Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

I would like to develop a cross-platform application (some not very sophisticated maths with a lot of inputs both dropdown and updown-controlled, i.e. no need for virtual or physical keyboard input except filenames).

So far the project is written in older Delphi and is Windows-only. My targets are Windows, Android and iOS, but it would be great if I could also port this app to Maemo, to show some support. I will definitely rewrite interface from scratch, maybe optimize some math. However, I'm lazy and once it's done I am against rewriting most of the project for each environment. :D

My experience so far is limited to Delphi and ASM for x86. But I'm considering moving on and learning something new, for example, qt with all that nasty c++ syntax :D . I am not a professional coder, it is just a hobby that I sometimes come back to.

So, basically, how hard is it to port a qt project from Maemo to Android, iOS, Windows? (yes, I'd go that way)

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

It might make more sense to create a new thread for this kind of question, as it doesn't seem to directly match what this thread is about. :) In any case,

Ok, as I see it, you've got at least 3 significant hurdles to overcome here. :) First, you'll probably need to familiarize yourself with C and C++; every programming language has its own philosophy, and you'll want to at least be familiar with how one is structured before you dive in. C is a fairly minimalist language, and as such, is not hard to pick up; but you'll also have to learn the C macro preprocessor, which has essentially become part of the language (mostly to overcome some of the limitations of C's minimalism). C++ is an enhancement to C, mostly adding object-oriented features to the language.

Second, you'll need to become familiar with Qt. The majority of Qt is a large collection of libraries, so that isn't a big deal, but the heart of Qt is the Signals & Slots mechanism. It can take a little bit of effort to wrap your head around how that mechanism works, but once you've done that, Qt becomes yours -- pretty much all of Qt is built around Signals & Slots.

Third, you'll have to deal with the idiosyncrasies of each target platform. Qt does its best to smooth over the differences of each GUI, but there are aspects of Maemo that just will not exist in Android or iOS, and vice versa. (Let alone that only Qt 4.x supports Maemo, and only 5.x supports Android and iOS, so there may even be issues porting between versions of Qt.) And of course Windows is a desktop environment, so bringing an app over from a mobile environment is going to have even more issues...

But, as you say:

Qt is, at this point, probably the only way to keep from completely rewriting the app's UI for each environment. The widgets you build on Maemo can, more or less, be used as widgets in every other environment. :)

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Do I get it right that now I should download and install qt-4.6.4 library, latest qt-creator and either Visual Studio 2008 or MinGW, and after that get Maemo Toolchain via Qt-package manager?

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

I use the latest Qt Creator but be warned, it supports features not supported on Maemo so you might get compilation errors at the qmake or make stage. No big deal, just back to Creator and redesign the GUI without those features. Or get an older Creator.

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

I haven't done a fresh installation of Qt myself in quite some time, but I think it would probably be simpler to just download and install the full Qt 4.8.x SDK. I think the MinGW version of Qt comes with its own copy of MinGW, so that makes things easier; if you want to use visual studio, you'd probably have to install that yourself first.

(Hmm. I've gotta admit, I'm using an old Qt installation that I've continually updated via the maintenance tool; there are bits and pieces of it that have version numbers that match the 4.8 tools, but lots of 4.7 pieces seem to be hanging around too. I'm fairly sure that the 4.8.x SDK will build against the Maemo toolchain, but I can't swear that it will; if worse comes to worse, they've still got the 4.7 SDK available from an archive...)

But yeah, once everything is in place, you can then use the Qt maintenance tool (in package manager mode) to retrieve the Maemo toolchain. :)

EDIT: Pichlo beat me to it. 4.8.x should work fine. :)

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

SDK for N900 is not available.anyone have a copy?

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Which SDK are you looking for? The Qt SDK is available right here (and as noted above, you'll probably want version 4.8):

http://qt-project.org/downloads

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

i can hardly express myself.I want a Qt SDK with Maemo project that i can creat apps for Maemo and test it .

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Ok, then yes, I think "Qt SDK 4.8" is what you want. You can find it from the link above. After you install Qt SDK 4.8, you will need to install the Maemo toolchain. To do this, you will need to run the Qt Maintenance Tool; select "package manager", then in the next screen, you can find "Maemo Toolchain" underneath the "Development Tools" category (which is under the "Qt SDK" category). Check the box next to that, and it will download the tools needed to compile and build Qt apps for Maemo.

