Qt and Fremantle
 

Hello guys.

I recently started to move from the Symbian wagon to the Maemo wagon, but I'm still in a very preliminary stage.

Being Qt the framework that Nokia is going to endorse across their platform, for me it represent the obvious choice to go forward.

Now, I set up my Fremantle SDK, installed Qt packages from "Extras" and "Extras-devel" etc... and arrived to compile apps written in Qt on Maemo and run within the Scratchbox environment. I have to say: piece of cake ;) (thanks to Linux, not me :P).

Problem is: Qt doesn't seems to be properly working.
I followed a bit of discussions about Qt, the fact that the Hildon Widgets are not written (yet) etc, but I'm facing problems that are very "weird".

For example:
1) I don't really manage to go online: one of my test app is a self-cooked browser and it doesn't seems to get a network connection.
2) The UI is unresponsive and looks like whatever I click nothing happens (or, worse, crashes)
3) I saw that without running Hildon within the Xypher, somehow the app works... but the absence of a DBUS session makes it crash straight after.

So, I'm wondering:
is the Qt4 lib available on the repositories stable?
is it advisable to compile Qt from the Git repository and try again with a fresh build of it?
If yes, which branch?

From the GIT repository of Qt Maemo looks like a guy, Antonio Aloisio, is doing a lot of work and it would be great to have his idea here as well (Antonio, se ci sei batti un colpo - PS Ma sei di Napoli?).

Hope anyone can give me some hints.
In the meantime: thanks in advance.

Ivan

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

The most important question - are you running apps under the ARMEL or X86 target ? ARMEL is for compiling only, if you try to run stuff you get problems like you described.

Important note - some, Fremantle specific widgets are not implemented yet. Most of them (especially those present in Diablo) are present and usable.

Make sure that your scratchbox has network connectivity. If it doesn't work for it, it won't work for your app either.

Don't forget, you're running a fair number of emulation layers in there, so it's not really representative of the speed of things on real devices.

If you want the latest features, go for the git version. I would, however recommend to go for the Diablo edition for now as the Fremantle one is pretty fluid - unless you need specific Fremantle functionality. The base Qt version in both is the same.

Antonio follows the lists but have not seen him here recently. If you have specific questions, best to ask them on the qt4-devel mailing list.

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

Ciao Ivan,
the packages in extras-devel are a bit outdated.
They worked fine in scratchbox...but looks like that them are not working there anymore

I m going to upload new packages as soon as I've a bit of time...
So far the best way to use Qt is compile them from git.

You won't have those problem anymore....

ps: non sono Napoletano.

Ciao,
Antonio

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

This is the status of this community... nothing actually working, but it will be uploaded tomorrow... pathetic.

I posted few questions about C++ IDE if there is any, about Java and almost no answer, or nothing useful.

Someone posted that not even a simple combo-box is running on Maemo from Qt (he said it worked only on the emulator but not on the device)... and what the leaders of the community , at least the council candidates... (qole, zerojay, texrat, etc) are doing here? Just kick butts of people re-posting something from Eldar or other things... this shows me how BAD is this community and how BAD are the people that are their "council". Maybe Quimm Gil comments a bit on how good is this community, and where are the simple steps or guides if anybody wants to write a small application...

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

Here:
http://maemo.org/development/

Here:
http://maemo.org/development/sdks/

Here:
http://maemo.org/maemo_release_docum...1.x/node4.html

Here:
https://garage.maemo.org/svn/maemoex...ags/maemo_4.1/

Here:
http://maemo.org/maemo_release_docum...on/maemo4.1.x/

And here:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/...eveloper_Guide

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

X86, don't worry ;)

I don't have (yet, I could get lucky today) a Diablo device.
I have only an N900 prototype with broken telephony stack. Will get an N900 soon.

Lynx works pretty well in FREMANTLE_X86 ;)
Taking a look at the console output of Qt apps, I think there is something related to DBUS.

When I say "unresponsive" I mean that I click and nothing happens, not even slowly.
I tried also the application "minitube": it compiled but nothing more.

I think I'll go for that.
Compiling right now with default "configure" parameters.
If you think it needs particular params, please advice ;)

Thanks

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

What branch do you advice me to compile between:
- master
- 4.5
- 4.5-fremantle
- qt-fremantle
???

I got congused by your surname: it sounded to me very Napolitan ;)

Thanks

Ah, once I'm here, I'd like to know if there is any specific channel (wikipage/blog/twitter/whatever) to follow the progresses of Qt on Maemo, apart of course from reading the log on Gitorious.

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

Hey guy.
Go out to the street a bit, breathe deeply, count until three, and return later.

This community is AWESOME.

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

Please refrain from anecdotal evidence, it's not helping anyone. There are Qt based apps even in extras (not -devel) that are working just fine (like Qt mapper), and my own dev experience show that Qt is quite usable even in it's current state. Scratchboxing is not for the faint hearted, but let's not FUD folks.

Take a look at the wiki or some sources from extras - for example if you're interested in qt and C++, you should analyze qt-maemo-example. The biggest problem newbies face is the potential unfamiliarity with the linux/debian workflow, not Maemo itself (apart from some scratchbox magic, of course, but if that bothers you, just use Python until your linux skills sharpen).

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

An interesting snippet from qt4-devel

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

Well, looks like I have the answer for this: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34579. Sorry for the duplicate.

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

Just wondering, qt4 apps are supported on diablo too right ? but what about telephony API , is it the same as in qt extended ?

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

a bit more generic question on the current (even cutting edge) state of Qt for N900.

How does the freshly released "Qt SDK 4.6.0 RC1" relate to the "Technology Preview for Maemo" ? I believe the latter is based on 4.5 still.

Also, does any of them contain the classes from the QtMobility project ?
If not, what's the best way forward to have them available in one or the other ? Any help/HowTo for it ?

What would be the best platform to start ? the SDK 4.6 RC1 or the Maemo specific Tech Preview ? What are (current) advantages to either of them for future proofing N9x0 developments ?

I can see the generic Qt bits are pretty well documented but the Phone related bits are still in heavy development, looking at the change dates in Git :)

I really would like to use the QtMobility classes, specifically the bearer class for my -planned- application. I rather not go too deep into the standard platform classes if I can avoid it. Unless I have to of course. But looking at what's on the table (and coming), I should have enough with Qt.

But it looks early in the game to 'want it all'. I'll certainly need help to put the pieces correct together, both on the SDK/development side and on the device side.
Thanks.

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

The recommendation is to use the official Qt 4.6 port. By doing this you are in the safe path for Fremantle, Harmattan and cross-platform development.

The short term disadvantage is that currently there some things missing and rough edges. But precisely by having real projects using these development files you can provide feedback to the Qt team, file bugs to them directly and influence the feature set, priorities, frequency of releases...

See the How to Provide Feedback Section at http://qt.nokia.com/developer/qt-for-maemo-developers . Your very technical and specific questions about the current and future versions of Qt 4.6 for Maemo are welcome there, where the Qt developers are following and active.

building qtlabs...
 

I posted on this forum instead to track where it leads :

http://labs.trolltech.com/forums/topic/1445

aint this enought ?

Regards

Re: Qt and Fremantle
 

I've left my same questions on the Qt Labs forum :

http://labs.trolltech.com/forums/topic/1449?replies=1

Let's see where things are going. I hope for the best, I really want to get down and dirty and create the stuff I need, allthough I realize the learning curve will be very steep and I'll need lots of goodwill of people to get me through ...