RIght then, with certain people working away on the OPL Runtime on Series 60, another few threads have started to discuss some PC based tools.
At the moment you choices are use the 9210 emulator, or a rather difficult to configure Command Line Tool.
Let's get together the things we'd like to see in a simple Dev Enviroment on the PC (nothign to complicated, so it's easy to get started for new users) so that when people are free to start looking at coding one, they have aready reference.
I'll join in a bit later - interested to see what everyone else thinks first.
I'll start by reposting some text from the S60 dialogue thread
I personally don't see much value in having a developer environment on a series 60 device. Even with a normal keypad, I wouldn't want to be writing code on the device! With the communicator phones that have a full querty keyboard, it makes sense. But a series 60 phone?--Jason
Kind of agree. What you really need is a simple switching mechanism in the emulator; a coding mode using the 9210 skin or our hybrid 9210/netBook skin (see dpNote0010 at www.dp.com.my); and a testing mode using an S60 skin.
But we are heavily engaged in a project at the moment so it will take a few months for us to start developing for Series 60 seriously.
cheers
Martin
Perhaps it would help the discussion going forward if we first made a comprehensive list of the differences and similarities between OPL for Series 60 and OPL for Series 80.
Some starting points
Device differences
- Screen size and aspect 176x208 vs 640x200
- Phone keypad vs QWERTY keyboard
- Two Command Buttons vs Four Command Buttons
- S60 support a few special buttons which are not supported in S80. These are at least the following Application, Send, EndSend, Edit
Style/UI differences
- S60 does not have menu system a la S80 and Eikon. Instead it relies on a list selector
- CBA3 not defined in S60
- Application Picker vs Extras
- Avkon vs Ckon - somewhat different set of UI classes.
Device similarities
- Both have arrow keypad
- Both use 12-bit colour (some S60 phones will have 18-bit colour)
- Both use Unicode
- None have touch screen
- Both have access to MMC (except for 7650)
- Both use Z disc for ROM, C for internal storage and D for external storage
Style/UI similarities
- CBA4 in both S60 and S80 is used for the 'Select'/'Close' function.
- CBA1 (Left) and CBA2 (Right) in S60 correspond directly with CBA1 and CBA2 in S80
- The numeric keypad of S60 corresponds directly with numeric keys of S80. This includes the Hash and Star keys.
- The C-key in S60 corresponds directly to the Backspace key of S80
Questionmarks
- CPU, are S80 OPXs bit compatible with S60? (Compare for instance Psion 5 and Psion netBook where the OPXs are bit compatible despite different CPUs (ARM7 & StrongARM). This would of course only be relevant for OPXs that do not use UI features, e.g. Buffer.opx.
- Will the emulator need a separate set of OPXs for S60 compared to S80, e.g. AppFrame, MediaServer, Locale, System?
cheers
Martin
Hi all!
Actually I'm using this configuration: The 9210 and the Series 60 Emulator are installed on the same PC drive. I write OPL Code for both platforms in the Program Application of the 9210 Emulator. That the OPX calls and constants don't get mixed I renamed the *.oxh and *.oph files to specify if they belong to the 9210 or Series 60 platform (e.g. appframe_series80.oxh and appframe_series60.oxh). The translated OPL files (*.opo) are then copied from the 9210 Emulator folder-tree to the Series 60 folder-tree. Dominque Hugo sent me a WINS Version of his FExplorer so the *.opo files could be seen and executed in the Series 60 Emulator. For copying the files from one Emulator to the other I use a Folder Synchronisation program. So OPL developing on my PC actually needs 3 windows, hitting the right buttons in the right window in the right order and about 600MB drive space :-?
Some notes to this 'solution': I'm using Version 1.0 of the Series 60 Emulator. Colour doesn't work with OPL. FExplorer crashes the Emulator when exiting. The Series 60 Emulator Version 1.2 didn't start on my PC. I still have to figure out the correct keys resp. keymapping for the PC keyboard and the Series 60 Emulator.
While no OPL runtime for the Emulator was available, I used Remote S60 from www.mobileways.de to 'emulate' my real 3650 connected with bluetooth to the PC and the Nokia PC Suite for copying the *.opo files to the phone.
If asked for my actual dream OPL developing enviroment the answer would be: A full functioning Series 60 PC Emulator with a file manager application. Combined with an 'full-screen' PC text editor that does basic code checking (IF-ENDIF nesting, OPX calls, constants) then call's opltran and copy's the *.opo files to the Series 60 Emulator. Syntax highlighting and an integrated OPL Reference woul be nice, too 😃 For the moment I don't see the need for an Series 60 based development enviroment, even if at least 80% of my OPL for EPOC Release 3-5 were coded on a Series 5(mxPRO). Menu's and Dialogs would be cooler 😊
Some more thoughts from Martin