn't change hugely from fremantle. They might replace the phone library code with the new open source phone library group they are part of, and upgrade the Kernel but otherwise I suspect the changes should be minimal.

I am also assume they will want to keep as much of the work on Fremantle as they can, and focus primairly on the QT interface (rather than hildon/gtk) and getting as many of the apps they have written in GTK moved to QT so that when there release "step 5" they have a solid platform. I suspect fremantle will be the QT "test" environment for Nokia's Harmatten.

These are my "thoughts", and the primary reason why I'm focusing VPC-SDK on QT because Nokia is invested (& investing) heavily in QT (they own it) and making it a platform for all their mid to high range phones. And we have no idea if the next OS after Harmatten will even support Hildon/Gtk apps.

Nathan.

Re: Howto: Doing development on Windows for Maemo
 

hi there - saying that the development is easier sounds great for me.
unfortunately i am too dumb to understand how to make them work.
i do have Aptana installed as i wanted to learn QT, but then i found
your thread and now i would like to know this:

could you provide the steps about what software i would need to
make the virtualpc sdk run ?
i just do not get it where to start.

greetings and thanks in advance,

carlos

Re: Howto: Doing development on Windows for Maemo
 

I know at least with VPC-SDK I do not have the "easy" ability to compile apps (or deploy) for the N900 yet! You can compile, run & test apps on the Linux VM in QT. And you can follow the wiki developer links and instructions and compile from a command line inside the scratchbox and run them inside the scratchbox (emulator for N800-N900). But the simple integration step has not been completed yet to allow you to use the QT designer and hit a button and have it run inside the scratchbox.

I am not sure about what EsBox (on the VMware image) supports as I haven't used it.



On the wiki that I linked to for vpc-sdk is a link to the install instructions page. It should show all the steps on how to install it. Anything missing let me know. ;-)

Nathan.

Re: Howto: Doing development on Windows for Maemo
 

So you suggest going with Qt to ensure future support in future OSes, and wouldn't suggest starting any new apps using GTK for fear of losing some compatibility in Harmattan? Am I saying this right?

Re: Howto: Doing development on Windows for Maemo
 

In a nutshell yes; I would venture a guess the GTK apps will work mostly fine in Harmattan -- but it could be delayed since GTK/Hildon will be managed by the community meaning they might be behind the getting the support out (since Nokia plays things somewhat close to their vest before release). Just like right now QT is a bit behind the curve in some areas. However, QT has Nokia totally fully behind it for both now (as owners of the QT tech) and because of the new compatibility with their Mid-High end Symbian OS. They are betting the farm on QT, and I think it will pay off for them.

Nathan.

Re: Howto: Doing development on Windows for Maemo
 

I agree. Qt is the Java of the next couple decades.

Re: Howto: Doing development on Windows for Maemo
 

Except Java's niche (well, I say "niche", but I mean multi-billion-dollar-a-year-market) is not in the desktop/GUI space, but servers.