Start developing widgets: The Maemo 5 Beta SDK is out

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2009-04-28 12:15 UTC by Quim Gil

 

Nokia has released the Maemo 5 Beta SDK today enabling now also the development of widgets for the Maemo 5 Desktop. The Maemo 5 Beta SDK includes now also a first draft of the Development Manual. A new version of the Modest email client has been released both as open source project and as example of an application optimized for the Maemo 5 UI. The Beta SDK offers a frozen API and contains the basic information and tools developers need to get their applications ready.

 

modest-beta.png

 

Maemo 5 is the next major release of the Linux platform developed by Nokia in collaboration with some of the best open source community projects. The key new features are:

  • OMAP3 support.

  • HSPA data connectivity.

  • High definition camera support.

  • Hardware-based graphics acceleration.

The SDK still includes a simplified UI implementation of the Desktop and the Application Menu. The Desktop Edit Mode is now enabled in order to ease the development and testing of desktop widgets.

The APIs published with the Alpha release included novelties like the location API, City Information, Time management, Vibra service and Device orientation. These APIs are frozen now and application developers are encouraged to use them.

This release comes with the first draft of the Development Manual. Also a new example application and desktop widget are provided to help developers getting familiar with the new UI style driven by finger touch interfaces.

The developer documentation, including new code examples, will be updated regularly independently of new SDK releases. Even if the current SDK resembles a single-application environment, the final Maemo 5 release will be a multitasking platform as usual.

Since the Alpha SDK was released on March there have been about 50 applications developed by community developers and available in the Fremantle extras-devel repository. This is the recommended location for unstable software targeting Maemo 5. Developers are encouraged to use this repository to expose their work and gather early feedback. eCoach, OMWeather and OSM2Go can be found among the remarkable community projects reaching the alpha stage.

Mozilla/Maemo Danish Weekend

All developers interested in Maemo 5 are invited to join the Mozilla/Maemo Danish Weekend in Copenhagen on May 30-31. This hands-on developer meeting is all about getting software ready for end users. Both Fennec and Maemo 5 will be in a solid beta stage by that time. Sponsorship opportunities are offered to cool community projects with Maemo 5 proof points willing to get together for a sprint.

Code, test, fix, improve... and have fun!

Comments:

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Murray Cumming
Murray Cumming
Karma: 609

The Desktop Edit Mode is now enabled in order to ease the development and testing of desktop widgets.

Note that this won't be visible or meaningful in the API until you install at least one desktop widget, and do "af-sb-init.sh restart" to make it show up on the desktop. (The need to restart seems to be a temporary bug.)

Unfortunately, even then you won't see any "Desktop menu" button to add desktop widgets. I think this is a bug: https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4439

Also a new example application and desktop widget are provided to help developers getting familiar with the new UI style driven by finger touch interfaces.

For the example application, I guess you mean the Modest email client.

But for the example desktop application, I've looked through all the linked documents, and looked at the installed SDK, but I don't see what you mean. I ask because you maybe mean the one I've been working on: https://garage.maemo.org/svn/maemoexamples/branches/fremantle-standalone-examples/example_desktop_widget/

2009-05-01 07:29 UTC
Antonio Aloisio
Antonio Aloisio
Karma: 261

Qt 4.5 packages are available for fremantle. Please check qt4.garage.maemo.org for more info.

2009-04-29 09:39 UTC
Quim Gil
Quim Gil
Karma: 2662

amd64 might actually work with a couple of tweaks, see

Development environment should support x86_64 and other non-x86 platforms https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2043

2009-04-29 06:35 UTC
pawpaw young
pawpaw young
Karma: 34

I'm waiting for Beta for a long time, the only pity is amd64 is not supported.

2009-04-29 02:43 UTC
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