While working on the Woodchuck support in gPodder, I decided to profile the code. Reading the Python manual, I thought it would be as easy as:

    import cProfile
    cProfile.run('foo()')

On both Debian and Maemo, this results in an import error:

    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
    File "/usr/lib/python2.6/cProfile.py", line 36, in run
      result = prof.print_stats(sort)
    File "/usr/lib/python2.6/cProfile.py", line 80, in print_stats
      import pstats
    ImportError: No module named pstats

To my eyes, this looks like I need to install some package. This is indeed the case: the python-profiler package provides the pstats module. Unfortunately, python-profiler is not free. There's a depressing back story involving ancient code and missing rights holders.

If you're on Debian, you can just install the python-profiler package. Alas, the package does not appear to be compiled for Maemo.

Happily, kernprof works around this and is easy to use:

    # wget http://packages.python.org/line_profiler/kernprof.py
    # python -m kernprof /usr/bin/gpodder

Kernprof saves the statistics in the file program.prof in the current directory (in this case, it saves the data in gpodder.prof).

To analyize the data, you'll need to copy the file to a system that has python-profiler installed. Then run:

    # python -m pstats gpodder.prof
    Welcome to the profile statistics browser.
    % sort time
    % stats 10
    Tue Nov  1 13:09:54 2011    gpodder.prof

             105542 function calls (101494 primitive calls) in 117.449 CPU seconds

       Ordered by: internal time
       List reduced from 1138 to 10 due to restriction <10>

       ncalls  tottime  percall  cumtime  percall filename:lineno(function)
            1   57.458   57.458   69.012   69.012 {exec_}
            1   16.052   16.052   26.417   26.417 /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gpodder/qmlui/__init__.py:405(__init__)
            1    8.591    8.591   13.790   13.790 /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gpodder/qmlui/__init__.py:24(<module>)
           60    7.041    0.117    7.041    0.117 {method 'send_message_with_reply_and_block' of '_dbus_bindings.Connection' objects}
            3    6.357    2.119    7.469    2.490 {method 'reset' of 'PySide.QtCore.QAbstractItemModel' objects}
           36    2.636    0.073    2.636    0.073 {method 'execute' of 'sqlite3.Cursor' objects}
            1    2.283    2.283    2.284    2.284 {method 'setSource' of 'PySide.QtDeclarative.QDeclarativeView' objects}
            1    1.848    1.848    1.848    1.848 /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/PySide/private.py:1(<module>)
            2    1.789    0.895    1.789    0.895 {posix.listdir}
            1    0.765    0.765    4.234    4.234 /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gpodder/__init__.py:20(<module>)

The statistics browser is relatively easy to use (at least for the simple things I've wanted to see so far). Help is available online using its help command.

Krzesimir Nowak joined Openismus in the beginning of August this year. Not only is he a very talented developer (or, as I once said, the first one to actually fill the gap Daniel left), but he's also fun to work with.

Just before I went on my vacations in September, I left him with some nice tasks to improve one of the cool features in Maliit: Dynamic key overrides. The way I had set up the tasks I knew he would trip over bits of hideous code and seeing how he could deal with it was part of the exercise.

For now, Krzesimir's work on Maliit is finished. With 25 commits, two of them being bug fixes in said ugly code, Krzesimir did an outstanding job while thoroughly understanding and fixing one of Maliit's core features in a rather short time span. Of course he will tell you that it took him way too long ;-)

Thanks for your contribution, Krzesimir, and well done!

Front Page

Upcoming security fix release for N900 for PR1.3 & CSSU

A new security update is coming for PR1.3 and CSSU: "Recently, Nokia has been in touch with some CSSU devs and the council about a Fremantle software update. As the version number implies, this is a simple fix for the DigiNotar issue and a fixed security control panel applet. The update should be released in a few days. Non-CSSU users can update immediately. If you ever want to install CSSU, the installer will work fine on PR1.3.1. Nokia has also agreed that the patches may be redistributed by the community and can be used in CSSU and Cordia." Users of the plain PR1.3 should see the update offered. Users of the CSSU will want to wait for the patches to be integrated before trying to update.

Read more (lists.maemo.org)

In this edition (Download)...

1. Front Page
   • Upcoming security fix release for N900 for PR1.3 & CSSU
2. Applications
   • In-development augmented reality app for Nokia N9
   • Official Spotify client for N9 released
   • Simpler way for synching multiple Google Calendars on Harmattan
3. Development
   • Prepare your MeeGo and Harmattan apps for apps.formeego.org launch
   • Harmattan: inactive doesn't have to be boring
   • Harmattan PR 1.1 Quick Fix - Inverted Menu
4. Community
   • Documenting maemo.org maintenance and community roles
5. Devices
   • White Nokia N9 announced
   • More info about Tizen, the MeeGo successor
6. In the Wild
   • N9 manufacturing video
7. Announcements
   • FM radio GUI for Nokia N9
   • libconnui-dev and operator-name-cbs-widget for N900
   • n9-apps.com launches
   • NFC tag writer for Nokia N9

A Quick Look at Extras in Bugzilla
2011-10-24 through 2011-10-30

As Andreas note we are rather close towards Calligra 2.4 which will be the very first release of the Calligra Suite.