Unfortunately, I don't speak a bit of Chinese, and I don't know if there is a Chinese version of the SDK. There does seem to be a Chinese-language Qt forum which might help:

http://qt-project.org/forums/viewforum/39/

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Call me what you want but I am totally confused. All I can see on http://qt-project.org/downloads is Qt libraries for various platforms, but nothing that refers to itself as "SDK". After a long search I've found an Installing Qt SDK page but that was not much help as it merely pointed back to http://qt-project.org/downloads and recommended to use the online installer. I did that but the installer only offers me to install Qt 5.x.

I had Qt 4.8.5 libraries and Qt Creator 2.8 installed but I wiped them off before starting the online installer. There was no Qt Maintenance Tool.

Looks like I will have to revert to my tried and trusted setup: Qt Creator on the PC for the GUI design and everything else on the phone.

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Hmm. Yeah, it looks like the 5.x links will download the entire package, while the 4.x links are only providing the 4.x libraries. I hadn't noticed that... :(

I would imagine this means that the Qt 5.x SDK is capable of building against the older libraries. I guess I will have to give this a try and see what happens... :)

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Well, this was an eye-opening exercise. It appears that Digia has been trying hard to make their Qt 5.x series backwards-compatible, but not nearly hard enough. :(

1) I tried downloading the 5.x SDK, and that works fine, so far as it goes; unfortunately, the maintenance tool is broken (and has apparently been broken for months), so there is no easy way to download older libraries or other toolchains. There are lots of complaints about it, but nobody seems to have an answer yet. :(

2) Digia provides the 4.x libraries, but leaves it up to you to figure out how to integrate them into a 5.x installation. Without the maintenance tool's package manager, I would imagine that this will require a lot of head-scratching... (Also, I haven't yet been able to find any archived toolchains.)

3) Digia does _not_ provide any of the older SDKs!!! I searched and searched, and all I could find were links to Nokia's websites. Unfortunately, it appears that Nokia has decided to terminate with extreme prejudice any Qt or Maemo or Meego related software on their site. :(

So, things look a lot worse in the Qt world than I had expected. :( However, folks on this website have already bumped into this problem. There, they've found someone still supplying the last Nokia Qt SDK:

http://jenkins.taulabs.org/distfiles/

However, that only has the Harmattan toolchain. Still, get it while it's hot...

I now have absolutely no clue where to get a copy of the Qt Maemo toolchain. :( (I'm going to have to start making backups of mine! Maybe I can find my original SDK installer as well...)

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

No surprise we don't see *any* new developers appearing, eh? QT is gone, things from tablet-dev are hidden in private links better than mosad spies in iran...

It's *hillarious* how impossible to start coding for Maemo has become. Could someone* bring attention of Council/HiFo to this problem, if they still exist? Maybe, for a change, they would do something creative, instead of spamming maemo's mailing list with ping-pong accusations?

I start to wonder what's the use for paying big sum of money for Neo900 and bringing Freemantle there, if no fckn new one will be able to code for it, in anything else than shellscripts or python?

Sorry for rant, but this and the other one "start coding" thread (the one about setting up Scratchbox development VM, or rather, about *not* setting it, as it become goddamn mission impossible, even more than it was before) really made me doubting about Maemo's future, more than anything else from long list in past years.

It is *not* normal situation, that if you're newcomer (or old coder who lost his dev enciromnent for any reasons), you're virtually unable to (re)build your development enviromnent. Decades old propertiary systems (Amiga, for example) doesn't suffer from such unbeliveable mess as Maemo.

/Estel

*I would do it myself, but I have no idea anymore who they are, how to reach them, and I'm quite sure I don't want to change that - have better things to do than, apparently, waste my time and lose nerves caught between their warzone.

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

hi there,
I'm one of people who visit talk.maemo.org regularly, everyday I guess.
I still have installer (QtSDK 1.0.2 and 1.2.1) for ubuntu and windows. I also still have madde installer as you can see here.
http://i.imgur.com/0W4vwkL.png

If you need one of things that I said above, maybe I can help.
But I can't help fast, because of the internet's speed here is very slow for uploading files.


And about "start coding", I actually still code and fix my application http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=91803, even I know that there are not much people use it.
I also have ideas and few applications that I want to create as part of my study about Qt framework and its multiplatform ability.


