This week Nokia announced the launch and beta availability of the Nokia Qt SDK, a single 'easy-to-use' software development kit (SDK) for Symbian and MeeGo application development. The SDK is, effectively, an evolution of the Qt SDK, with specific focus on, and support for, Nokia's mobile devices. It provides a complete tool chain for creating, developing, testing, packaging and deploying Qt applications. The SDK is available for both Windows and Linux (Mac support is being investigated) and can be downloaded from the Forum Nokia website. Read on for more details.
Read on in the full article.
"The SDK is based on Qt 6.2.4"
Isn't it Qt 4.6.2 ?
Can't remember any case where non native applications were any good. Reminds me of Adobe Air apps - sticking out ugly interfaces not matching anything else in the OS. This leads to inconsistencies, sub-par performance and programming for the lowest common denominator without using hardware possibilities. I think this is not good for the platform and will ultimately lead to S60 demise.
This is just one awsome tool for devlopers ! With the QT SDK toolkit it will help Symbian and MeeGoo be on the top.
@unregistered, Qt is 100% native. What will demise eventually is the current toolsets apart from Qt.
And Allaboutsymbian.com, you should be ashamed of making such an important typo and announcing such a crucial development kit even later than your rivals did. carelessness...
It is indeed 4.6.2 - small typo by Rafe there I think!
You can't really compare Qt to AIR. For one thing Qt is not a runtime, it's a development framework. It's all written in C++ and this provides the benefit that you can mix native code in, meaning that you in no way need to stoop to the lowest common denominator. If an API isn't available in Qt then find the right one in the platform's APIs.
I assume that the SDK is available on Linux also ? No ? It should be, if it isn't !
It's apparently too late for me to RTFA
Read before u ask, linux is said to be supported
Just installed it on Ubuntu Lucid. I havent had time to actually code anything yet, but the install went without problems.
Brendan Donegan wrote:You can't really compare Qt to AIR. For one thing Qt is not a runtime, it's a development framework. It's all written in C++ and this provides the benefit that you can mix native code in, meaning that you in no way need to stoop to the lowest common denominator. If an API isn't available in Qt then find the right one in the platform's APIs.
Maybe it's just me, but so far all those qt demos look very different than native apps - different non-system menus etc.
It looks like Nokia is acknowledging that Symbian is not good enough platform to program for it directly, so they need to broaden the scope for developers. And maybe it is the case - for example Nokia abandoned Nokia Internet Radio and not a single developer developed internet radio app - and it seems such an obvious thing to do. I would gladly buy such app, but can't. Why there are so many internet radio apps for iPhone and non for Symbian?
If Nokia wants to attract more developers they should also release a Mac version ASAP.
First, because it will make poaching iPhone developers easier (you can only do iPhone development on a Mac), and secondly, because lots of developers do have Macs even if they do not do iPhone development.
svdwal wrote:If Nokia wants to attract more developers they should also release a Mac version ASAP. First, because it will make poaching iPhone developers easier (you can only do iPhone development on a Mac), and secondly, because lots of developers do have Macs even if they do not do iPhone development.
So developers that have macs but don't use them for development, must also have another platform - either linux or windows that they develop on. Why would they need a mac version?
Personally, I use 2 PCs, both laptops which run Windows and Linux, and two Mac Minis for the iPhone stuff.
Sorry so excuse for getting the Qt numbering wrong. Sometimes you can't see your own mistakes however hard you look.
If Nokia wants to attract more developers they should also release a Mac version ASAP.
I think it would be helpful to support the Mac because I'm sure there a constituency of iPhone developers who might want to try it, but aren't interested enough to have a Windows PC or something like Parallels. I don't see it as critical during the beta phase, but Nokia needs every advantage they can get so it would make sense to do this by the final release.
Can't remember any case where non native applications were any good. Reminds me of Adobe Air apps - sticking out ugly interfaces not matching anything else in the OS. This leads to inconsistencies, sub-par performance and programming for the lowest common denominator without using hardware possibilities. I think this is not good for the platform and will ultimately lead to S60 demise.
I guess a lot of this is down to the fact Qt 4.6.2 is an add-on (in effect). This will change in Symbian^4 when it becomes the platform framework (replacing AVKON). That said you can make it look like a native app (though currently this means it not cross platform - depending on how how write it). For example see the Skype application which is written in Qt.
Performance wise - well Rovio commented in their section of the video there was no difference for Bounce. And I think you probably need to try it out before you make a sweeping statement. Qt is not so much like other runtimes on mobile (to the extent tha referring to it as a runtime is a bit of misnomer).
@unregistered, Qt is 100% native. What will demise eventually is the current toolsets apart from Qt. And Allaboutsymbian.com, you should be ashamed of making such an important typo and announcing such a crucial development kit even later than your rivals did. carelessness...
Yes getting the number wrong is embarrassing given I've seen it so many times. Should do less late night writing. I did intend to write about this much earlier, but I also wanted to give it the intention it deserved, rather than just doing a paragraph or two saying it had been released. Ultimately developer announcements tend to be less time sensitive too. Please do email me if you have any other concerns you would like to share - any feedback is welcome.
svdwal wrote:If Nokia wants to attract more developers they should also release a Mac version ASAP.
Interestingly, in the developer video were some Mac keyboards shown ... hopefully not just because they look cooler.
This is a large step towards the right direction from Nokia. This SDK is so much easier to use than everything they had before.
Without looking into the documentation, I had my first 'Hello World' within 5 minutes.
Unregistered wrote:So developers that have macs but don't use them for development, must also have another platform - either linux or windows that they develop on. Why would they need a mac version?
Because running a program natively is faster than running it on a different OS in a virtual machine. It also integrates better.
And not all iPhone developers will have other OS'es running.
svdwal wrote:Because running a program natively is faster than running it on a different OS in a virtual machine. It also integrates better. And not all iPhone developers will have other OS'es running.
You have gone from people who have macs but don't do iPhone development to iPhone developers. No sense is being made in what you write.
So, you can write native applications with the QT?
Thanks.
Unregistered wrote:You have gone from people who have macs but don't do iPhone development to iPhone developers. No sense is being made in what you write.
Try reading my first post again. Does it say iPhone developer? Yes, it does.
svdwal wrote:Try reading my first post again. Does it say iPhone developer? Yes, it does.
svdwal wrote:
because lots of developers do have Macs even if they do not do iPhone development.
Why would they need a mac version if they "do not do iphone development" they don't develop on their mac.....what phone development platforms run on mac?
svdwal wrote:
And not all iPhone developers will have other OS'es running.
They "do not do iphone development" so they are not iphone developers