Re: What i need to know to start developing apps for N900?
 

I learned programming as a hobby.

I got a home computer when I was 13 years old (back in 1983) and taught myself. I learned to program in BASIC moved to assembly, then C, C++, Visual Basic, Perl and Python.

I now do it for a living!

I would recommend you start with a high-level language like Python and when you are confident enough try some C and C++.

Re: What i need to know to start developing apps for N900?
 

LoL never gave so many thanks in the same post :P
Thank you very much, very very useful information.

And yes I saw the complete image to get started easily
http://maemovmware.garage.maemo.org/2nd_edition/
So I will start from here, while I get ubuntu 9.10.

Re: What i need to know to start developing apps for N900?
 

White_Ranger, I was once EXACTLY like you. I was 15 and I was heavily into custom ROMS for emulators and I was ready to program up a storm. I ended up going to my local college. You see, you don't have an age limit to go to college!!!

I was 15, in 9th grade, and I signed up at my local jr college. I had my mom take me / drop me off. I took Intro To Programming.

I stuck with it, and when I graduated I went to college, and had a basic understanding of Visual Basic.

anyways after 4 years of college, I now have my Bachelors in Computer Science, and I am a software developer as my profession. I have been doing it for 4 years now and I love every day!!

unfortunately, the SNES custom ROM I wanted to make, and Sega VMU version of OutRun I wanted to make never came, and someone else ended up making an OutRun for the VMU. I never learned assembler anyways to do such a thing.

the point of the story is this: if you have an interest in programming, persue it, you may not make your N900 app you wanted to make, but maybe, 10 years from now (I am actually 25 right now), you will be in a spot where you say "you know what, I'm gonna make an app" and you will.

I myself am still trying to get the IDE to work on my Maemo virtual machine.

Good Luck and don't forget my story!

Re: What i need to know to start developing apps for N900?
 

Ok guys, those r new post from you. And ok, you r right. I will try first with python. whish delphi support but in my dreams i know^^

hehe me too learnt in that way and it was good, also i cracked some application hoho using lit of assembly :)

now I grow up have a kid and no time to do what I really love. cya around. Have enough to start with maemo apps.

Re: What i need to know to start developing apps for N900?
 

if this thread does nothing else it'll inspire people to get on with some programming.

I have been looking into developing for maemo but the documentation is little help. I haven't tried the proper SDK yet because I haven't got round to sorting out a virtual machine, but I have had a quick little play with MADDE in which I managed to create a simple hello world program that worked on my mac, but not on my phone.

You guys think python is an easier way into maemo dev? Also, UI creation, can I use QT creator?

Re: What i need to know to start developing apps for N900?
 

roger_27, it looks like you're the one that understands me best here. So, what do you think, should i learn Python first? I have so much questions, but i'm gonna stick with this one until i learn something. And, do you know how can i port symbian apps made in python to N900? I had a lot good apps on my old N95 8GB and all of them were made in Python. At least i think so cuz the name of all of them starts with py. Like pyWater, pyFootball, ...

Re: What i need to know to start developing apps for N900?
 

There seems to be a thought that C (rather than C++) is a hard language to learn. Once you have learnt one procedural language then the next becomes easier to learnas you have learnt the basics of how to beak a problem down already.

C is a totally portable language, to even more platforms than Python and in keeping with the original Unix thinking as that was what it was designed for: to write Unix in.

Syntax for Pyhton, Java and C++ are al based on the C language so you won't be wasting your tme there either.

The other big advantage is that C is not an object based language like the others so that is one less thing to get your head around. Once you have C down pat then you can tackle the object orientated concept with a small extension to syntax.

Re: What i need to know to start developing apps for N900?
 

I really suggest using MADDE as a first intro to native development. Even though it is a preview, it is stable.

Python (according to most people, to my shame I haven't tried) is an easier language to start with than C++, but Qt does make the learning curve easy. In some things C++ is faster as it is compiled, but for smaller projects, I don't really see much difference.

Qt Creator works for Qt/C++, not Python.

Re: What i need to know to start developing apps for N900?
 

Well, Qt Designer (which could be seen as part of Qt Creator) to design a GUI, can be used together with python. There are already some howtos here, which explain that.

I suggest to look into python, when you want quick success. Read the tuorials/howtos and look at the source of other python apps for Maemo 5.

Sure there are also good reasons to learn C/C++. In the end it's even more portable when used in the right way. And for games which needs good performance (like 3D games) there is no real way arround C/C++.

But: Not only is C/C++ harder to learn, because you have to deal with, Pointers, memory allocation and freeing and so. But even worse you also have to learn about cross compiling and using the quite complex vm.

For a new programmer who want just create smaller apps for the N900 and have some fun, C/C++ for a cross compile source of an other OS than one is using, will most likely very frustrating and I believe 95% of those who are going down that road, will never get some usefull application working.

Go for Python:

- its easier to learn and use
- with less code you can archieve more
- no compiling, and even better: No cross compiling
- You don't even need Linux at all on your PC.
- Get some Python editor, code, copy files over to N900.
- Maybe use WinSCP+Putty on Windows to quick up that.
- That way you can try all lot more, can make misstakes.

Anyone with or without previous programing experience has a real chance to get some small usefull app/widget running in a few weeks (putting a hour or two into it each day). Maybe even faster.

With C++ one may get there with a lot of copy and pasting without really understanding what one is doing in SDK and code. In most cases that will only leed to frustration.

Well, that is only my opinion, as you see others have a different look at things. I am programing in C++ for a living and see quite a lot of computer science students with Java experince and so on, struggle on C++ when working here part time. Someone without previous programing experience, without Linux experience will have very hard time learning alls this in his free time.

So: go python.

Re: What i need to know to start developing apps for N900?
 

Do you not think it sad that the Computer Science students have had their course dumbed down so far that they only have experience in a scripted language though? I think this is far more a comment on the poor quality of teaching than the tech.

Please remember that C and C++ are distinct languages. Basic C programmes can be achieved easily without explicit malloc and free and also there is no need to worry about OOP either. A lot of us that use OOP and OOD for a living forget that this can be a weird concept for new comers where as a series of steps in basic procedural languages are simple.