Our pretty cool Calligra Quality Dashboard lists 11 remaining release-critical blocker bugs that still need to be fixed till then.

Now is the perfect time to give the latest Calligra a try and report all your findings at our bug-tracker. Probably most interesting are serious data-lose issues on saving to our native OpenDocument formats, crashes and other major problems we can add to our top-priority list for either 2.4 or 2.5 which may finally be a silver-state candidate.

On a side-note it is rather interesting that we are in fact releasing 3 different versions of our suite more or less in parallel. The 2.4 desktop-edition mostly known as office suite for the KDE desktop, the Harmattan Office edition shipped together with the N9 and Calligra Active. Following the spirit of the work done on Plasma Active One Calligra is btw also already packaged and available for Mer.

Calligra is far ahead it's competition in this field. Building products based on the community-driven Calligra suite (or Calligra frameworks which would probably match more) is easy and can be done with little resources within very short time. That is a huge achievement we aimed for when starting working on KOffice version 2 lot of years back. An achievement we finally reached and we are able to prove to have reached and that today and now.

Gratulations to everybody involved in making that happen :-)

Coming back from Nokia World in London earlier this week (thanks to Nokia Developer for inviting me), I've been thinking about the SDK availability for different mobile operating systems given a specific Desktop platform. While leaving out all the other criteria (openness, libreness, licensing, UX, device capabilities, programming languages, toolkits, data formats, annual costs for the SDK/developer account, store rules, target audience, revenue splitting, advertising/in-app purchase options, coolness, etc..) developers can choose their mobile OS by, I want to highlight a specific aspect: The availability of an SDK for a given Desktop operating system.

Hey! Qt Developer Days '11 are over and I want to thank all organizers & attendees, what a great event again!!

For fresh owners of N9 (congratulations!), I'll say that 5inarow game is now available through Nokia Store. Here's how to get beaten by medium level:



Symbian version may follow later, but for now game is only available on N9/N950. It's free and contains no ads so if you feel like it, go grab it from here.

PS. If this tickles your "How to implement a Qt game like that?" or "I could do much better than that!" -nerves, source codes and Qt Quick Game Programming tutorial are still available from here. These are for the older N900 version, without e.g. sounds and computer AI. But an idea of updating the document for Qt5 & shader effects is floating in my mind, we'll see, we'll see...

Nokia Maps 3D is a desktop browser-based 3D mapping tech demo, with (currently) 23 major cities around the world mapped in glorious, true 3D, with data and textures gathered from satellites, planes and cars, using conventional cameras and laser rangefinders. Anyway, Nokia just released a rather cute 'making of' video, demonstrating in public-friendly form, roughly how it all gets put together. It's embedded below - comments welcome. Oh, and apparently you'll soon not even have to install a plug-in into your browser...

We released Maliit 0.80.7 on Friday. Over these last days, I am doubly proud about our project. Not only did the N9's virtual keyboard get astonishing reviews across the board, but what's even better: We managed to keep this software open-source. In our communities, there will always be those who focus too much on technical aspects. I remember the technical struggles we had even within MeeGo! But now we get feedback from real users who couldn't care less about what Qt or MeeGo Touch is, and to be honest, that's a refreshing change.

Being here at Qt's Developer Days 2011, it feels great to get such feedback directly, from first-time users of the Nokia N9. Especially the fine haptic feedback and the keyboard's accuracy gets noticed.

I also had the possibility to see a Japanese input method — running on the N9 and powered by Maliit. Seeing how well this plugin already integrates with the platform, I feel that our architecture yet again has been justified. I am looking forward to see more Maliit plugins, and more platforms using Maliit!

Front Page

Mer-based MeeGo Community Edition now named "Nemo"

Carsten Munk, guardian of Mer and a member fo the MeeGo Community Edition Steering Group, chaired an online meeting where the future direction of the MeeGo Community Edition was discussed. Of the minutes, the most immediate change was that it was decided the "new project name is Nemo, non-namespace-clashing usage should be found and slogan."

The name has sea-related connations, but emphasises that despite many of the same people being involved, it's a separate project and should not be seen as "the" Mer distribution and user interface.

Read more (irclogs.meego.com)

In this edition (Download)...

1. Front Page
   • Mer-based MeeGo Community Edition now named "Nemo"
2. Applications
   • Khweeteur Twitter client now Woodchuck enabled
   • Talking games with Thomas Perl
3. Community
   • London-based meetup for MeeGo & Maemo users during Nokia World
4. Devices
   • Getting cursor keys on Harmattan 1.1 via Swype input method
   • PR1.1 Harmattan update for N950 now available via over-the-air SSU
   • Autumn release of MeeGo Community Edition for N950
   • Provide feedback on N9 email & Mail for Exchange
   • Discuss N9 Contacts & IM issues with the developers
5. Announcements
   • Ionic e-book reader for Harmattan
   • MeeSpot - an offline-capable Spotify client for MeeGo Harmattan
   • Update to gPodder released for Maemo 4 & 5
   • Toshl expense tracker for Harmattan