In my opinion,
C++ still the best .
For devices that using Symbian are limited power,so sometime I need to drop OO Design on certain modules which required faster processing time, so I will break the part of OO design & combined the codes with structural C or even ASM.
Using Visual Basic/Java are just for the reasons of portable & cross platform.
As I mention before,
the main problem for Symbian C++ developer is not because
the framework is tend to be closed by those licencee.
Another problems I faced is mentioned above by yours.
That is the data format is different with those widely used data format like EPOC word vs MS Word,EPOC sheet vs Excel, EPOC DBMS vs others... & thier(EPOC) format & structure are not opened for us to provide solution for our application.
Comment: I scream, you scream, we all scream for software!
Switchblade, I agree with your statement about the expensive dev envs for C++ development. Its terrible and I wish there would be a simple dev env for c++ (symbian apps) which would be smaller then 500 megs. 😊
But you are a little hard on java. You say its difficult to learn but you have been programming since you were 9. You should be able to learn java within a couple of days. Its a very easy language.
Also Java is not slow!!!!!! the platform these days is very fast, even on phones like the 7650 or 3650 and the communicator.
It has all to do how you write your code. This is the only thing. If you dont take care how you write your lines of code, your program is doomed to fail. And you will blame it on the language.
😉
Basically this is to blame to marketing people mostly. Alot of them has been saying that Java is sooo simple that everybody could code in it. Therefor not good qualified people started coding in Java. Which caused many programs to fail and be very slow. So everybody blamed it on the
language.
Building mobile apps, games etc. is very hard since you have to take care
of every line of code you are writing.
It is not easy, but it is very well possible to build great apps and fast ones in Java.
siebe
Essentially Java is easy, if you only want to code simple apps. When things get a little bit bigger OO gets annoying and all the graphical end of the language struck me as limiting. I think you hit the nail on the head with Java though unless you know how to code your apps to get it "right", your mess of code is going to be unstable and slow.
Remember although my personal experience is 12 years of programming mostly in Pascal, C, and Assembler, my aim with the article was so show things for the standard hobby dev. The guy who thinks "I could do with a handy app on my PDA to record when I fill my car and the miles I do so I can put them down as business." And can then sit and code such an app. People whos experience will consist of a few years of Basic and maybe some C/Pascal looking to code some more. At the moment there is nothing on this platform suited to those people with the exception of a mildy scrappy OPL implementation (which really shoulda been finished when they released Crystal and Series60 and released with both).
I've not done any fun coding for myself in 3 years while at uni, the only coding I did was for the course. Before that myself and my contempories spent a lot of time in C and Assembler which to us, and definately me, seemed the best mixture of languages I'd ever used for programming both for ease of use and understanding and for power and control. I agree this isn't to everyones's tastes, but illustrates the point that other people are thinking "I'm comfy with structured C/C++ or Basic or whichever" and the need to learn a different language is very off-putting.
Great article Switchblade! It's a pity Symbian did not see the importance of OPL and completely rewrite OPL for ER6.
To the hobby developer you have those choices now: learn Java..., learn C++..., or learn OPL... Many hobby developers are taking option 4 which is to not bother.
There is a fifth option, switch platforms. I wanted to program for ER6 but found OPL�s future undecided, well actually we all know where OPL is heading if Symbian�s manpower for porting OPL from ER5 to ER6 was one employee. I guess Java is supposed to replace OPL. Anyway, I had to choose to learn either Java or C++. Another problem was I wanted a PDA not a mobile phone and with Psion pulling out of the PDA market I did not buy an ER6 device, brought a Pocket PC instead. OPL�s main strength was the ability to program on the actual device itself. I could program while on the road. So without a 9210 the only option for me is to use my PC to code.
With these changes I decided to switch platforms. I have to learn a new language anyway, I have to use a PC to code, I�ve got a Pocket PC now, why stick with Symbian anymore? I decide the learn .NET and develop for Pocket PC instead. Not only are Symbian losing developers, their competition are gaining developers!
FatCatz
I think that is the smartest thing to do. Symbian doesn't want to support the hobby developers then why support Symbian?
I cream for software 2!
as a newbie, I am interested in a list of software for symbyan 9210 phones.
I post it also this ideea somewhere else, but the begoning ideeas was to compare software for Palm, psion, etc.
Why not to have a list of them? Like "Oldies but Goldies"
Anyhow, I thing the true stunting appz for nokia 9210 are about to begin during December....
See Ya!