I had a server app that had both a desktop and web interface. Though I discovered that the web interface was less than monkey finger friendly on the n9 and required some authentication each time. I thought this was a job for QML and javascript on the device. The good news is that I now have a client using just those tools, so no cross compilation needed at all ;)

The core of the UI is updated via a timer which runs an ajax call, parses the JSON response and gives that to updateModel(). The first implementation of the later method was to clear the listModel and repopulate from scratch each time. Rather wasteful, even though it was only being called once every 2-3 seconds, it was eating up 8-9% CPU of the n9 in top. A better solution is to iterate the existing items, performing update, remove, or add as you go. This needs a "key" field for each tuple and a stable total order on the model JSON data, either from the server or through an explicit client side sort.

I'll probably put this up on github soon, but in the meantime, this is the updateModel() which has the smarts I mentioned above. It takes 3-4% of CPU instead, and should maintain view state better on the device. I use objid as the key, and the "state" is cloned to objstate because I noticed some issues there with QML interaction using state as the property. Interesting what one can do with QML+JS in very short time for the n9.

    function updateModel( model, data ) 
    {
 var existingIndex = 0;
 var existingIndexMax = model.count;
 var id;

 for( id in data ) 
 {
     var found = false;
     var name  = data[ id ];
     var col   = data[ id ];
     var k;
     var row = {};
     row[ "objid" ] = id;
     row[ "name" ] = "v";
     for( k in col ) 
     {
  if( k == "state" ) {
      row[ "objstate" ] = col[k];
  }
  else {
      row[ k ] = col[ k ];
  }
     }

      // find it if it exists...
     for( ; existingIndex < existingIndexMax; ++existingIndex )
     {
  if( model.get( existingIndex ).objid == id )
  {
      found = true;
       model.set( existingIndex, row );
      ++existingIndex;
      break;
  }
  else
  {
      // This element from the local model no longer exists on the server,
      // remove it. Do not advance the index as we have removed an element instead.
      model.remove( existingIndex );
      --existingIndex;
  }
     }

     // it didn't exist, add it as new.
     if( !found )
     {
  model.append( row );
     }
 }
    }

A Quick Look at Extras in Bugzilla
2012-03-05 through 2012-03-11

A few weeks ago, geocaching.com once again changed their website. The new site features a new map. Unfortunately, the new map doesn't fit well into AGTL. I fixed the bug, however, was not able to finish the N900 version yet, because I don't own an N900 since mine broke last year. I'm currently searching for a defect N900 to buy it for development, you can also speed things up with donations for a used N900. Update: Rob Kouwenberg ( @cow_n_berg) will send me his spare N900, so the quest for a ...

A few weeks ago, geocaching.com once again changed their website. The new site features a new map. Unfortunately, the new map doesn't fit well into AGTL. I fixed the bug, however, was not able to finish the N900 version yet, because I don't own an N900 since mine broke last year. I'm currently searching for a defect N900 to buy it for development, you can also speed things up with donations for a used N900.

Update: Rob Kouwenberg ( @cow_n_berg) will send me his spare N900, so the quest for a new old N900 has found a quick end. Geocaching user juleodop send me 60 euro via PayPal, thanks for that!

However, in the meantime you can try this dirty fix. It doesn't affect the installed version of AGTL. Run the following commands in the terminal. # First, install git and python-lxml (as root)
apt-get install git-core python-lxml
# Now, check out the latest version of AGTL (***NOT*** as root!)
git clone git://github.com/webhamster/advancedcaching.git
# Now, run it (also ***NOT*** as root!)
cd advancedcaching/files/advancedcaching
python core.py --hildon

This is untested, so please provide feedback if everything works.

Please be warned, that the new downloading algorithm always fetches the whole descriptions, thus it is much slower than before!

And if you have a partially defect N900 at home, please mail me!

In November 2011, we opened a public Bugzilla to interact with the N9 user community and receive end user bug reports and enhancement requests. To this date, we have received over 1100 bug reports. We thank you for the active contribution.

At this point of the product lifecycle, we have identified the major issues to be addressed in the upcoming software updates beyond the PR1.2 release. While we will continue to address issues already reported, we are unable to accept any new requests in Bugzilla.

The Harmattan Bugzilla will remain as read only for some time. However, we will continue to process the bug reports already in Bugzilla.

