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

What i need to know to start developing apps for N900 and where can i learn it? I know that all programers went to school to learn it. I'm also going to the programing school. Although i'm 15 and we don't learn programing yet. And we're learning windows, not linux. So guys, if you know where i can learn all that stuff that i need to know to start making apps for N900, please post it.

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

First you'll need to learn a programming language. N900 comes with a bunch of languages installed (c, c++, python, perl, and prob a few others) For a powerful language which is not difficult to learn, take a look at Python.

If you want to do User Interface programming, things get a little more difficult. You'll also need to learn a GUI library (either GTK which is currently the official, or Qt which will be the official library going forward) Since both of these libraries are meant to be used by C & C++ languages respectively, you'll need to use a third component which is called a Python binding. This binding allows Python to use the libraries easily. For the GTK libraries, take a look at PyGTK. For the Qt libraries, look at PyQt and PySide.

Research all of these and find out what makes the most sense for you. The latest version of Qt (4.6) isn't quite ready for Maemo yet (in testing, planned for release by end of 1st quarter) but I think it's worth waiting for as it will be the standard library for Maemo going forward, is very well designed, and can be used on other devices other than the N900.

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

Oki, nice information.
So, what do I need to install in order to start coding in c++ and python?

easy step-by-step would be great pls.

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

After learning the very basics of Python (you can do this on Windows too) get the Maemo SDK and dive in, the learning curve can be a bit steep but don't be discouraged. Previous Linux knowledge certainly helps but is not an absolute requirement.

When you have the SDK running you can (in the scratchbox) "apt-get install python-gtk" to install Python and GTK bindings for it.

I don't use Windows at all (Linux and OSX and a bit of OpenSolaris :) so can't help with that. But I have heard rumours that there is some way to run the SDK on windows as well (probably virtualized)

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

ty. Don't think python is a problem, I used to code in visualbasic, perl, delphi, c++ builder and, magik :)
1 main issue could be spear time to try it and keep trying it.

How about enable c++?

I should use VMWare + linux, but don´t know what linux version to download and install. Help here too pls! TIA.

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

i run it through VMWare just fine, i dedicated a CPU and 2 gigs of ram to it. Im running Ubuntu 9.10, is that good or are there some better ones that someone may suggest, im new to coding as well.

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

The Maemo SDK can be downloaded as a VMware VM image, pre-installed with some old version of Ubuntu and the SDK fully configured. It's a great way to get started quickly!

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

if you run the sdk in a VMware machine, just install gcc/gcc+ inside that machine, that'll take care of all your compiling for c/c++, just feed the source code file in and direct it to compile to another file. questions on gcc can be answered with "gcc --help", "man gcc" or google gcc.

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

The Python website has great documentation and a simple tutorial to get you started.

Make sure you understand the fundementals of programming in general and practise, practise, practise.

Start off with very simple programs and experiment with the code.

Don't be afraid to ask questions and more importantly have fun with it.

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

if you're just starting out I would honestly stay away from c/c++. Get good with python first.
You can code python in anything you like, and just scp it to the device to test, no need for development SDKs or any of that stuff.
esbox is a good place to start for an eclipse development environment with python support.
winSCP is a windows prog that would let you send the files to your device. Start with the hello world examples out of the development pages.
I put the first draft of my app witter on my blog
http://danielwould.wordpress.com/200...ent-for-maemo/
which I think is agood place to look once you are beyond the helloworld and want to learn a bit more about basic ui. and calling out to the web for stuff.

Not sure what you are thinking of developing but that lot should keep you busy and get you a good start. ;-)