What I don't have much currently is time.
I got less time to do programming as hobbyst these days.
But as long as I still use N900 as my main phone, I will try to create something for N900.
Especially after know Neo900's project as N900 successor.

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Alright, I've gotten a little further. I took the 1.2.1 SDK (available from the link above), copied the Maemo toolchain from my existing SDK into it, and modified the file "qtversion.xml" by adding the following:

(I changed the QtVersion.4 string to use a number that hadn't already been taken, and incremented the QtVersion.Count value at the bottom of the file.) After this, I was able to use the SDK to build and run a program on my N900.

So, in theory, all we really need to get moving again is a source for the Maemo toolchains. I've only got the one for the MacOS version of Qt; I'm not sure to what extent it is platform-independent.

A more permanent solution, I suppose, would be to construct an independent Maemo toolchain of our own. Not sure how much effort that would take, though.

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

It'd be great to get the links for working solution (Windows, pleeease!). For obvious reasons I rewrote my current project under XE5.

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

No wonder why I had problems setting up this SDK for translating pierogi. It's a big mess... Let's see if I can get it running with the the links above on my Ubuntu SDK VMachine -- I have still this image which was available back in the days but it doesn't contain the qt toolchain (or does it?)

Edit: Am I allowed to share that VM? I already have it uploaded to dropbox, only haven't shared yet because I don't know if I am allowed to regarding. If yes, it's just a matter of sharing the link with you guys.

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Yeah. :( It's amazing what time has wrought here; back when I first started trying to code for Maemo, all I had to do was pretty much just click on one link, and the entire development environment was automagically set up for me...

Anyway, there's a version of Qt Linguist in the 5.x SDK, and it appears to be compatible with the .ts files I'm generating. :)

I would wait a bit; I think we may not need to throw around entire VMs. The 1.2.1 SDK installer, and a copy of the Maemo toolchain, may be enough; and it looks like there are still some sources for the 1.2.1 SDK...

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

The 1.2.1 SDK installer is 1.7 GB, plus you need the Maemo toolchain and some manual work. A compresed VM can be made about the same size with that work already done for you. I'd take the VM if I could :)

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Right now I only have the VM that was available on tablet-dev.nokia.com
Info can be found here:
http://maemovmware.garage.maemo.org/2nd_edition/

Sadly enough it doesn't include the qt toolchain, afaik. So I'll manage to get a good toolchain in that VM, then my whole VM can be a SDK ready to be used and host independent and easy to back up.
I also think it's clean to have a VM incase of emergy or for setting up quick. Creating and killings VM is much easier than real machines. A

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

I'm about to set up a mirror for all the dev stuff found so far. Can't let it die...
I'll happily add any VM images and other homeless things (as long as they are legal to distribute...).

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Hmm, this is a very good question. Nokia's Qt SDK was provided for free, and certainly the Qt components were fully open source, but I'm not sure just how open the Maemo toolchain itself was. (I would have expected, if it were in fact open source, that Digia would have happily continued providing it in their archives...)

Yeah, here's some legalese associated with the Maemo toolchain files:

Specifically, they state:

So, I guess it would depend on how much the modern neutered version of Nokia is prepared to back up claims made back when it was a giant powerhouse corporation... :) But yeah, tread carefully here.

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

it was my dream to become a QT developer but the thing was I had failed in my java examination so i had to opt for Java and ended up being a web developer. But i never gave up on QT, downloaded e books tried everything but never understood a thing. This post is definitely good for me. And i did pass my java exam.

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Sadly, it's not legal :( The question would be, of course, how determined (or not) Nokiasoft is to hunt anyone sharing those files, but I don't think anyone here want to try her/his chances.

But, I really, really hope, that *unknown* uploaders will put the complete VM image as a torrent on thepiratebay or something. Hint hint, not that I would use it myself, of course, and I'm sure no one from here would ;) But, it would also mean that no one in the world would be able to remove it in the foreseeable future, and it would certainly teach those bastards a lesson for closing tablet-dev.

/Estel

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

What exactly is in that toolchain anyway? And which parts can't be replicated with proper open source tools?