We kindly request you to continue further Harmattan developer discussions, bugs and other topics under developer.nokia.com. We hope to receive your continued support and help us further improve the quality of N9 software.

Adobe is just insane.

I'm again having some time and space in my mind to look at the world around me. A huge work related milestone was reached today. Something ended and something starts. It's a really big shame that the things that do succeed in my new position are definitely something I would not be able to share for a long long time with anybody outside of Nokia.

I wrote some time ago about how insane the flash 11 is for 3D support with a very concise representation compared to that of html5 and silverlight. Now, adobe really has done it. Adobe alchemy allows conversion of c/c++ code into low level actionscript bytecode. Secure execution at native speed. Full GDB support, compiles with gcc, supports all the tricks c++ has in its sleeve. Just insane. The bytecode is now running at 40% native, wiht high hopes to get it to 80% native speed before alchemy is launched. You also get finally direct access to converted c++ libraries from AS code. All existing code assets are finally browser compatible.

If you are interested in where online gaming is heading in the future, look no further.

As a demonstration, Epic has converted the >1MLoc unreal engine with alchemy. Watch this whether you are or are not not a coder.


If you are a coder, you need to reserve 45 minutes and watch the video. I am serious. You *have* to watch it.


This is bliss. Triple-a -level games coming to facebook ;). Then push button conversion to adobe air application for your favorite i or android device. I wonder how this will work for windows phone in the future.

I now have libferris on a 512mb ARM5t embedded device and a 1gb arm7 one (the Nokia n9). As part of the fun and games I updated the clucene and boostmmap index modules for libferris and created a QtSQL module which uses SQLite by default. Hey, when you can't choose which cake to have why not have a slice of them all... or a slice to fit the moment or device at hand. eg, desktop or server works nicely with the soprano or postgresql indexing modules, embedded is nicer on mmap or clucene.

Firefox for Mobile Geolocation V2 removed from Gecko - http://dougturner.wordpress.com/2012... March 7, 2012 from DougT » mozilla - Comment - Like

Last week, we got Mahjong Solitaire for N9 finally published.

This has been a great opportunity to use QML in my daily work at Igalia, instead of using it simply for the occasional hacking, such as Butaca or the XKCD reader.

So far, comments in the Nokia Store have been really positive -although some people seem to miss the classic theme from the Mahjongs available back in Maemo. But not only the comments are positive: the application is currently listed in the first position of the Top Free games!

Drop me a line (spena at igalia.com) if you find issues, you have suggestions or if you simply want to complain about the colors

PySide, the Python Qt binding framework used prominently in MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan, has now finished migration from its previous standalone setup to Qt Project infrastructure.

Being a Qt Add-on provides PySide a permanent home and perfect alignment with Qt Frameworks. Furthermore, the project gets improved visibility, as well as a simple, carefully thought out meritocratic project structure. In addition to the wiki that is already hosted by Qt, the PySide mailing list and the bug tracker are also now hosted by Qt. More information on the Qt Project can be found on the project web site.

The PySide project now follows Qt Project's governance model. The Maintainer for API Extractor, Generatorrunner, and Shiboken is Marcelo Lira. The Maintainer for the PySide component is Hugo Parente Lima. Paulo Alcantara is an Approver for PySide. All other project roles are informal. Srini Kommoori has kindly volunteered to be the webmaster and wikimaster for the project.

To developers using PySide the migration is mostly transparent. PySide is still available under the same licensing terms, and the project facilities are still the mostly unchanged. Instead of having a separate Bugzilla instance, the PySide project now utilizes Qt's Jira bug tracker. Also the mailing list address has changed to pyside@qt-project.org.

Qt Project uses Gerrit for code reviews. Developers contributing code to PySide should do it using Gerrit from now on. Read-only access to the git source code repositories is still provided via Gitorious.

About PySide 

PySide is a Python Qt bindings project initiated by Nokia. PySide provides access to not only the complete Qt framework but also Qt Mobility, as well as to generator tools for rapidly generating Python bindings for any C++ libraries.

The PySide project is a Qt Add-on, sharing the same infrastructure and governance model as the open Qt Project itself. PySide is developed in the open, with all facilities you would expect from any modern open source project such as all code in a git repository, and an open bug tracker for reporting bugs.