Brainstorm

An easy way for a Windows user to start developing in Qt for Maemo 5

Posted on 2009-10-23 11:36 UTC by Sascha Makela. Status: Under consideration, Categories: Programming.

Currently there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to start developing in Qt for Maemo 5. Yes, Qt Creator is available for Windows and it works well. But if you want to develop for Maemo 5, most of the solutions seem to point at Linux. While this makes sense to a certain extent – after all, Maemo is based on Linux – Qt should be cross platform, thus one should be able to use Windows in a relatively painless way.

The fact is that Windows is the most used OS in the world, no matter how bad or good it is. Therefore there are a lot of Windows developers in our planet. Some of these might find it interesting to try to develop something for Maemo. And since Qt seems to be the future for Maemo platform, at least according to Nokia, it would make sense to have something to make it possible.

While for the professional developer it might be enough to just have some documentation how to set up a VM developing environment, this could be too complicated for an occasional coder. Let us not forget how easy it is to set up Visual Studio.

Solutions for this brainstorm

Solution #1: Single install script for VM and Maemo SDK

Posted on 2009-10-23 11:47 UTC by Sascha Makela.

An install script which would install all the necessary files in a Linux Virtual Machine to start developing and testing in it.

Solution #2: Qt Creator plus VM Install script for testing

Posted on 2009-10-23 11:52 UTC by Sascha Makela.

Use Qt Creator in Windows and have install script to set up Linux Virtual Machine just for running and testing.

Solution #3: Focus on Python for the "occasional coder"

Posted on 2009-10-23 12:42 UTC by Roger Browne.

The brainstorm text refers to the "occasional coder", whose needs can almost certainly be met by PyQt. Therefore, provide a foolproof step-by-step guide to "Maemo Application Development for Windows Users", based around Python and PyQt. Can leave PySide for the future, because switching will be easy. The Windows coder won't need to "sully themselves with Linux" unless they turn out to be one of the very few who absolutely must use C++.

Solution #4: Native Windows cross-platform development

Posted on 2009-10-23 14:39 UTC by Randall Arnold.

As a long time Windows developer who thrives in Visual Studio here's my 2 cents:

I want a Maemo GUI development environment that runs natively under Windows and can fully emulate a Maemo device with no desktop Linux involvement whatsoever.

Why? Laziness for one, as was noted above-- but also to pull in potentially thousands of developers who really don't care what OS is on a mobile device as long as they can develop for it using tools and environments with which they are familiar. This way we really facilitate inclusion... and may just win over a few OSS converts along the way.

Solution #5: Linux VM w/ Native Windows Qt Creator Integration

Posted on 2009-10-23 19:43 UTC by Nathanael Anderson.

Develop onto a VM (Could be based on Vpc-sdk or maemovmware or something link Andlinux) which can be controlled external (i.e. Like EsBox for Eclipse does) but from Qt Creator so that you can develop the application natively on windows, then when you hit the "Compile" or "Run" button in Qt Creator it will transfer all code from your windows source directory into the linux scratchbox (2?) environment. Then Causes SB to compile and redirects both error messages and the "Display" back to a Qt (or possible a cygwin Xephyr) window.

Thus allowing a more native work flow for those developers who are windows developers.

Solution #6: Create an IDE plugin similar to the Aptana Adobe Air 2.0 plugin

Posted on 2009-12-08 19:15 UTC by Tim Samoff.

All we need is a plugin that can be used in a well-known IDE that can run and simulate programs in whatever OS the user is running.

Check this out:

http://vimeo.com/7674498

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