maemo.org - Talk - [Council] Open letter of support for Python on the Maemo/MeeGo platform

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Re: [Council] Open letter of support for Python on the Maemo/MeeGo platform

Thanks, guys. I really believe that this is what the Council is for.

Re: [Council] Open letter of support for Python on the Maemo/MeeGo platform

Quote:

Originally Posted by CommunityCouncil (Post 775582)

...
It will come as a surprise for many community members and users that
Python is still not an officially supported language/runtime on the Maemo nor
MeeGo platforms, despite the huge number of* Python applications currently
in Extras, and even though they base on the work of Nokia's own PyMaemo
team, plus two Qt bindings and a GTK+/Hildon one. To put things in
perspective, about a third of ALL stable Maemo applications are written in
Python, both overall and those using Qt.

...Python software is not admissible to
Ovi (regardless of being free or not)....

Link: Original article.

I'm flabbergasted at this!

This should really be a matter of the utmost urgency.

The last thing Nokia need it to discourage developers contributing software to the platform as well as the OVI store.

Quote:

about a third of ALL stable Maemo applications are written in
Python, both overall and those using Qt.

This is reason enough to make Python an officially supported language and Nokia need this.

I can't wait for Nokia's response to this.

Re: [Council] Open letter of support for Python on the Maemo/MeeGo platform

Quote:

Originally Posted by vivainio (Post 776254)

There is no fight, just something that hasn't been done yet due to technical reasons (ovi store deployment for N900 is not an entirely finalized process).

EDIT: I mean there is no fight *yet* ;-). Of course Ovi store or fremantle platfom guys can still object. But I haven't heard anything that suggests there would be a "strategic" decision not to do this.

It would be nice and re-assuring to get a formal response from Nokia on this.
.
.
(stop laughing!)

Re: [Council] Open letter of support for Python on the Maemo/MeeGo platform

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnel (Post 776292)

It would be nice and re-assuring to get a formal response from Nokia on this.
.
.
(stop laughing!)

From http://maemo.org/community/council/o...eego_platform/

Quote:

Quim Gil
Quim Gil
Karma: 2423

My colleague Ronan and myself are taking this open letter and bringing it to the Ovi team to see what is the official standpoint now and in the future.

Where do you want to continue this discussion?
2010-08-05 15:49 UTC

Re: [Council] Open letter of support for Python on the Maemo/MeeGo platform

This is exactly kind of stuff what I expect council to do here. Great job! Let´s hope that we got some sort of solution or at least clear answer.

Re: [Council] Open letter of support for Python on the Maemo/MeeGo platform

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnel (Post 776292)

It would be nice and re-assuring to get a formal response from Nokia on this.

Still working on it.

The current and default position is clear: Ovi supports the toolkits supported officially by Nokia and these are Qt, Web Runtime, Hildon (Maemo 5) and Java (Series 40).

The discussion is whether Ovi could host toolkits not officially supported (meaning supported by someone else) and not pre-installed in the device, so they could be used as dependencies by apps in the Ovi store depending on them.

More details in this discussion:

- Is Python support the solution or is it a process in place to accept new toolkits?

- What Python support are we talking about? PyMaemo, PySide and/or PyQt?

Re: [Council] Open letter of support for Python on the Maemo/MeeGo platform

Quote:

Originally Posted by qgil (Post 780767)

The current and default position is clear: Ovi supports the toolkits supported officially by Nokia and these are Qt, Web Runtime, Hildon (Maemo 5) and Java (Series 40).

Eevn that contains a surprising snippet - Ovi supports Hildon applications ? How do you submit them ? All the non-Qt applications were inserted on a case-by-case basis either before Ovi for the N900 launched or AFAIK in direct cooperation with Nokia. So while we are at it, more info about this welcome.

Quote:

The discussion is whether Ovi could host toolkits not officially supported (meaning supported by someone else) and not pre-installed in the device, so they could be used as dependencies by apps in the Ovi store depending on them.

In many cases it's not supported by someone else, but Nokia itself, but the projects have not yet attained 'official status'. Even there, signals are mixed, for example Qt Mobility is 'official' and is in Nokia repositories, but isn't supported by Ovi. From the outside, it simply looks random what the supported library selection is.

Quote:

- Is Python support the solution or is it a process in place to accept new toolkits?

The former is a subset of the latter. There are other toolkits that might be very enticing, but without official status (Python, the Web Runtime, Java ME, etc), and also other fairly generic linux libraries that are for some (space, support ?) reason put into Extras.

Quote:

- What Python support are we talking about? PyMaemo, PySide and/or PyQt?

Obviously, the first step is base Python itself (which might be interesting for plans regarding Symbian, too), closely followed by PyMaemo in the case of the N900. Now, given that console applications are not all the rage these days, PySide and/or PyQt would be more than interesting, but that's more down the line and a bit more sensitive considering the status of those projects. If we have a process how things migrate between Ovi, Nokia and Extras repositories, we can figure out how to do it with exact package X or Y.

Re: [Council] Open letter of support for Python on the Maemo/MeeGo platform

Quote:

Originally Posted by attila77 (Post 780790)

Even there, signals are mixed, for example Qt Mobility is 'official' and is in Nokia repositories, but isn't supported by Ovi. From the outside, it simply looks random what the supported library selection is.

It's not a signal, it's a screwup that has already been escalated.

Re: [Council] Open letter of support for Python on the Maemo/MeeGo platform

Quick report before welcoming the weekend...

Some progress was done this week. vivainio has done a great job defining a polishing a technical proposal to offer PyMaemo 'silent support' for Maemo 5 apps. And we have learned that there is a plan to offer PySide also silently for MeeGo-Harmattan apps.

Trying to get a decision about PyMaemo for Maemo 5 apps, then.

Note that the rationale behind this goes around the fact that Python and PySide are already being maintained for testing/infra related purposes. The fact that they are also useful from a 3rd party developer point of view is like a bonus and we don't have any interest distracting developers from the main focus: Web Runtime & Qt.

Looking forward to decisions, hopefully next week. We hope this becomes a good compromise between the community developers interested in Ovi but not the official toolkits and the Nokia/Ovi strategy of clearly focusing in one native environment and one runtime.

Re: [Council] Open letter of support for Python on the Maemo/MeeGo platform

That might contribute why Ovi has so few apps... What the purpose to buy N900 without apps?

Go for it guys