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Hmm. It appears that the majority of the stuff in the Maemo toolchain is for the "MADDE" (Maemo Application Development and Debugging Environment) system. I can see a suite of MADDE related tools (much of which appears to be Debian-related package management), a variety of GCC libraries, and what looks to be a collection of the libraries associated with the Maemo Fremantle OS. (Not that I am any sort of expert on what goes into these toolchains...)

There's a wiki page covering MADDE.

It appears that much of MADDE is indeed available as open source; there's a Gitorious page containing that code...

Yeah, browsing through the source code, it does look like MADDE depends on some binaries provided by Nokia. The heart of the toolchain still lies elsewhere... :(

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

I went ahead and installed the Qt SDK from http://jenkins.taulabs.org/distfiles/
It installs two flavors/skins/themes/whatever of QtCreator, one for generic Qt development, one for development for Nokia devices. The latter comes with the toolchain for harmattan installed.

Then I used the SDK Maintenance Tool to install the Maemo toolchain! It's in the list of available add-on packages and installation went fine.

I then had to manually add the Maemo 5 target to QtCreator, but that was easy:

1. Start the QtCreator for Nokia devices
2. Go to Tools -> Options ->Build & Run
2.1 In the tab Qt Version, Add... a new one; navigate to ~/QtSDK/Maemo/4.6.2targets/fremantle-pr13/bin/qmake
2.2 In the tab, Add a GCC-based compiler; then below add compiler (~/QtSDK/Maemo/4.6.2/toolchains/arm-2007q3-51sb6-gdb71-arm-none-linux-gnueabi_linux/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabi-c++) and debugger (~/QtSDK/Maemo/4.6.2/toolchains/arm-2007q3-51sb6-gdb71-arm-none-linux-gnueabi_linux/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gdb)

Optional, to execute directly on device:
3. Go to Linux Devices
3.1 Add... a Device with MADDE support (Fremantle should be in the list), start the wizard, select Maemo 5/Fremantle from the drop-down, set appropriate values for the other fields
4. On your N900, apt-get install mad-developer
5. Make sure you can access your N900 using SSH: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=41547

6. Profit.

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

@Copernicus, if it are THE nokia-binaries, they can found here:
http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fremantle/
Taken from: http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/...K_Installation

If you mean other binaries, well then we have a problem, I guess...

Let's see if I can do the steps described by foobar here and get a good full SDK in my VM and do a good backup, Just in case for when a zombie apocalypse may happen

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Hmm. I can see that libraries from that source are in the Maemo toolchain under

.../Maemo/4.6.2/sysroots/fremantle-arm-sysroot-20.2010.36-2-slim/usr/lib

but there's just an awful lot of stuff there, I can't say for certain how much of a match there is between the toolchain and that archive...

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

foobar, does this mean that we can follow your directions to install a QtSDK that can build for Maemo?

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

Question, is the first post in this string up-to-date?
Can I just install the packages in the instructions & start developing for the N900 (I have a laptop with Ubuntu installed).

Re: ( A tutorial ) Create your own first application for N900 using Qt.
 

To answer both questions:

Unfortunately, no; Nokia (or what's left of it) has withdrawn all support for the N900 and N9, including the sites to which those links were pointing.

That link gets you closer, but not quite there; the 1.2.1 version of the SDK has support for Harmattan (the N9's OS), but not for Maemo 5 (the N900's OS).

However, there is still a site containing a version of the SDK that will work with Maemo. (At least, it did when I tried it about three weeks ago.) If you go to this site:

ftp://ftp.informatik.hu-berlin.de/pu...l.no/QT/qtsdk/

and pull down version 1.1.2 of the "offline" installer (offline meaning that the installer contains the entire SDK; the "online" version just contains a link to the Nokia website), you can still get a working Qt SDK. (From my testing, I know that version 1.1.2 worked, and 1.1.4 didn't -- by 1.1.4, anything associated with "Maemo" had been removed from the SDK.) So for example, if you're using a 64 bit version of Linux, you'd want this package:

Qt_SDK_Lin64_offline_v1_1_2_en.run

After installing the SDK, there's still one more step needed: you'll have to run the SDK Maintenance Tool, go into the "Package Manager", and have it pull down the "Maemo Toolchain". (You'll find it under the "Development Tools" section.) Somehow, there is still a repository up and running that has the toolchain data. :)

(TMO'er xes found the link, and posted it in this thread.)